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Patrick White: Letters
Patrick White spent his life writing letters. He wanted them all burnt, but thousands survive to reveal him as one of the greatest letter-writers of his time. Patrick Letters is an unexpected and final volume of wonderful prose by Patrick White. Only a few scraps of his letters have been published before. Here his 70-year correspondence sees the light of day for the first time. From the aftermath of the First World War until his death in 1990, letters poured from Patrick White's they are shrewd, funny, hauntingly beautiful, dramatic, pig-headed, camp and above all relaxed. He wrote novels to sway a hostile world, but letters were for Patrick White was an old man before he wrote fiction as free and open as the best of his letters.
Paperback
First published November 1, 1996
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About the author
Patrick White
82 books366 followers There is more than one author by this name on Goodreads. For the Canadian Poet Laureate see "Patrick^^^^^White".
Patrick Victor Martindale White was an Australian author widely regarded as one of the major English-language novelists of the 20th century, and winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Born in England while his Australian parents were visiting family, White grew up in Sydney before studying at Cambridge. Publishing his first two novels to critical acclaim in the UK, White then enlisted to serve in World War II, where he met his lifelong partner, the Greek Manoly Lascaris. The pair returned to Australia after the war.
Home again, White published a total of twelve novels, two short story collections, eight plays, as well as a miscellany of non-fiction. His fiction freely employs shifting narrative vantages and the stream of consciousness technique. In 1973, he was awarded the Nobel Prize "for an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature."
From 1947 to 1964, White and Lascaris lived a retired life on the outer fringes of Sydney. However after their subsequent move to the inner suburb of Centennial Park, White experienced an increased passion for activism. He became known as an outspoken champion for the disadvantaged, for Indigenous rights, and for the teaching and promotion of art, in a culture he deemed often backward and conservative. In their personal life, White and Lascaris' home became a regular haunt for noted figures from all levels of society.
Although he achieved a great deal of critical applause, and was hailed as a national hero after his Nobel win, White retained a challenged relationship with the Australian public and ordinary readers. In his final decades the books sold well in paperback, but he retained a reputation as difficult, dense, and sometimes inscrutable.
Following White's death in 1990, his reputation was briefly buoyed by David Marr's well-received biography, although he disappeared off most university and school syllabuses, with his novels mostly out of print, by the end of the century. Interest in White's books was revived around 2012, the year of his centenary, with all now available again.
Sources: Wikipedia, David Marr's biography, The Patrick White Catalogue
Patrick Victor Martindale White was an Australian author widely regarded as one of the major English-language novelists of the 20th century, and winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Born in England while his Australian parents were visiting family, White grew up in Sydney before studying at Cambridge. Publishing his first two novels to critical acclaim in the UK, White then enlisted to serve in World War II, where he met his lifelong partner, the Greek Manoly Lascaris. The pair returned to Australia after the war.
Home again, White published a total of twelve novels, two short story collections, eight plays, as well as a miscellany of non-fiction. His fiction freely employs shifting narrative vantages and the stream of consciousness technique. In 1973, he was awarded the Nobel Prize "for an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature."
From 1947 to 1964, White and Lascaris lived a retired life on the outer fringes of Sydney. However after their subsequent move to the inner suburb of Centennial Park, White experienced an increased passion for activism. He became known as an outspoken champion for the disadvantaged, for Indigenous rights, and for the teaching and promotion of art, in a culture he deemed often backward and conservative. In their personal life, White and Lascaris' home became a regular haunt for noted figures from all levels of society.
Although he achieved a great deal of critical applause, and was hailed as a national hero after his Nobel win, White retained a challenged relationship with the Australian public and ordinary readers. In his final decades the books sold well in paperback, but he retained a reputation as difficult, dense, and sometimes inscrutable.
Following White's death in 1990, his reputation was briefly buoyed by David Marr's well-received biography, although he disappeared off most university and school syllabuses, with his novels mostly out of print, by the end of the century. Interest in White's books was revived around 2012, the year of his centenary, with all now available again.
Sources: Wikipedia, David Marr's biography, The Patrick White Catalogue
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 26, 2019
I live for this. What a great volume. White is unequivocally the greatest writer Australia ever produced, and this volume came about as a result of David Marr's landmark biography of White, written with the man's consent and published shortly after his death. Something like 20,000 letters from or to White were found by Marr during this process, and here he reprints a generous selection from across the author's life. From pondering his early novels during WWII (in which, in Europe, he met his lifelong partner Manoly) to his final years sharing his many thoughts on the state of Australian literature, this is a gem of a collection.
I can understand why many reviewers have given this less than 5 stars. This is a supplementary volume for White fans. It will be of interest to those who have read a few of the works, but the story of White's life - and especially of the critical fortunes of his career - only really makes sense in light of his body of work: 12 novels, 3 short story collections, an autobiography, several well-received plays, and one screenplay.
As someone so famously private during his lifetime, we are lucky that White had a change of heart in his final years, and allowed Marr such unfettered access. (If not, his equally reclusive partner would no doubt have imposed strict conditions on these letters after White's death.) The letters are more focused on White's personal life and thoughts about society than on his work but, again, read in tandem with Marr's biography and the canon itself, this makes sense. An endlessly fascinating, self-deprecating, brilliant, thorny, endlessly intellectual mind at work.
I can understand why many reviewers have given this less than 5 stars. This is a supplementary volume for White fans. It will be of interest to those who have read a few of the works, but the story of White's life - and especially of the critical fortunes of his career - only really makes sense in light of his body of work: 12 novels, 3 short story collections, an autobiography, several well-received plays, and one screenplay.
As someone so famously private during his lifetime, we are lucky that White had a change of heart in his final years, and allowed Marr such unfettered access. (If not, his equally reclusive partner would no doubt have imposed strict conditions on these letters after White's death.) The letters are more focused on White's personal life and thoughts about society than on his work but, again, read in tandem with Marr's biography and the canon itself, this makes sense. An endlessly fascinating, self-deprecating, brilliant, thorny, endlessly intellectual mind at work.
October 3, 2021
The first full collection of letters I've read - I had no idea how entertaining and informative they would be, including with Mr Marr's impeccable footnotes and editing. By turns cheeky, vindictive, vulgar and revealing of a complex mind at work. Thoroughly enjoyable.
February 27, 2016
An interesting read, especially for Patrick White fans. You gain a very good idea of his character, the number of friends he kept up a correspondence over a long period of time, his love of his partner, Manoly, (a relationship that lasted over 45 years - until White's death), how novels took him on average two years to write, his moral stances, his philanthropy, his love of original paintings by present day artists, his love of opera and plays, his grumpiness and what he reckonised as his vice - his lack of forgiveness. He didn't discuss his novels much but had plenty to say about books he read, countries he visited, his illnesses, the fact the he was the cook in the household. He was fortunate to be able to live off his inheritance and royalties from his books. After he won the Nobel Prize in 1973 with the $82,000 prize money, he established a Trust to award a sum of money each year for old Australian novelists who were not well off.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews