T here are those who say: "Randolph who?" Then there are those who are devoted to his works.
"Admittedly, the group of devotees is much smaller than the other group," says Sydney writer Suzanne Falkiner, whose biography Mick: A Life of Randolph Stow was launched at the Perth Writers Festival.
Published by University of WA Publishing, Falkiner's 800-page biography is unarguably the most comprehensive account of the Geraldton-born writer's life to date. Known as Mick to his friends, Julian Randolph Stow is regarded as one of Australia's greatest writers, up there with Patrick White and David Malouf.
For many years his best-known novel The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea, a fictionalised account of his Geraldton childhood and university education in Perth, was part of the English curriculum for the WA Education Department. His novels Tourmaline and To the Islands are also set in the remote regions of WA.
Falkiner's first contact with Stow was in 2006, when she was writing a biography of obscure English novelist E. L. Grant Watson. There were some similarities between the writers, thought Falkiner, and she wanted to check whether Stow had any opinions on Grant Watson.
Back came a brief reply on a postcard from Stow, who spent the second half of his life in England, that he had not read Grant Watson and was unsure that he had even heard of him.
For Falkiner the response was like an unfinished conversation, and when he unexpectedly died at the age of 74 in 2010, she felt "almost strangely bereaved". When a colleague suggested in 2011 that she should consider writing Stow's biography, Falkiner was first reluctant because she felt she might not be up to the task.
"But then I considered I might write a biography of his life, not of his literary works, which had been done before, at least twice," she says.
Falkiner  sealed a deal for the book to be published by UWA Press, the publishing arm of the university from which Stow had graduated. Over his life, he was also invited to teach in UWA's English department.
Stow had distinguished himself as an undergraduate at UWA, and his first two books were published in his early 20s, not long after graduation.
Falkiner then began the mammoth task of sifting through Stow's voluminous correspondence with family, friends, colleagues, journalists and fellow writers, much of it in the National Library in Canberra.
Equally important were the recollections of Stow's family and friends - from his sister Helen to his lifetime friend Bill Grono, a fellow poet and WA schoolteacher who made available his extensive correspondence with Stow of more than 50 years.
Another source of information was the recollections of former ABC newsreader Peter Holland, who gives a candid account of travelling through the outback with the older Stow.
Stow was also a dutiful son, and his letters to his mother, and her replies, were another vital source of information in building a picture of the man and his personality.
There was also a steady flow of information in the letters exchanged with his publishers about the books Stow was working on as he struggled with money problems or the dangers of creative thinking.
 Relatively prolific as a young writer, Stow's creativity began to dry up as he aged, and he often came up with ideas for books, only to abandon them.
"In his later years Stow lived an extraordinary life in his head, but was not publishing anything," Falkiner says. "I think it was because he didn't like writing to order. He could only write when he was in the right psychological state."
Her research included visits to Perth and Geraldton to speak with those who had known him, as well as a trip to the Trobriand Islands off New Guinea where Stow developed an interest in anthropology.
In the second half of his life Stow turned his back on Australia despite his early writings concentrating on the landscape and its people. He settled for various periods in the English countryside, eventually buying a house in the seaside town of Harwich, where he was a regular at his local pub.
"In some ways it was an accident he ended up in England," Falkiner says. "He regarded himself as an outsider and always wanted to be left alone."
Stow consumed plenty of alcohol over his lifetime, and there were many witnesses to his carousing and its consequences both to his health and civil order.
The question always arises with any biography. 
After four years of research, what did Falkiner think of the man?
"You start by admiring your subject, yet often by the end you want to get a divorce," Falkiner says. "In the case of Mick, I liked and admired him as much at the end. He could be a good hater, but he was a kind and generous person with an admirable spirit."