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“My writing allows me flight from society through solitude while permitting me to rejoin society on some of my own terms through the trading of the finished work with the society. My imaginative narrative gives me relief from prevaility and strident ideologies by allowing me the heresy of decadence (as in erotica). Namely, revenge against normality, reversal of normality and regression from normality. My imaginative narrative is relief from prevailing self by allowing the potential self, the discarded self, the rejected self and the non-self to have play. My imaginative narrative is relief from privacy by allowing exposure of self and the network of self.” ~ Frank Moorhouse, 1985, private telex
'Frank Moorhouse was legendary in Australian literary and cultural life, the author of a huge and diverse body of work – essays, short stories, journalism, scripts, the iconic Edith Trilogy – an unapologetic activist, intellectual, libertarian and champion of freedom of speech and sexual self determination. Though he lived his life publicly, his private stories have not been shared, the many paths he forged left unexamined, until now.
'Matthew Lamb shared many a luncheon table with Moorhouse and immersed himself in the archived life and cultural ephemera of Frank’s world. This landmark study, from Moorhouse’s own publisher, the first in a projected two volumes, is the fascinating and comprehensive story of how one of Australia’s most original writers and pioneer of the discontinuous narrative came to be.
'Fearless, sardonic and utterly dedicated to his creative life, his relationships with friends, other writers and lovers were complex and long-lasting. Lamb shares the strange paths that Frank traversed and gives us a cultural history of the times that shaped Moorhouse and which Moorhouse himself helped to shape.'(Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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y
‘When I Am Famous’ : A Masterpiece of Biographical Synthesis
2024
27835201
2024
single work
review
— Review of Frank Moorhouse : Strange Paths 2023 single work biography'Frank Moorhouse: Strange paths has no introduction, but Matthew Lamb describes it in his author’s note as ‘the first in a projected two-volume cultural biography of Frank Moorhouse’, covering the long writing apprenticeship of 1938–74 during which Moorhouse ‘br[oke] into the literary establishment, on his own terms’. Lamb does not explain his use of the term ‘cultural biography’ within the book, but the term is apt to describe how ‘biography intersects with social history’ as the book tracks Moorhouse’s ‘negotiation of shifting social conventions and historical moments’ (as Lamb puts it in an article on the Penguin website titled ‘“When the facts conflict with the legend” – How does a biographer balance storytelling with the truth?’).' (Introduction)
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Frank Moorhouse : Two Biographies Reckon with a Literary Life and Legacy
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 20 December 2023;
— Review of Frank Moorhouse : A Life 2023 single work biography ; Frank Moorhouse : Strange Paths 2023 single work biography 'Eighteen months after the Australian writer’s death, his early work, activism and personal life are revealed in two complementary titles'
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Frank Moorhouse : Two Biographies Reckon with a Literary Life and Legacy
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 20 December 2023;
— Review of Frank Moorhouse : A Life 2023 single work biography ; Frank Moorhouse : Strange Paths 2023 single work biography 'Eighteen months after the Australian writer’s death, his early work, activism and personal life are revealed in two complementary titles' -
y
‘When I Am Famous’ : A Masterpiece of Biographical Synthesis
2024
27835201
2024
single work
review
— Review of Frank Moorhouse : Strange Paths 2023 single work biography'Frank Moorhouse: Strange paths has no introduction, but Matthew Lamb describes it in his author’s note as ‘the first in a projected two-volume cultural biography of Frank Moorhouse’, covering the long writing apprenticeship of 1938–74 during which Moorhouse ‘br[oke] into the literary establishment, on his own terms’. Lamb does not explain his use of the term ‘cultural biography’ within the book, but the term is apt to describe how ‘biography intersects with social history’ as the book tracks Moorhouse’s ‘negotiation of shifting social conventions and historical moments’ (as Lamb puts it in an article on the Penguin website titled ‘“When the facts conflict with the legend” – How does a biographer balance storytelling with the truth?’).' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2024 shortlisted The Age Book of the Year Award — Non-Fiction Prize