Olaf Ruhen’s Followers (2)

Olaf Ruhen

Born

in Dunedin, New Zealand

August 24, 1911

Died

July 18, 1989

Genre

Travel, History

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Olaf Ruhen was the son of Carl Ruhen, a German from Schleswig-Holstein and a Frisian Islander, who became a timber merchant in New Zealand. His wife, Margaret nee Johnson, born in New Zealand, came from a Shetland Island family. Olaf Ruhen was educated at Otago Boys' High School. As a young man, he worked with horse teams, as a shepherd, and as a deep-sea fisherman for six years. This career ended when he wrecked his own boat, the 'Alice'. He had published some articles with the Dunedin Evening Star and from 1938 to 1941 was employed as a journalist with the newspaper. During this period he wrote a number of short stories published by the Sydney Bulletin.

During the Second World War Ruhen joined the RNZAF 1941-1945, serving with the RAF flyi Olaf Ruhen was the son of Carl Ruhen, a German from Schleswig-Holstein and a Frisian Islander, who became a timber merchant in New Zealand. His wife, Margaret nee Johnson, born in New Zealand, came from a Shetland Island family. Olaf Ruhen was educated at Otago Boys' High School. As a young man, he worked with horse teams, as a shepherd, and as a deep-sea fisherman for six years. This career ended when he wrecked his own boat, the 'Alice'. He had published some articles with the Dunedin Evening Star and from 1938 to 1941 was employed as a journalist with the newspaper. During this period he wrote a number of short stories published by the Sydney Bulletin.

During the Second World War Ruhen joined the RNZAF 1941-1945, serving with the RAF flying Lancasters for the Bomber Command. From 1945 to 1947 he was again employed by the Evening Star. In 1947 he moved to Sydney, where he worked for the Telegraph, the Sun and the Sydney Morning Herald. Ruhen was also writing short stories again for the Bulletin and, more lucratively, the Saturday Evening Post where his highest payment was $2,250 for a story. He resigned in 1956 to become a freelance writer after quarrelling with the Sydney Morning Herald.

Ruhen concentrated on overseas markets, primarily the United States, then Britain and Europe. Despite his reputation for treating writing as a business, Ruhen was a writer of integrity who rejected a Saturday Evening Post offer to serialise his first novel, Naked under Capricorn, because they wished to make changes that he felt would rob the novel of its truth. American serial rights to the novel would have been worth between $9,000 and $13,000. In 1963 he was the first director of the School of Creative Writing, University of Adelaide, and in 1973 of the summer school of creative writing in Papua New Guinea.

Ruhen published several hundred short stories in anthologies and magazines. He contributed to most of the Australian journals with a national circulation and to the Saturday Evening Post, Argosy and other overseas journals. He also wrote film scripts and contributed to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Ruhen wrote a variety of non-fiction works, based largely on his extensive travels in Australia, New Guinea and the South Pacific. They included two historical works, Minerva Reef (1963) and Bullock Teams : the building of a nation (1980). Ruhen also wrote The Day of the Diprotodon (1976), an information book for children.

Ruhen was a founding committee member of the Australian Society of Authors, and vice-president of Sydney PEN. In 1976 he won the Qantas Short Story Award. ...more

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Average rating: 3.68 · 182 ratings · 37 reviews · 45 distinct works • Similar authors

	Minerva Reef 3.82 avg rating — 22 ratings — published 1963 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Naked Under Capricorn 3.75 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 1958 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tangaroa's Godchild really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1962 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Land of Dahori 4.25 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 1957 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	THE ROCKS SYDNEY. liked it 3.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 1982 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Corcoran's The Name 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Harpoon in my Hand 3.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1966 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Macquarie's five towns it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Scan the Dark Coast it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Broken Wing it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Olaf Ruhen (?)

“The Australian aborigines, reckoned to be among the most primitive of races upon evidence that is far from conclusive, have a region that is well-developed. They worship the Earth Mother, and recognise in their graceful, plaintive stories the prior existence of culture heroes as well limned as any in Valhalla. To an amazing degree they feel the reality of the metaphysical world they have created––the dream-time, which is neither a dream nor a period, or if it is a period is one which has no dimension, so that the past and the present exist together.”
― Olaf Ruhen, Tangaroa's Godchild

tags: aborigines, indigenous-peoples

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Olaf Ruhen’s Followers (2)

Olaf Ruhen

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