Jean Devanny: Romantic Revolutionry

by Carole Ferrier

Jean Devanny—author, political activist, and women's liberationist—was a leading figure in Australia's political and literary life, yet this remarkable biography is the first full account of her life and times. In the turbulent political climate of the 1930s, Devanny joined the Communist Party and rapidly became a redoubtable public speaker. A fiery figure, she clashed with the party line on events in Europe during World War II and under Stalin and had bitter disputes with party leaders over her “open” marriage and rumored love affairs. Obliged to write novels to support her family, she developed friendships with notable writers like Katharine Susannah Prichard, Miles Franklin, and Frank Hardy. Her interest in issues of race, gender, and sexuality makes her a writer of great contemporary interest. Carole Ferrier's impressive biography uses oral history material from people who knew Devanny as well as drawing extensively on unpublished archives and manuscripts.

404 pages, Hardcover

First published October 10, 1995

Reviews

[taramaro]

Seven months later and FINALLY done!

Truth be told, I actually found it quite difficult to finish this book because the premise and reoccurring themes were so sad to read about.

The research for this book was pretty impeccable and very well done (author said it took 20 years to complete - no wonder!!). Sheds light on the rigid nature and appalling attitude of the Communist Party during its height of power. Jean suffered as a result of the attitudes of the people who were supposed to be her comrades.

I did however enjoy reading about the Communist movement in North Queensland in the late 30s and 40s. Many familiar names grace the page post-World War II (Hewett, Healy, Sharkey etc). One thing I thought was an important theme of this book was the complexity and years long struggle Jean grappled with as “Jean the writer” and “Jean the Communist.”

Overall, I came away from this book lamenting the very sad stories of so many women in the Communist movement, often taken for granted. Glad I read this.

[Ms_prue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pros:
-Excellent subject and subject matter for International Women's Day
-Distillation of so many sources and so much research, jeepers
-FNQ history parts were of much interest to me, as a person who grew up in Effin' Q
-How to be a woman and a communist and write both smutty literature and literature with a purpose, the JD story (also contribute to science and dismantling racism in your local regional city!)

Cons:
-I lacked context on a lot of the context and many of the name-drops were maddeningly opaque. Marion who? (Discover some paragraphs later it was -Style was academic and it was work to read. I can respect this, because the book is clearly the result of a huge amount of effort and it's only polite of the reader to do it the courtesy of giving back some effort. But it made it slow and sometimes hard going.

We don't tend to cover Australian history much in school, and certainly not history that focuses on women or the Left. But it was fascinating to read about the women, women in the Left and out of it, writing and commenting and pushing for reform and revolution, during a period including the 1940s where, if it's covered at all, Australian history would be told as a military history abroad. Jean came to live in Australia for much of her life, but she was born and raised in New Zealand, and was anyway regarded as British. And she was loud and opinionated and a hell of a public speaker and organiser. She was already being written out of history books when she was still alive, so it's great that she has a history book of her own.