David Marr (1) (1947–)
Autore di Patrick White: A Life
Per altri autori con il nome David Marr, vedi la pagina di disambiguazione.
Sull'Autore
David Marr was born on July 14, 1947 in Sydney, Australia. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Sydney. He began his career as an article clerk for the law firm. Later he was admitted as a barrister and solicitor. His career in journalism began at ABC mostra altro TV as a reporter for Four Corners (1985, 1990-1991). He won a Walkley Award for his work on the program. His other programs for ABC included Media Watch and Insiders. Currently he writes for The Montly, The Staurday Paper and Guardian Australia. He is the author of over ten books. His first books were Barwick, Allen & Unwin (1980), The Ivanov Trail, Nelson (1984) and Patrick White: A Life (1991). His more recent work includes Power Trip: The Political Journey of Kevin Rudd (2010), Panic (2011), Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbott (2012), The Prince: Faith, Abuse and George Pell (2013), and Faction Man: Bill Shortens Path to Power (2015). His awards include the Liberty Victoria Voltaire Award (2012), Alfred Deakin Prize for an Essay Advancing Public Debate, for 'Do Not Disturb: Is the Media Asleep?', Victoria Premier's Literary Awards (2006), and Walkley Awards (1991 and 1985). (Bowker Author Biography) mostra meno
Fonte dell'immagine: Courtesy of Allen and Unwin
Opere di David Marr
Opere correlate
Alan Cumming Live at the Sydney Opera House with David Marr: Free Download (2015) — Collaboratore, alcune edizioni — 9 copie
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Nome legale
- Marr, David Ewan
- Data di nascita
- 1947-07-14
- Sesso
- male
- Nazionalità
- Australia
- Luogo di nascita
- Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Luogo di residenza
- Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Istruzione
- University of Sydney
Sydney Church of England Grammar School - Attività lavorative
- lawyer
journalist
author
Utenti
Recensioni
Patrick White : a life di David Marr
A very satisfactory - and satisfactorily comprehensive - biography of the Australian literary giant.
The last Chapter, No. 24 p224
Lots of statistics on Australian’s fear of race , … ‘dusky’
Lots of statistics on Australian’s fear of race , … ‘dusky’
t was exhilarating reading this David Marr's biography of Australia's Nobel Prize-winning author Patrick White (1912-1990). I have had it on the TBR for a good while, but I'm glad now that I left reading it until I'd read all but one of the novels, and one of his plays. (I have just one left to source: I want a first edition of his second novel, The Living and the Dead from 1941). Part of the great pleasure in reading this literary biography is Marr's sly juxtaposition of quotations from the novels with his portraits of the real people in White's life.
Ruth (neé Withycombe) was Patrick White's mother, and — paired here with the pretentious Mrs Eadie Twyborn from The Twyborn Affair — she was extremely conscious of the White side of the family's more impressive wealth. Yet Marr's portrait of her includes fine qualities as well as her faults:
Anyone who's ever read White's novels recognises highly quotable acid descriptions in his prose as well. (Not to mention Marr's, though the source of his style is not under discussion.)
The biography tells the story of White's antecedents and family, his privileged childhood in the Hunter Valley and Sydney, his awful experience at boarding school in England, his emergence into adulthood at Cambridge where he failed to make an impression, and his war in British intelligence. We learn about his early love affairs, and his enduring relationship with Manoly Lascaris. (Though Manoly, who played a crucial role in supporting White's career, does not emerge in as much detail as one might expect.) We also learn about his love-hate relationship with Australia, and his extraordinary capacity for quarrels and grudges coupled with an intransigent refusal to reconcile. We discover his awkwardness about the Nobel Prize, his generosity towards various causes including other authors, and also his political activities in his latter years.
There are also wonderful photographs, revealing a different White to the one commonly portrayed.
But what makes this biography so interesting is the way it traces the trajectory of White's novels, from his first conception of a theme and its gestation over long periods of time, to the biographical sources of characters, events and landscapes, through to publication and critical reception. If you love reading White's novels, as I do, then this biography is a treasure trove. I know that I will be referring to it again and again each time I think about one of the novels.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2020/12/11/patrick-white-a-life-by-david-marr/… (altro)
The table was set with the Georgian family silver Ruth and her fellow collector Mrs Eadie Twyborn 'lovingly acquired at auction'. The Whites' china, stored in tall cupboards in the pantry, was white with a broad green rim and a big gold W in the centre of each plate. (p.34)
Ruth (neé Withycombe) was Patrick White's mother, and — paired here with the pretentious Mrs Eadie Twyborn from The Twyborn Affair — she was extremely conscious of the White side of the family's more impressive wealth. Yet Marr's portrait of her includes fine qualities as well as her faults:
Ruth's problem was simple. She was a woman of drive, ideas, taste, courage of a kind and eccentric generosity. For all these remarkable qualities, she lacked intuition. Ruth was very funny, especially about the foibles and vulgarity of those beyond her circle; her acid descriptions were remembered and quoted for years; but she never really understood people, and had little grasp of why they were as they were, or perhaps more to the point, why they were not as she was. What she could not grasp she mocked. Without an easy understanding of people she was uncertain of how to win their trust, so she set out instead to dominate. Ruth grew into one of those generous but overbearing women who can hardly help enslaving people. She gathered a coterie of stylish young men to keep her amused and one or two poor relations as attendants. (p.41)
Anyone who's ever read White's novels recognises highly quotable acid descriptions in his prose as well. (Not to mention Marr's, though the source of his style is not under discussion.)
The biography tells the story of White's antecedents and family, his privileged childhood in the Hunter Valley and Sydney, his awful experience at boarding school in England, his emergence into adulthood at Cambridge where he failed to make an impression, and his war in British intelligence. We learn about his early love affairs, and his enduring relationship with Manoly Lascaris. (Though Manoly, who played a crucial role in supporting White's career, does not emerge in as much detail as one might expect.) We also learn about his love-hate relationship with Australia, and his extraordinary capacity for quarrels and grudges coupled with an intransigent refusal to reconcile. We discover his awkwardness about the Nobel Prize, his generosity towards various causes including other authors, and also his political activities in his latter years.
There are also wonderful photographs, revealing a different White to the one commonly portrayed.
But what makes this biography so interesting is the way it traces the trajectory of White's novels, from his first conception of a theme and its gestation over long periods of time, to the biographical sources of characters, events and landscapes, through to publication and critical reception. If you love reading White's novels, as I do, then this biography is a treasure trove. I know that I will be referring to it again and again each time I think about one of the novels.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2020/12/11/patrick-white-a-life-by-david-marr/… (altro)
1 
anzlitlovers | 6 altre recensioni | Dec 10, 2020 |
anzlitlovers | 6 altre recensioni | Dec 10, 2020 | 
Quite a powerful polemic. Marr writes beautifully...."on this summer afternoon, he sat hunched in a chair in a corner of his Hobart office, all limbs like a grasshopper in grey daks".....about Brian Harradine. And he is writing from the perspective of a gay who sees the Christian churches and their supporters as enemies of pleasure and freedom. The book is now dated but I found the section about the gay movement and the repeal of penal provisions in the law for gay sex profoundly informative. The book is really a collection of twelve essays on different themes ...mostly relating to the established Church...in one way or another opposing; abortion, gay sex, homosexuality, liberal attitudes to censorship, drugs, bad language and anti Christian views. He makes a powerful case that the Christians ......Catholics in particular ....have played the politics deftly to gain outcomes way beyond the number of true believers that they can muster.
There is a lot of information here and I admire his ability to muster the facts so well and present such a strongly worded series of rebukes. Has he been successful. Well ...even by his own admission....probably not . But hard to say, maybe, his words have a lingering powerful impact....that we can only today see starting to bear fruit. I give it 5 stars.… (altro)
There is a lot of information here and I admire his ability to muster the facts so well and present such a strongly worded series of rebukes. Has he been successful. Well ...even by his own admission....probably not . But hard to say, maybe, his words have a lingering powerful impact....that we can only today see starting to bear fruit. I give it 5 stars.… (altro)
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