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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
l'Judith Wright (1915–2000) remains a giant figure within Australian art, culture and politics. Her 1946 collection of poetry, The Moving Image, revolutionised Australian poetry. She helped to establish the modern Australian environmental movement and was a key player in early campaigns for Aboriginal land rights. A friend and confidante of artists, writers, scholars, activists and policy makers – she remains an inspiration to many. And yet, as Georgina Arnott is able to show in this major new work, the biographical picture we have had of this renowned poet-activist has been very much a partial one.
'This book presents a more human figure than we have previously seen, and concentrates on Wright’s younger years. New material allows us to hear, directly, thrillingly, the feisty voice of a young Judith Wright and forces us to reconsider the woman we thought we knew.' (Publication summary)
Notes
-
Epigraph:
It is wise in the young
to forget the common world
to be lost in the flesh
and the light shining there:
not to listen to the old
whose tune is fear and care -
Judith Wright 'Age to Youth' (1963)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Sophie Scott-Brown Review of Georgina Arnott, The Unknown Judith Wright
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Biography and History , April no. 3 2020; (p. 191-195)
— Review of The Unknown Judith Wright 2016 single work biography 'There are two sorts of subjects that exercise particular allure to a biographer: those that do not want a biography written about them, and go to various lengths to thwart the efforts of a would-be biographer, and those who have written their own life story, or related aspects of that story, and for whom the telling of that story formed a significant part of their wider intellectual project. Judith Wright, as Georgina Arnott’s The Unknown Judith Wright reveals, fell into both categories.' (Introduction) -
The Mystery of Judith Wright
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Inside Story , November 2016;
— Review of The Unknown Judith Wright 2016 single work biography 'A new biography explores the ambivalent legacy of being “born of the conquerors”' -
Multiple Tales to Tell : A Diligent Study of Judith Wright
2016
single work
review
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 386 2016; (p. 12-13) 'Literary biographers and their intended subjects at times agree and at times disagree about the stories they think should be told. J.D. Salinger and Vladimir Nabokov – the one, fastidious about his privacy, the other, insistent on his version of history – famously took their biographers to court and emerged victorious. Such tussles are settled at times more quietly, through compromise, withholding of copyright, or spoiling tactics of some other kind. Doris Lessing, on learning that no fewer than five different writers were preparing to tell the story of her life, sat down to write a two-volume auto- biography which would serve, so she thought, as a gazumping record of a life about which she knew she knew more than any of her would-be chroniclers. But once she got going she found that her views and opinions had changed disconcertingly over the years, the perspectives of youth giving way to those of old age. Biography, she reflected, was an unstable art, subject always to flux, contingency, and the restless, revisionist movement of time. Her biographers might tell one kind of story about her – or five different kinds – but she too had multiple tales to tell.' (Introduction) -
Georgina Arnott : The Unknown Judith Wright
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , November 2016;
— Review of The Unknown Judith Wright 2016 single work biography -
Phillip Hall Reviews Judith Wright, Georgina Arnott and Katie Noonan
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , October no. 55.1 2016;
— Review of Collected Poems 1942-1985 1994 selected work poetry ; The Unknown Judith Wright 2016 single work biography ; With Love and Fury 2016 selected work lyric/song
-
Absent Wright Taken to Task
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 29-30 October 2016; (p. 22)
— Review of The Unknown Judith Wright 2016 single work biography -
Phillip Hall Reviews Judith Wright, Georgina Arnott and Katie Noonan
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , October no. 55.1 2016;
— Review of Collected Poems 1942-1985 1994 selected work poetry ; The Unknown Judith Wright 2016 single work biography ; With Love and Fury 2016 selected work lyric/song -
Georgina Arnott : The Unknown Judith Wright
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , November 2016;
— Review of The Unknown Judith Wright 2016 single work biography -
The Mystery of Judith Wright
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Inside Story , November 2016;
— Review of The Unknown Judith Wright 2016 single work biography 'A new biography explores the ambivalent legacy of being “born of the conquerors”' -
Sophie Scott-Brown Review of Georgina Arnott, The Unknown Judith Wright
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Journal of Biography and History , April no. 3 2020; (p. 191-195)
— Review of The Unknown Judith Wright 2016 single work biography 'There are two sorts of subjects that exercise particular allure to a biographer: those that do not want a biography written about them, and go to various lengths to thwart the efforts of a would-be biographer, and those who have written their own life story, or related aspects of that story, and for whom the telling of that story formed a significant part of their wider intellectual project. Judith Wright, as Georgina Arnott’s The Unknown Judith Wright reveals, fell into both categories.' (Introduction) -
Friday Essay : Judith Wright in a New Light
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 28 October 2016; 'Everyone loves Judith Wright. Her poetry was consistently brilliant and stunningly lyrical. She opened Australian eyes in the 1940s to the possibilities of modernism in poetry, she opened our eyes to the engagement poetry can have with philosophical ideas, with history, and with the guilt, racism, pride and violence in that history, she opened our eyes to our landscapes, our flora and fauna. ...' -
Multiple Tales to Tell : A Diligent Study of Judith Wright
2016
single work
review
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 386 2016; (p. 12-13) 'Literary biographers and their intended subjects at times agree and at times disagree about the stories they think should be told. J.D. Salinger and Vladimir Nabokov – the one, fastidious about his privacy, the other, insistent on his version of history – famously took their biographers to court and emerged victorious. Such tussles are settled at times more quietly, through compromise, withholding of copyright, or spoiling tactics of some other kind. Doris Lessing, on learning that no fewer than five different writers were preparing to tell the story of her life, sat down to write a two-volume auto- biography which would serve, so she thought, as a gazumping record of a life about which she knew she knew more than any of her would-be chroniclers. But once she got going she found that her views and opinions had changed disconcertingly over the years, the perspectives of youth giving way to those of old age. Biography, she reflected, was an unstable art, subject always to flux, contingency, and the restless, revisionist movement of time. Her biographers might tell one kind of story about her – or five different kinds – but she too had multiple tales to tell.' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2017 shortlisted National Biography Award
Last amended 3 Jul 2017 13:28:30
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