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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] |
WikiProject Novels
A WikiProject, or Wikiproject, is a Wikimedia movement affinity group for contributors with shared goals. WikiProjects are prevalent within the largest wiki, Wikipedia, and exist to varying degrees within sister projects such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikidata, and Wikisource. They also exist in different languages, and translation of articles is a form of their collaboration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS News noted the role of Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine in maintaining the accuracy of articles related to the disease. Another WikiProject that has drawn attention is WikiProject Women Scientists, which was profiled by '' Smithsonian'' for its efforts to improve coverage of women scientists which the profile noted had "helped increase the number of female scientists on Wikipedia from around 1,600 to over 5,000". On Wikipedia Some Wikipedia WikiProjects are substantial enough to engage in cooperative activities with outside organizations relevant to the field at issue. For e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WikiProject Books
A WikiProject, or Wikiproject, is a Wikimedia movement affinity group for contributors with shared goals. WikiProjects are prevalent within the largest wiki, Wikipedia, and exist to varying degrees within sister projects such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikidata, and Wikisource. They also exist in different languages, and translation of articles is a form of their collaboration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS News noted the role of Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine in maintaining the accuracy of articles related to the disease. Another WikiProject that has drawn attention is WikiProject Women Scientists, which was profiled by '' Smithsonian'' for its efforts to improve coverage of women scientists which the profile noted had "helped increase the number of female scientists on Wikipedia from around 1,600 to over 5,000". On Wikipedia Some Wikipedia WikiProjects are substantial enough to engage in cooperative activities with outside organizations relevant to the field at issue. For e ... [...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] |
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] |
Hardcover
A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as case-bound) book is one bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other cloth, heavy paper, or occasionally leather). It has a flexible, sewn spine which allows the book to lie flat on a surface when opened. Modern hardcovers may have the pages glued onto the spine in much the same way as paperbacks. Following the ISBN sequence numbers, books of this type may be identified by the abbreviation Hbk. Hardcover books are often printed on acid-free paper, and they are much more durable than paperbacks, which have flexible, easily damaged paper covers. Hardcover books are marginally more costly to manufacture. Hardcovers are frequently protected by artistic dust jackets, but a "jacketless" alternative has increased in popularity: these "paper-over-board" or "jacketless" hardcover bindings forgo the dust jacket in favor of printing the cove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paperback
A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, leather, paper, or plastic. Inexpensive books bound in paper have existed since at least the 19th century in such forms as pamphlets, yellow-backs, yellowbacks, dime novels, and airport novels. Modern paperbacks can be differentiated from one another by size. In the United States, there are "mass-market paperbacks" and larger, more durable "trade paperbacks". In the United Kingdom, there are A-format, B-format, and the largest C-format sizes. Paperback editions of books are issued when a publisher decides to release a book in a low-cost format. Lower-quality paper, glued (rather than stapled or sewn) bindings, and the lack of a hard cover may contribute to the lower cost of paperbacks. Paperb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
Miles Franklin Award
The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin (1879–1954), who is best known for writing the Australian classic ''My Brilliant Career'' (1901). She bequeathed her estate to fund this award. As of 2016, the award is valued A$60,000. __TOC__ Winners Controversies Author Frank Moorhouse was disqualified from consideration for his novel Grand Days because the story was set in Europe during the 1920s and was not sufficiently Australian. 1995 winner Helen Darville, also known as Helen Demidenko and Helen Dale, won for The Hand that signed the Paper and sparked a debate about authenticity in Australian literature. Darville claimed to be of Ukrainian descent and said it was fiction based on family history. Writer David Marr, who presented the award to her said that revelations about her true ba ... [...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] |
Charmian Clift
Charmian Clift (30 August 19238 July 1969) was an Australian writer and essayist. She was the second wife and literary collaborator of George Johnston. Biography Clift was born in Kiama, New South Wales in 1923. She married George Johnston in 1947. They had three children, the eldest of whom was the poet Martin Johnston. After Clift and Johnston's collaboration ''High Valley'' (1949) won them recognition as writers, they left Australia with their young family, working in London before relocating to the Greek island of Kalymnos and later Hydra to try living by the pen. She met the songwriter Leonard Cohen whilst there in 1960. Johnston returned to Australia to receive the accolades of his Miles Franklin Award-winner ''My Brother Jack''. Clift moved back to Sydney with their children in 1964, after which her memoirs ''Mermaid Singing'' and ''Peel Me a Lotus'' and her novel ''Honour's Mimic'' became successes. She was also well known for the 240 essays she wrote between 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1969 In Australian Literature
This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1969. Major publications Books * Mena Calthorpe – ''The Defectors'' * Jon Cleary – ''Remember Jack Hoxie'' * Dymphna Cusack – '' The Half-Burnt Tree'' * Sumner Locke Elliott – ''Edens Lost'' * George Johnston – '' Clean Straw for Nothing'' * Thomas Keneally – '' The Survivor'' * D'Arcy Niland – '' Dead Men Running'' Short stories * Manning Clark – ''Disquiet and Other Stories'' *Lyndall Hadow – ''Full Cycle and Other Stories'' * T. A. G. Hungerford – "Wong Chu and the Queen's Letterbox" * Frank Moorhouse – ''Futility and Other Animals'' * Dal Stivens – ''Selected Stories 1936-1968'' Children's and Young Adult fiction * Hesba Brinsmead – ''Isle of the Sea Horse'' * Joan Phipson – ''Peter and Butch'' * Ivan Southall – ''Finn's Folly'' * Eleanor Spence – ''Jamberoo Road'' * Colin Thiele – ''Blue Fin'' Poetry * Bruce Beaver – ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Three Cheers For The Paraclete
''Three Cheers for the Paraclete'' (1968) is a novel by the Australian author Thomas Keneally. It won the Miles Franklin Award in 1968. Story outline After studying overseas for some years a young priest, James Maitland, returns to Australia to teach at a seminary. Critical reception In ''The Canberra Times'', John N. Molony is impressed with the book but finds a number of problems with it: "The heart of the novel is about belief, but for this reviewer the transplant didn't work. It is hard to say about a Keneally that his theme was too big for him and that he couldn't incarnate his problem in living characters. Yet in this instance they do not measure up." ''Kirkus Reviews'' found something more in the book: 'Keneally's rather existential points are made with delicacy, at times with a warm, broad humor, and Father James is a vigorous, attractive priest. A thoughtful and sentient book." Awards and nominations * Miles Franklin Literary Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
