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1962 In Australian Literature
This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1962. Major publications Books * James Aldridge – ''A Captive in the Land'' * Thea Astley – ''The Well Dressed Explorer'' * Martin Boyd – '' When Blackbirds Sing'' * Jon Cleary – ''The Country of Marriage'' * Dymphna Cusack – '' Picnic Races'' * Catherine Gaskin – ''I Know My Love'' * George Johnston – ''The Far Road'' * Elizabeth Kata – ''Someone Will Conquer Them'' * John Naish – ''The Cruel Field'' * John O'Grady – ''Gone Fishin * Nancy Phelan – ''The River and the Brook'' * George Turner – ''The Cupboard Under the Stairs'' * Arthur Upfield – ''The Will of the Tribe'' Short stories * Thea Astley – "The Scenery Never Changes" * Peter Cowan – "The Island" * John Morrison – '' Twenty-Three : Stories'' * Hal Porter ** ''A Bachelor's Children : Short Stories'' ** "A Double Because It's Snowing" ** "First Love" ** "Francis Silver" * Patri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Aldridge
Harold Edward James Aldridge (10 July 1918 – 23 February 2015) was an Australian-British writer and journalist. His World War II despatches were published worldwide and he was the author of over 30 books, both fiction and non-fiction works, including war and adventure novels and books for children. Life and career Aldridge was born in White Hills, a suburb of Bendigo, Victoria. By the mid-1920s the Aldridge family had moved to Swan Hill, and many of his Australian stories are based on his life growing up there. He studied at the London School of Economics. He returned to Australia and worked for ''The Sun News-Pictorial'' in Melbourne from 1935 to 1938. In 1938 Aldridge moved to London, which remained his base until his death in 2015. During the Second World War, Aldridge served in the Middle-East as a war correspondent, reporting on the Axis invasions of Greece and Crete. Based on his experiences, he wrote his first novel ''Signed with Their Honour'' and the book was publi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Upfield
Arthur William Upfield (1 September 1890 – 12 February 1964) was an English-Australian writer, best known for his works of detective fiction featuring Detective Inspector Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte of the Queensland Police Force, a mixed-race Indigenous Australian. His books were the basis for a 1970s Australian television series entitled '' Boney'', as well as a 1990 telemovie and a 1992 spin-off TV series. Born in England, Upfield moved to Australia in 1911 and fought with the Australian military during the First World War. Following his war service, he travelled extensively throughout Australia, obtaining a knowledge of Australian Aboriginal culture that he would later use in his written works. In addition to writing detective fiction, Upfield was a member of the Australian Geological Society and was involved in numerous scientific expeditions. In ''The Sands of Windee'', a story about a "perfect murder", Upfield invented a method to destroy carefully all evidence of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ivan Southall
Ivan Francis Southall AM, DFC (8 June 192115 November 2008) was an Australian writer best known for young adult fiction. He wrote more than 30 children's books, six books for adults, and at least ten works of history, biography or other non-fiction. Personal life Ivan Southall was born in Melbourne, Victoria. His father died when Ivan was 14, and he and his brother Gordon were raised by their mother. He went to Mont Albert Central School (where he wrote the first of his ''Simon Black'' stories) and later Box Hill Grammar, but was forced to leave school early, and became an apprentice process engraver. He joined the Royal Air Force in Britain, and was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross for his role in sinking a German U-boat, U-385, in the Bay of Biscay on 11 August 1944. He returned to Australia with his English bride, Joy Blackburn. Their youngest daughter was born with Down syndrome. He tried his hand at farming at Monbulk, but the attempt foundered, so he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Family Conspiracy
''The Family Conspiracy'' (1962) is a novel for children by Australian author Joan Phipson; it was illustrated by Margaret Horder. It won the Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers in 1963. Story outline The Barker family run a sheep farm in the Central West of New South Wales. When Mrs Barker is diagnosed with a medical condition that requires hospitalisation the family children create a "conspiracy" to raise the money required for her treatment. Critical reception Writing in ''The Canberra Times'' a reviewer was impressed by the characterisation of the children: "These are no juvenile prodigies, outsmarting adults at every turn; they are very real people, combining childish strength and faults, and their actions are entirely credible. There is a great deal more that could be said in praise of this book; of its unassuming but faithful picture of the Australian country, and of the people who help give it character; of its patches of breathless adventure; and of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Phipson
Joan Margaret Phipson AM (1912–2003) was an Australian children's writer. She lived on a farm in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales and many of her books evoke the stress and satisfaction of living in the Australian countryside, floods, bushfires, drought and all. Two of her novels, '' Good Luck to the Rider'' and '' The Family Conspiracy'', won the Australian Children's Book of the Year Award. Biography Joan Phipson was born in Warrawee, New South Wales, on 16 November 1912, to English parents. She spent much of her childhood traveling between Australia, England and India. She attended the Frensham School, where she later worked as a librarian and printer, setting up Frensham Press. She studied journalism and worked for Reuters in London before the war. From 1941 to 1944 she served as a telegraphist in the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force. She married Colin Fitzhardinge in 1944 and they settled in the NSW countryside. Her first children's book, about a girl on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Muddle-Headed Wombat
The Muddle-Headed Wombat is a fictional wombat featured in the radio serials and later in the children's books of the same name written by Australian author Ruth Park. The books are considered classics of Australian children's literature. History In 1941 the Australian Broadcasting Commission decided to nationalise its Children's programs, broadcast from Sydney with Ida Elizabeth Osbourne as its first producer. In 1942 she commissioned Ruth Park to write a dramatised series, ''The Wide–Awake Bunyip''. The first episode was aired in January 1943, with "Joe" (Albert Collins) in the title role. When he died, in 1951, Ruth changed the title to ''The Muddle–Headed Wombat'', with Leonard Teale the first to play the part. When Leonard left, John Ewart "Jimmy" made it his for the next 18 years. The part of his friend "Mouse" in both incarnations was played by the current female co-presenter. When John E. C. Appleton was made Supervisor of Children's Programs and keen to be involved, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruth Park
Rosina Ruth Lucia Park AM (24 August 191714 December 2010) was a New Zealand–born Australian author. Her best known works are the novels ''The Harp in the South'' (1948) and ''Playing Beatie Bow'' (1980), and the children's radio serial ''The Muddle-Headed Wombat'' (1951–1970), which also spawned a book series (1962–1982). Personal history Park was born in Auckland to a Scottish father and a Swedish mother. Her family later moved to the town of Te Kuiti further south in the North Island of New Zealand, where they lived in isolated areas. During the Great Depression her working-class father laboured on bush roads and bridges, worked as a driver, did government relief work and became a sawmill hand. Finally, he shifted back to Auckland, where he joined the workforce of a municipal council. The family occupied public housing, known in New Zealand as a state house, and money remained a scarce commodity. Ruth Park, after attending a Catholic primary school, won a partial s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Gunn (Australian Writer)
John Gunn (born 26 February 1925) is an Australian writer, sailor and aviator. Education Gunn attended Newington College aged 12 in 1937.Newington College Register of Past Students 1863–1998 (Syd, 1999) pp 75 He entered the Royal Australian Naval College as a cadet-midshipman in 1939. In 1946 he began training as a Fleet Air Arm pilot, serving in England and the Mediterranean. He returned to Australia in 1949 and attended Sydney University, aborting the study of medicine to start a family. Career Gunn and his young family moved to England, where he began his writing career. In 1957 they returned to Australia. He attained various positions including: *Literary guide and friend to the Australian Broadcasting Commission's children's programme. *Aviation correspondent for the ''Australian Financial Review'' Bibliography Novels * ''The Wild Abyss'' (1972) * ''Water Hazard'' (1995) Novels for children * ''Barrier Reef Espionage'' (1955) * ''Battle in the Ice'' (1956) * ''Gibra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nan Chauncy
Nan Chauncy (28 May 1900 – 1 May 1970) was a British-born Australian children's writer. Early life Chauncy was born Nancen Beryl Masterman in Northwood, Middlesex (now in London), and emigrated to Tasmania, Australia, with her family in 1912, when her engineer father was offered a job with the Hobart City Council. She attended St Michael's Collegiate School in Hobart. In 1914, the family moved to the rural community of Bagdad, where they grew apple trees. The bush setting of Bagdad, including a bushranger's cave, would inspire some of her future writing, and also a lifelong involvement with the Australian Girl Guides movement. Initially organising Guide meetings and camps at her brother's Bagdad property, Chauncy started her own Guide troop in Claremont where she worked as a women's welfare officer at the Cadbury's Chocolate Factory from 1925.Berenice Eastman'Chauncy, Nancen Beryl (Nan) (1900–1970)' '' Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 13, Melbourne Univers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amy Witting
Amy Witting (26 January 1918 – 18 September 2001) was the pen name of an Australian novelist and poet born Joan Austral Fraser. She was widely acknowledged as one of Australia's "finest fiction writers, whose work was full of the atmosphere and colour or times past". Craven, Peter (2001) "Tell that woman I'll publish any word she writes", ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', 25 September 2001, p. 35 Life Amy Witting was born in the Sydney suburb of Annandale, and was brought up as a Catholic. She has "melancholy memories of a repressive family life" and remembered the nuns at her school, St Brendan's College, as being "obsessed with the torments of hell". Jefferis, Barbara (2001) "Late bloomer, shining light: Amy Witting, Writer, 1918–2001", ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', 25 September 2001, p. 35 She suffered from tuberculosis as a child.Connolly, Margaret (2001) "Her secret to success? Smoking and drinking", The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 September 2001, p. 35 She went to Fort St ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrick White
Patrick Victor Martindale White (28 May 1912 – 30 September 1990) was a British-born Australian writer who published 12 novels, three short-story collections, and eight plays, from 1935 to 1987. White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, shifting narrative vantage points and stream of consciousness techniques. In 1973 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature", as it says in the Swedish Academy's citation, the only Australian to have been awarded the prize.J. M. Coetzee won the award in 2003 as a South African citizen, before he became an Australian citizen in 2006. White was also the inaugural recipient of the Miles Franklin Award. Childhood and adolescence White was born in Knightsbridge, London, to Victor Martindale White and Ruth (née Withycombe), both Australians, in their apartment overlooking Hyde Park, London on 28 May 1912. His family returned to Sydney, Aust ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hal Porter
Harold Edward "Hal" Porter (16 February 1911 – 29 September 1984) was an Australian novelist, playwright, poet and short story writer. Biography Porter was born in Albert Park, Victoria, grew up in Bairnsdale, and worked as a journalist, teacher and librarian. A car accident just before the outbreak of World War II prevented him from serving in the armed forces. His first stories were published in 1942 and by the 1960s he was writing full-time. His 1963 memoir, ''The Watcher on the Cast Iron Balcony'', is regarded as an Australian masterpiece. His other works were less successful. The literary critic Laurie Clancy said: "Porter's novels are, with one exception, less successful than his stories, not least because his scorn for most of his characters becomes wearying over the length of a novel." The exception, Clancy thought, was ''The Tilted Cross'', a historical novel set in Hobart in the 1840s. On 24 July 1983 he was knocked down by a hit-and-run driver in Ballarat and rec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
