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David Marr David Marr i(A9943 works by)
Born: Established: 1947 ;
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

Born in 1947, David Marr grew up and went to school and university in Sydney, New South Wales. Although he is a qualified solicitor and barrister he has never practised law. From 1972, after travelling in Europe and Africa, Marr worked as a journalist on the Bulletin magazine and in 1976 he became arts editor of the National Times.

In 1985 Marr joined the ABC's Four Corners as a reporter. His account of the deaths of Aborigines in custody in Western Australia, Black Death, won a Walkley Award and a Human Rights Commission Award.

His biography of the then Chief Justice Sir Garfield Barwick titled Barwick, published in 1980, won the NSW Premier's Prize that year. He wrote his second book, The Ivanov Trail (1983), after covering the Royal Commission into Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. The book is a compelling account of espionage, ambition and power play.

Marr is perhaps best known for his third book, Patrick White: A Life, published in 1991, and for which he won much critical acclaim. Marr notes that White himself did not request any cuts to the biography. The book has been a best seller in Australia and has won several awards. Marr subsequently went on to edit a collection of White's letters, Patrick White: Letters (1994). The letters cover a span of seventy years and range over many topics and issues, including love, friendship, politics, nuclear disarmament, literary criticism and gossip. In all, David Marr devoted about nine years of his own life to the life of White.

Marr has also published: The High Price of Heaven (1999), a collection of essays about the enemies of pleasure and freedom; with Marian Wilkinson, Dark Victory (2004), an account of the Tampa, the Children Overboard affair and the Howard Government's Pacific Solution, The Henson Case (2008) on the issues raised by Bill Henson's photographs of children and Panic (2011) an investigation into what makes Australians paranoid. The Henson Case was shortlisted for the Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate in the 2009 Victorian Premier's Awards and the Non-Fiction Prize in the 2009 Prime Minister's Literary Awards.

Marr has written many articles and reviews and has been a feature writer for the Sydney Morning Herald. In 2010, he won a Walkley Award for Magazine Feature Writing, and was shortlisted for the 2011 Queensland Premier's Literary Award, Literary or Media work Advancing Public Debate, for his Quarterly Essay, 'Power Trip: The Political Journey of Kevin Rudd'. Marr resigned from his position as senior writer with the Sydney Morning Herald in 2012, just prior to his sixty-fifth birthday.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Killing for Country : A Family Story Collingwood : Black Inc. , 2023 26928458 2023 multi chapter work criticism

'A gripping reckoning with the bloody history of Australia's frontier wars

'David Marr was shocked to discover forebears who served with the brutal Native Police in the bloodiest years on the frontier. Killing for Country is the result – a soul-searching Australian history.

'This is a richly detailed saga of politics and power in the colonial world – of land seized, fortunes made and lost, and the violence let loose as squatters and their allies fought for possession of the country – a war still unresolved in today's Australia.' (Publication summary)

2024 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Award for Non-Fiction
2024 shortlisted Indie Awards Nonfiction
y separately published work icon The Prince : Faith, Abuse and George Pell Collingwood : Black Inc. , 2013 6487801 2013 single work biography (taught in 1 units)

'The leading Catholic in the nation and spiritual adviser to Tony Abbott, Cardinal George Pell has played a key role in the greatest challenge to face his church for centuries: the scandal of child sex abuse by priests.

'In The Prince, David Marr investigates the man and his career: how did he rise through the ranks? What does he stand for? How does he wield his authority? How much has he shaped his church and Australia? How has he handled the scandal?

'Marr reveals a cleric at ease with power and aggressive in asserting the prerogatives of the Vatican. His account of Pell’s career focuses on his response as a man, a priest, an archbishop and prince of the church to the scandal that has engulfed the Catholic world in the last thirty years. This is the story of a cleric slow to see what was happening around him; torn by the contest between his church and its victims; and slow to realise that the Catholic Church cannot, in the end, escape secular scrutiny.

'The Prince is an arresting portrait of faith, loyalty and ambition, set against a backdrop of terrible suffering and an ancient institution in turmoil.

'“He knows children have been wrecked. He apologises again and again. He even sees that the hostility of the press he so deplores has helped the church face the scandal. What he doesn’t get is the hostility to the church. Whatever else he believes in, Pell has profound faith in the Catholic Church. He guards it with his life. Nations come and go but the church remains.” David Marr, The Prince. ' (Publisher's blurb)

2014 longlisted Walkley Award Best Non-Fiction Book
y separately published work icon Political Animal : The Making of Tony Abbott Melbourne : Black Inc. , 2013 Z1932143 2013 single work biography

'Tony Abbott is poised to become the nation's next prime minister and, more than ever, Australians are asking: what kind of man is he and how might he run the country?

'David Marr's Political Animal, with its revelation of 'the punch,' triggered intense scrutiny of Abbott's character in 2012. Now this expanded and updated edition of Marr's dramatic portrait gives the clearest picture yet of Abbott the man and politician.' (Publisher's blurb)

2013 shortlisted John Button Prize
2013 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Australian Biography of the Year
Last amended 11 Mar 2015 16:45:43
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