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'Part autobiography, part cultural history, some will read Memoirs of a Slow Learner as a comic anatomy of the corpse of Australian small-l liberalism. Others will see in it a journalistic record of the times. Yet others a moving personal statement. It is a unique departure in Australian autobiography. Commenting on this new edition, Coleman writes: ‘Looking back across twenty years I see more clearly than I did at the time that the real origin of Memoirs of a Slow Learner was my immersion in the poetry of James McAuley (my co-editor at Quadrant.) I had already written one response to his work and genius, The Heart of James McAuley (Connor Court). His autobiographical poems moved me deeply, especially his 'Letter to John Dryden'. It distantly echoed a similar family background to mine (freethinking father, Protestant mother), a similar education in a secular state grammar school and Sydney University, infatuation with Marxism, mysticism and Christianity. But whereas McAuley found a resolution of his quest in the Catholic Church, I persevered with secular liberalism, in the belief that imagination and feeling could still moisten its parched landscape. Several writers published rejoinders to McAuley’s poem – Jack Lindsay, Amy Witting, A.D.Hope. Memoirs of a Slow Learner was mine. It could be called 'A Letter to James McAuley'. In the years since I have come to accept many of McAuley’s criticisms of my liberal secularism – many but not all. I am now more sceptical of the freethinkers who influenced me in my youth such as the philosopher John Anderson and far less sceptical of church leaders who deplored their influence. The conversation continues.’' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Available as a sound recording.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Peter Coleman's Journey
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Quadrant , March vol. 59 no. 3 2015; (p. 106-107)
— Review of Memoirs of a Slow Learner 1994 single work autobiography -
Things Change in Australia
1995
single work
review
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 9 no. 1 1995; (p. 68-69)
— Review of Memoirs of a Slow Learner 1994 single work autobiography -
Memoirs of a Slow Learner: An Intimate Personal and Cultural Memoir
1995
single work
review
— Appears in: Zadok Perspectives: Quarterly Journal of the Zadok Institute for Christianity and Society , July no. 49 1995; (p. 19-20)
— Review of Memoirs of a Slow Learner 1994 single work autobiography -
Cold War Convictions
1995
single work
review
— Appears in: Editions , March no. 22 1995; (p. 23-24)
— Review of Memoirs of a Slow Learner 1994 single work autobiography -
A Sydney Observer
1995
single work
review
— Appears in: Quadrant , March vol. 39 no. 3 1995; (p. 85-86)
— Review of Memoirs of a Slow Learner 1994 single work autobiography
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An Understated Delight
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 13 September vol. 116 no. 5937 1994; (p. 97)
— Review of Memoirs of a Slow Learner 1994 single work autobiography -
Challenges of Secular Liberalism
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 24 September 1994; (p. 9)
— Review of Memoirs of a Slow Learner 1994 single work autobiography -
Conservative Mirrors on the Australian Cold War Experience
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 24 September 1994; (p. 11A)
— Review of Memoirs of a Slow Learner 1994 single work autobiography -
Editor's Choice
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 20 November 1994; (p. 10)
— Review of Memoirs of a Slow Learner 1994 single work autobiography -
Memories from the Right
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: Eureka Street , November vol. 4 no. 9 1994; (p. 61)
— Review of Memoirs of a Slow Learner 1994 single work autobiography