AustLit
A PALS - China Exhibition
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The question of what makes something a classic is the subject of much debate. Any pool of writing (in this case, a national literature) will create its own set of authors who are much discussed, much studied, and much talked about.
For our 'classic' authors, we have selected authors from various cultural backgrounds, all of whom are deceased and therefore represent complete careers, and who meet one or more of the following criteria:
- their work is studied in Australian and international universities.
- their work is translated overseas.
- their work is frequently anthologised.
- their work appears in 'classic' collections (e.g., Text Classics).
- they are award-winning authors.
Find out more about the teaching of Australian literature.
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Thea Astley
Novelist and Short Story Writer-
Thea Astley was born in Brisbane and educated at the University of Queensland. She taught in schools until 1967, then Macquarie University between 1968-80. Her novels have attracted wide praise and a number of awards, including four Miles Franklin Awards. In 1989 she won the Patrick White Award and was granted an honorary doctorate from the University of Queensland. She was made AO in 1992 and was made a Creative Fellow of the Australia Council in 1993.
Astley's key works include It's Raining in Mango, A Kindness Cup, and The Acolyte.
See translations of Thea Astley's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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1878173767148310507.jpg639272534376478905.jpg3774972162081808081.jpgDrylands : A Book for the World's Last Reader Thea Astley , 1999 single work novel
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4419933825615485477.pngIt's Raining in Mango : Pictures from the Family Album Thea Astley , 1987 selected work short story
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Marcus Clarke
Novelist and Dramatist-
Best known for the melodramatic convict novel His Natural Life, Marcus Clarke was also a playwright and journalist. His plays were often wildly successful, and His Natural Life (which was adapted frequently to the stage and, later, to film and television) ensured he was one of the most successful Australian writers of the late nineteenth century. Sadly, his success did not transfer into financial security, and he was forced into insolvency late in his career.
His Natural Life has been adapted at least twenty-five times, into stage plays, radio plays, graphic novels, films, and television mini-series.
Read more about Marcus Clarke.
See translations of Marcus Clarke's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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5153562870201685172.jpgLong Odds : A Novel Marcus Clarke , George A. Walstab , 1868-1869 single work novel
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Jack Davis
Playwright-
Jack Davis grew up in Western Australia, the son of a mother who had been forcible removed from her family. Davis himself was sent to the Moore River Native Settlement to learn farming when he was fourteen; his experiences there later influenced his writing.
Davis began writing plays in the 1970s. His best-known play remains No Sugar, which has been widely produced, including internationally, and published. It is frequently studied at Australian universities for its account of a family's stand against government 'protection' policies.
See translations of Jack Davis's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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C.J. Dennis
Humorist and Poet-
Best known for The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, which transformed him into the most successful poet in Australia, after a series of much less successful works, C.J. Dennis is recognised as one of Australia's best-known poets.
Dennis was raised in a succession of small South Australian towns, until he went as a boarder to Christian Brothers' College in Adelaide. His mother died when he was fourteen and he and his brothers were subsequently raised by two aunts: some have suggested his celebration of the masculine, anti-authoritarian larrikin figure is a response to the stringent nature of this upbringing.
The Sentimental Bloke was written in vernacular Australian English and focused on the lives and loves of working-class Australians, which made it both uncommon and wildly popular.
See translations of Dennis's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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Miles Franklin
Novelist-
Miles Franklin is perhaps best known for giving her name to both the Miles Franklin Award and the Stella Prize, and for her novel My Brilliant Career. Raised on grazing properties, she was an ambitious writer who wrote My Brilliant Career at nineteen, although it wasn't published until later; the sequel, My Career Goes Bung, had to wait until the 1940s for publication.
A feminist and a socialist, she left Australia in 1906 and travelled to the United States and England, where she worked in women's rights and volunteered as a nurse in Macedonia during World War I.
A founding member of the Australian Book Society, she endowed the Miles Franklin Award with her estate.
Read more about Miles Franklin.
See translations of Miles Franklin's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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8339565874121751769.jpg5859429970403940827.jpg5091030043266844020.jpg3768309554155039709.jpgAll That Swagger Miles Franklin , 1936 single work novel
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Kevin Gilbert
Playwright and poet-
Kevin Gilbert is best remembered as the author of The Cherry Pickers, considered the first play by an Aboriginal writer, first written in 1968 but not performed until 1971.
Orphaned at a young age, he and his sisters returned to their extended family in the Condobolin area. During an extended period in Long Bay Gaol, he developed an interest and skill in lino-print making, which led to an exhibition of his work; he also illustrated his own writing.
Instrumental in the establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy opposite Parliament House in Canberra in 1972 he produced a number of highly significant and politically charged non-fiction works, including Because a White Man'll Never Do It and Living Black.
Read more about Kevin Gilbert.
Frequently studied works include:
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3577738528368531780.jpgInside Black Australia : An Anthology of Aboriginal Poetry 1988 anthology poetry
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Frank Hardy
Novelist, Playwright, and Short Story Writer-
A member of the Communist Party (in response to the suffering caused by the 1930s depression) and of the Realist Writers' group, Frank Hardy is best known forhis monumental novel Power without Glory, not least because it was received by some readers as only semi-fictional.
Hardy was also a short-story writer and dramatist; the former are often set in rural Victoria during the Depression years, where Hardy worked as a fruit-picker, road-construction worker, seaman, grocer and cartoonist, before moving to Melbourne in 1938.
Hardy was also an ardent supporter of Aboriginal Australians' fight for land rights.
See translations of Frank Hardy's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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6294230718430753390.jpg7572824941560240651.jpg1326880454141972056.jpg1268289681640942192.jpgBut the Dead Are Many : A Novel in Fugue Form Frank Hardy , 1975 single work novel
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3782720747901805886.jpgThe Hard Way : The Story Behind Power Without Glory Frank Hardy , 1961 single work autobiography
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Elizabeth Jolley
Novelist and Short Story Writer-
Born in Birmingham, Elizabeth Jolley arrived in Australia in the 1950s, emigrating with her husband and children. Her first novel wasn't published until 1980, but since then, she has enjoyed a high reputation, particularly after her publication of The Well. The geographically and emotionally claustrophobic novel won the Miles Franklin Award in 1986 (among other accolades); its 1997 film adaptation won the AFI Award for best adapted screenplay.
Elizabeth Jolley was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1988 and named an Australian National Living Treasure in 1997. She died in 2007, six years after publishing her last novel, An Innocent Gentleman.
Read more about Elizabeth Jolley.
See translations of Elizabeth Jolley's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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6057194053447870984.jpg6566617612341752861.jpg5827186320844204474.jpg8390281108308595629.gif607088285404274562.gif5584023315390168581.jpgThe Well Elizabeth Jolley , 1986 single work novel
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4182178758027579373.jpg1303634825053058951.jpg508086716499412665.jpg940344287960831986.jpgMiss Peabody's Inheritance Elizabeth Jolley , 1983 single work novel
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9043846389106193842.jpg1107914895078937677.jpg7472086518035471100.jpgAn Accommodating Spouse Elizabeth Jolley , 1999 single work novel
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Henry Lawson
Poet and Short Story Writer-
Like 'Banjo' Paterson, Henry Lawson is one of the most recognisable names among nineteenth-century colonial writers, known for stories of the bush such as 'The Drover's Wife' and 'The Loaded Dog'. Lawson has been synonymous with the early development of Australian short fiction for many years.
More recently, his work 'The Drover's Wife' has become the centre of revisionist works about colonial Australian writing, including the 99 re-interpretations in Ryan O'Neal's The Drover's Wives and Leah Purcell's staggering stage play, The Drover's Wife.
See translations of Henry Lawson's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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Norman Lindsay
Artist and Novelist-
Best remembered as an author by younger Australians for his fantasy The Magic Pudding, Norman Lindsay was better known in his lifetime as an artist, illustrating numerous Australian works, including short pieces published in the The Bulletin and The Lone Hand. His novels for adults were frequently adapted for film and television, including The Cousin from Fiji, A Curate in Bohemia, Redheap, Age of Consent, and The Cautious Amorist.
In 1994, he was the subject of the biographical film Sirens, which explored the effect of his artist's lifestyle on a young and earnest Anglican priest.
Read more about Norman Lindsay.
See translations of Norman Lindsay's works.
Frequently studied works include:
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2736352106594517475.jpg2243855787842326158.png1053912134713817674.png7039085497275908096.png6166297199127476619.jpg9141841312775976872.png8741231504692031717.jpg8569673296754912331.jpg2592549787898098645.jpg8742052451339022164.jpg7553277294517526491.png486619286136945146.jpg6758497110053392835.jpg2855523528744949707.jpg6885416658169701715.jpg6929059813426573710.jpg3104129107177814412.jpg5456037251473197566.jpg644053499237792534.jpg2550830963719942265.jpg6994903116086166135.jpgThe Magic Pudding : Being the Adventures of Bunyip Bluegum and His Friends Bill Barnacle and Sam Sawnoff Norman Lindsay , 1918 single work children's fiction
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3407365807934590496.jpg3718925887408266376.jpg2465693630364950077.png8925749513542218103.png6248478730551672526.jpgSaturdee Norman Lindsay , 1933 single work novel
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3895702573556720336.jpg8005923617906246692.jpg9027957785246094368.jpg4552499993624973472.jpg2874105371009754711.jpgRedheap Norman Lindsay , 1930 single work novel
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Les Murray
PoetOne of Australia's pre-eminent poets, Les Murray grew up on a small dairy farm near Bunyah, an environment that inspired him across his working life. In a time when this was unusual for Australian poets, Les Murray's work was received widely in the United States and England, and translated into multiple languages. At the recommendation of Ted Hughes, he was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1998, and has been made an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and an Officer of the Order of Australia.
Les Murray served as editor of Poetry Australia (1973-1979), poetry editor of Angus and Robertson (1976-1990), and literary editor of Quadrant (1990 to 2018). He died in early 2019.
See translations of Les Murray's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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5009628124004902766.jpg1987823827794530177.jpg2874314714383061075.jpg1794348966730250758.jpgFredy Neptune Les Murray , 1998 single work novel
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7401646153043266803.png8894419443155054566.jpg286011866017691520.jpg6334709288340080311.jpgSubhuman Redneck Poems Les Murray , 1996 selected work poetry
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Oodgeroo Noonucccal
Poet-
Originally publishing as Kath Walker, until she returned to her language name in 1988, Oodgeroo Noonuccal was a prolific and wide-ranging poet and writer, but is perhaps best known for her first collection of poems, We Are Going. An enormously significant and influential collection, We Are Going marked a significant moment for Aboriginal writing; its poems have been widely anthologised and republished, especially the titular 'We Are Going'.
Oodgeroo also wrote children's fiction and picture books, but it is as a poet that she is venerated today.
Read more about Oodgeroo Noonuccal.
See translations of Oodgeroo Noonuccal's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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6167503653569422023.jpg2704506673963912565.jpg8562842766167472443.jpg9144242187285080847.jpg6535111869403097139.jpg8801757736781512159.jpg6448356023030301303.jpg6148827270126336890.jpgStradbroke Dreamtime Kath Walker , 1972 selected work life story prose short story
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Katharine Susannah Prichard
Novelist and playwright.-
Although she also wrote short stories, poetry, and a substantial number of plays, it is as a novelist that Katharine Susannah Prichard is best remembered as a novelist: her debut novel, The Pioneers (1915) was adapted to both the stage and screen (including by Raymond Longford), and was followed by a succession of other novels, mostly following the travails of life in the bush (Working Bullocks) or on the road (Haxby's Circus).
Unusually for the time (and somewhat controversially today), Prichard also covered such issues as Aboriginal experiences in colonial Australia, in Coonardo. Like Eleanor Dark's Varuna, Katharine Susannah Prichard's home remains a central part of Australian writing, as home of The Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre, the oldest writers' centre of its kind in Australia.
Read more about Katharine Susannah Prichard.
See translations of Katharine Susannah Prichard's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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6808878510579360366.jpgCoonardoo : The Well in the Shadow Katharine Susannah Prichard , 1928 single work novel
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5443535889351884200.jpgBrumby Innes : A Play in Three Acts Katharine Susannah Prichard , 1927 single work drama
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6628507524962332280.jpg6664766186156021052.png7723829350759332786.pngThe Pioneers Katharine Susannah Prichard , 1915 single work novel
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Henry Handel Richardson
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Born Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson in Melbourne in 1870, Henry Handel Richardson is best known as a novelist, although she began her career in the early years of her marriage as a translator, translating Scandinavian works into German. Her first novel was published in 1908; set in turn-of-the-century Leipzig, it reflected the peripatetic life she'd lived since her father's death in 1879, first living in Germany from 1888, where she studied piano at the Royal Conservatorium; then Dublin, where she married; then Strasburg for her husband's work.
Richardson's best-known work is her Fortunes of Richard Mahony trilogy, which draws on the experience of her family as Australian colonists in the mid nineteenth century.
Richardson's husband died in 1933, and she moved to Sussex, where she died in 1943.
Read more about Henry Handel Richardson.
See translations of Henry Handel Richardson's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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4186771874078874820.jpg617993079686555415.jpg1410533585057836660.jpg4938829109323009761.jpg8491998390930309062.jpg2253331372775732956.jpg3649757373386744543.jpg4380307799477640192.jpg2742247749277829545.jpg3655962387648574345.jpg8198620342813030037.jpg2309759779816191193.jpg7273988468230342769.jpg8917812489518273047.jpg7924687205929106039.png3037398013145588535.jpg1625308773690036466.jpg6030332640774722089.jpgMaurice Guest Henry Handel Richardson , 1908 single work novel
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2277348672259464948.jpgThe Fortunes of Richard Mahony Henry Handel Richardson , 1917 single work novel
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Christina Stead
Novelist and Short Story Writer-
Christina Stead was born in the Sydney suburb of Rockdale, Christina Stead was educated at Sydney Teachers college and taught for several years, but ultimately wanted to travel to London. She left Australian in 1928 and remained away until 1969, after the death of her long-term partner, William Blake.
Much of Stead's fame rests on her novels, particularly her debut work, Seven Poor Men of Sydney, and her best-known novel, The Man Who Loved Children: this scintillating novel of a dysfunctional family gained a new degree of fame when American novelist Jonathan Franzen drew attention to it in a long review essay in the New York Times in 2010.
Read more about Christina Stead.
See translations of Christina Stead's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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517317279967678538.jpg631887301605125184.jpg2166681490593695995.jpg7484524204962175307.jpg5211809388774991600.jpgSeven Poor Men of Sydney Christina Stead , 1934 single work novel
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6639722110938950605.jpg5818207720863523361.jpg174498251463415108.jpg2028290867639929114.jpg4589553869912006722.jpg7940897397034390128.jpg2645740837810874919.jpg8035065011447043229.jpg1715762110897287479.jpg2121060329500102222.jpg6558173511207428077.jpg8145162384320296172.jpg904927972418638435.png7709889266448969292.jpgThe Man Who Loved Children Christina Stead , 1940 single work novel
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Colin Thiele
Children's Writer-
Successful and popular children's writer Colin Thiele is best known for his works where children come up against the animals and landscape of Australia, including Storm Boy, Blue Fin, and February Dragon.
Raised in a German farming community in South Australia, Thiele also drew on his upbringing for his works. He published a wide range of short stories and poetry in Australian periodicals, including the Bulletin, before publishing the semi-autobiographical The Sun on the Stubble in 1961. Storm Boy followed two years later, and Thiele's career as a children's writer continued until his death in 2007.
Both Storm Boy and Blue Fin were made into successful films: Storm Boy in 1976 and Blue Fin in 1978. Storm Boy, certainly Thiele's best-known work, has more recently been revived for a stage production and a 'modernised' adaptation, with 'Storm Boy' now a older man trying to connect to his struggling teenage granddaughter through the story of Mr Percival the pelican.
See translations of Colin Thiele's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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4712235976958896408.jpg4084996541157336206.jpg2316866538718385898.jpgBlue Fin Colin Thiele , 1969 single work children's fiction
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David Unaipon
Inventor and Writer-
Today, David Unaipon is most often recognised as the figure on the Australian $50 note. Born and educated in a mission in South Australia, he left to work as a servant, but his intellectual capacity, curiosity, and inventiveness was recognised, and he was encouraged to pursue philosophy, science, and music. The author of compilations of Aboriginal myths and legends, he is considered the first Indigenous Australian author. But the rights to his works, which were first published in the 1920s, were sold without permission by the publisher, and released without acknowledgement by William Ramsay Smith. It wasn't until 2001 that Unaipon's work was acknowledged and his original title restored for the publication of Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines.
David Unaipon's name is used for University of Queensland Press's David Unaipon Literary Award.
Read more about David Unaipon.
See translations of David Unaipon's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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8236511372392504953.jpgLegendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines David Unaipon , 1924 selected work prose
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Patrick White
Novelist and Nobel Prize Laureate-
Australia's first recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature (which he received in 1973), Patrick White is best known as a novelist, although he also wrote short stories and drama. Born into a wealthy grazing family, he was educated in Australia and at Cheltenham College, England, before studying French and German languages and literature at King's College, Cambridge.
An RAF intelligence officer in the Middle East during World War II (where he met his lifelong partner, Manoly Lascaris), White settled briefly in London after the war, before returning to Australia and, ultimately, to a home at Centennial Park, Sydney, where he remained for the rest of his life.
White enjoyed enormous success, particularly after the publication of The Aunt's Story and The Tree of Man in the late 1940s and early 1950s, though he disliked the fame that the Nobel Prize brought him. With its prize money, he established the Patrick White Award, for Australian writers who have been creative over an extended period, but who have been inadequately recognised.
As well as the Nobel Prize, White more than once won both the Miles Franklin Award and the ALS Gold Medal, among other prizes.
Read more about Patrick White.
See translations of Patrick White's work.
Frequently studied works include:
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EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Thea Astley - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Marcus Clarke - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Jack Davis /specialistDatasets/BlackWords - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): C. J. Dennis - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Miles Franklin - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Kevin Gilbert /specialistDatasets/BlackWords - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Frank Hardy - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Elizabeth Jolley - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Henry Lawson - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Norman Lindsay - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Les Murray - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Oodgeroo Noonuccal /specialistDatasets/BlackWords - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Katharine Susannah Prichard - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Henry Handel Richardson - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): David Unaipon /specialistDatasets/BlackWords - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Patrick White - EDITORS: this Header component is linked to in the Explore section of the following AGENT record(s): Colin Thiele -
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