When George Isaacs died in Adelaide on Valentine's Day 1876, he was dispatched to the West Terrace Cemetery and buried without pomp. His grave was unmarked by a stone, his memory damned for posterity by a newspaper obituary that labelled him 'a thorough Bohemian'. Such was the end of the author of the first novel published in South Australia. Whether writing under his own name or his pseudonym, 'A. Pendragon', Isaacs captured the dynamic atmosphere of his era in his plays, prose and poetry, but he did not fit comfortably into society. Set apart by an unconventional private life, his Jewish heritage, his fierce intelligence and his willingness to speak and write his mind, Isaacs led a surprisingly varied life across two hemispheres and two Australian colonies. He was a creative force behind the Humbug Society, 'The song of Australia', a museum, a library, the Bunyip newspaper -- and Australia's first science fiction. As an inaugural study, Pendragon contributes a valuable strand to the knowledge of Australian literature. On a more intimate level, it is a case study of one immigrant's struggles to live as a writer in colonial Australia.