This is the first biography of Dame Leonie Kramer, who held the Chair of Australian Literature at the University of Sydney from 1968 to 1989 and was dubbed 'Killer Kramer' by Nobel laureate and nemesis, Patrick White. Dame Leonie was the first woman to be a professor at Sydney University and the first to serve as its chancellor and as the ABC's chairman. She exerted a formidable influence in Australia's cultural, intellectual, and public life for over half a century, during which time she liked to think of herself as a radical conservative. Damien Freeman is the principal policy advisor at the PM Glynn Institute, Australian Catholic University, and General Editor of the Kapunda Press. His books include Roddy's Folly: R. P. Meagher QC - art lover and lawyer and Abbott's Right: the conservative tradition from Menzies to Abbot t.