The Inner History of the Kelly Gang is a 1929 Australian biography of Ned Kelly and his gang by J. J. Kenneally.[1] For a time it was considered the most authorotative version of Kelly's life.[2]
The book took a very sympathetic point of view towards Kelly and was highly critical of the police.[3][4]
Kenneally claimed the book was plagiarised by newspapers leading to court action.[5][6][7]
Kenneally later formed the Ned Kelly Defence League. He often complained about inaccuracies in depictions of the life of Kelly such as When the Kellys Rode and the verse play Ned Kelly.[8][9]
The book was republished in 1945.[10]
The book inspired Sidney Nolan's famous series of paintings of Kelly.[11]
ABC Weekly said the book "deserves to be an Australian classic."[12]
The Bulletin said " the book is intensely biased in tone. The Kellys are driven to horse stealing, cattle duffing, murder and robbery in just protest against intolerable persecution by the police. The latter are all knaves or fools, and most of them cowards into the bargain...An adventure into sheer sensationalism, the book seems to have no particular reason for existence, though the author’s constant reference to the terror inspired in the outlaws by the black trackers brought from Queensland is of interest."[13]