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A Cartload Of Clay
''A Cartload of Clay'' (1971) is the last and unfinished novel by the Australian author George Johnston. It is a sequel to ''My Brother Jack'' and ''Clean Straw for Nothing'', the third in the Meredith trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels by Johnson. Story outline The novel follows David Meredith over the period of several hours as he contemplates his life, the death of his wife and his own impending end. Critical reception John Lleonart in ''The Canberra Times'' put the book into its context: "''A Cartload of Clay'' is a mellow, often distinctly melancholy autobiographical essay. Johnston had intended it to be a novel but the fact that it is structurally incomplete does not detract from it. The absence of a contrived ending is, indeed, a factor in the book's impact as a human document...There is no doubt that the Johnston trilogy has reached a plane where neither the most determined parochial masochism and self-revelation can harm it. And even if, while writing this last p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Johnston (novelist)
George Henry Johnston OBE (20 July 191222 July 1970) was an Australian journalist, war correspondent and novelist, best known for ''My Brother Jack''. He was the husband and literary collaborator of Charmian Clift. Life George Henry Johnston was born in Melbourne and spent his childhood in the family home in Elsternwick and was educated in local secondary schools before taking up an apprenticeship as a lithographer. He was subsequently taken on as a journalist for the Melbourne '' Argus'' newspaper. He achieved a certain fame due to his dispatches as a correspondent during World War II. With his second wife, Charmian Clift he was posted to London as a European correspondent. In 1951, Albert Arlen tried to engage Johnston's services as writer of his musical ''The Sentimental Bloke'', but he was not interested. Johnston abandoned his journalism career in 1954 and moved with Clift to the Greek island of Hydra, where he began writing full-time and took part in the island's circle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain. Existing on a dialect continuum with Scots, and then closest related to the Low Saxon and Frisian languages, English is genealogically West Germanic. However, its vocabulary is also distinctively influenced by dialects of France (about 29% of Modern English words) and Latin (also about 29%), plus some grammar and a small amount of core vocabulary influenced by Old Norse (a North Germanic language). Speakers of English are called Anglophones. The earliest forms of English, collectively known as Old English, evolved from a group of West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century and further mutated by Norse-speaking Viking settlers starting in the 8th and 9th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Collins, Sons
William Collins, Sons (often referred to as Collins) was a Scottish printing and publishing company founded by a Presbyterian schoolmaster, William Collins, in Glasgow in 1819, in partnership with Charles Chalmers, the younger brother of Thomas Chalmers, minister of Tron Church, Glasgow. Collins merged with Harper & Row in 1990, forming a new publisher named HarperCollins. History The company had to overcome many early obstacles, and Charles Chalmers left the business in 1825. The company eventually found success in 1841 as a printer of Bibles, and, in 1848, Collins's son Sir William Collins developed the firm as a publishing venture, specialising in religious and educational books. The company was renamed William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd. in 1868. (The Library of Congress reports W. Collins & Co., or William Collins & Company, Collins & Co., etc., before "sometime in the 1860s", then "William Collins Sons and Co.") Although the early emphasis of the company had been on relig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clean Straw For Nothing
''Clean Straw for Nothing'' (1969) is a Miles Franklin Award-winning novel by Australian author George Johnston. This novel is a sequel to ''My Brother Jack'', and is the second in the Meredith trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels by Johnston. Story outline In real life, Johnson abandoned a conventional career in Australia in journalism, and moved to a Greek island which was a magnet at the time for artists and writers. The novel similarly tells the story of a journalist (David Meredith) who relocates to a Greek island, but fails to find the answers he seeks. Meredith's relationship with his second wife, Cressida, closely parallels Johnston's second marriage to Charmian Clift. On the eve of ''Clean Straw for Nothings publication, Clift overdosed on barbiturates in Sydney. In a posthumously-published essay, ''My Husband George'', Clift wrote: "I do believe that novelists must be free to write what they like, in any way they liked to write it (and after all who but myself had ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
My Brother Jack
''My Brother Jack'' is a classic 1964 Australian novel by writer George Johnston. It is part of a trilogy centering on the character of David Meredith. The other books in the trilogy are ''Clean Straw for Nothing'' and ''A Cartload of Clay''. Its text is commonly studied for many English literature subjects in Australia. Overview This semi-autobiographical novel, definable as a roman à clef, follows the narrator, David Meredith, through his childhood and adolescence in interwar Melbourne through to adulthood and his prominent career as a journalist during World War II, to his life on a Greek island in the 1950s and 60s. David's childhood and early life are influenced heavily by the destructive presence of his father, psychologically ruined by his experiences in the Great War. His father, cruel, increasingly withdrawn, is a catalyst for the escapes which both David and Jack have to make, each in their own way. The novel has a central theme using contrasts between David and hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1971 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1971. Events * March 25–December 14 – The 1971 killing of Bengali intellectuals reaches a peak. * April 21 – The 13th-century ''Codex Regius'' manuscript is returned by Denmark to Iceland under naval escort. *July 4 – Michael S. Hart posts the first e-book, a copy of the United States Declaration of Independence, on the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign's mainframe computer, as the origin of Project Gutenberg. *July 14 – Simon Gray's play '' Butley'' has its first performance at the Criterion Theatre in London, produced by Michael Codron and directed by Harold Pinter, with Alan Bates in the lead. *October 20 – ''The Destiny Waltz'' by Gerda Charles wins the U.K.'s first Whitbread Novel of the Year Award. Geoffrey Hill wins the poetry prize for ''Mercian Hymns'' and Michael Meyer the biography category for ''Henrik Ibsen''. *November – Hunter S. Thompson's ''roman à clef ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1971 Australian Novels
* The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclipse, February 10, and August 1971 lunar eclipse, August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events January * January 2 – 66 people are killed and over 200 injured 1971 Ibrox disaster, during a crush in Glasgow, Scotland. * January 5 – The first ever One Day International cricket match is played between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. * January 8 – Tupamaros kidnap Geoffrey Jackson, British ambassador to Uruguay, in Montevideo, keeping him captive until September. * January 9 – Uruguayan president Jorge Pacheco Areco demands emergency powers for 90 days due to kidnappings, and receives them the next day. * January 12 – The landmark United ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
