The Heart of James McAuley


Book Description

'The Heart of James McAuley' examines the work of the famous poet, editor, critic, and political thinker. It places the poetry in its biographical context - from his anarchistic and avant-garde youth to the libertarian conservative and Catholic convert of later years. It takes a new look at the great Ern Malley hoax, his profound essays on the decolonization of New Guinea, his association with such major figures as B.A. Santamaria and Sir John Kerr, his involvement with the Industrial Groups in the ALP and with the DLP, his founding of the magazine Quadrant, and his response to a number of controversies from the CIA scandals to the New Left assaults on the universities. No other biography of McAuley encompasses all the wide-ranging activities of this great poet.







The House of Fragile Things


Book Description

A powerful history of Jewish art collectors in France, and how an embrace of art and beauty was met with hatred and destruction In the dramatic years between 1870 and the end of World War II, a number of prominent French Jews—pillars of an embattled community—invested their fortunes in France’s cultural artifacts, sacrificed their sons to the country’s army, and were ultimately rewarded by seeing their collections plundered and their families deported to Nazi concentration camps. In this rich, evocative account, James McAuley explores the central role that art and material culture played in the assimilation and identity of French Jews in the fin-de-siècle. Weaving together narratives of various figures, some familiar from the works of Marcel Proust and the diaries of Jules and Edmond Goncourt—the Camondos, the Rothschilds, the Ephrussis, the Cahens d'Anvers—McAuley shows how Jewish art collectors contended with a powerful strain of anti-Semitism: they were often accused of “invading” France’s cultural patrimony. The collections these families left behind—many ultimately donated to the French state—were their response, tragic attempts to celebrate a nation that later betrayed them.




The Devil and James McAuley


Book Description

Follows McAuley's life from his student days at Sydney Uni through the war years, his conversion to Catholicism, his anticommunist activities during the Cold War period, and his editorship of Quadrant, with revelations about CIA funding and involvement with ASIO. A controversial new political biography.




A Question of Commitment


Book Description

In the years since the Second World War, Australia has seen a period of literary creativity which outshines any earlier period in the nation's literary history. This creativity has its beginnings in the arguments and alignments which emerged at the end of the War, and the changes in perceptions of art and society which occurred during the fifties and early sixties. A Question of Commitment examines the attitudes of writers as diverse as James McAuley, Frank Hardy, Judith Wright, Patrick White and A. D. Hope, as they responded to a changing Australian society during the postwar years. Through their work and that of many others, it considers the debates about literary nationalism, the artistic politics of the Cold War, the threat of technology to art in the Atomic Age, and the nature of the writer's role in the new society. It documents the way in which the political commitments of some writers and the resistance to commitment of others were challenged by political and social changes of the late fifties. Susan McKernan's lively exploration of Australia's writers in a time of innovation provides the reader with the context needed to understand the creative choices they made and, in so doing, introduces wider intellectual and cultural issues which remain relevant to this day.




James McAuley


Book Description

James McAuley brings the work of this poet and critic face to face with a range of deconstructive and feminist readings. It is a contentious work, not at home with earlier moral and biographical approaches. But James McAuley - one of the perpetrators of the infamous 'Ern Malley' hoax, and a founder of Quadrant - was a lover of debate. He responded intensely to a multitude of struggles, both public and private. In the changing world of literary studies, McAuley's voice was always a strong one. He has been championed and derided. Today, readers of his poetry and criticism must also absorb the claims of new theoretical positions, some of which threaten to swamp McAuley's fragile lyrics. Lyn McCredden here engages with both deconstruction and McAuley, essaying new readings of the poetry for new generations of readers. Some readers of McAuley may argue against the 'misreadings' of this book, but all will be rewarded, surprised and provoked by these sustained and speculative interpretations of this important body of work.




Composing Australia: Nostalgia and National Identity in the Music of Malcolm Williamson


Book Description

Brilliant, provocative, compassionate—the composer Malcolm Williamson was one of Australia’s most famous expatriates. As Carolyn Philpott explains, his nostalgia for his homeland lasted fifty years, from his emigration in 1953 until his death in 2003. In works such as the ballet The Display, Symphony no. 6 and The Dawn Is at Hand, he explored inventive ways of expressing his Australian identity, collaborating with Australian artists, paying homage to Australian musicians and exposing his sorrow for the treatment of Indigenous peoples. As the first book-length examination of Williamson’s music, Composing Australia is a portrait of an intriguing and always imaginative Australian.




Donald Horne


Book Description

The fascinating biography of a brilliant man who captured the nation's imagination and boldly showed Australians who we were and how we could change In the 1960s, Donald Horne offered Australians a compelling reinterpretation of the Menzies years as a period of social and political inertia and mediocrity. His book The Lucky Country was profoundly influential and, without doubt, one of the most significant shots ever fired in Australia's endless culture war. Ryan Cropp's landmark biography positions Horne as an antipodean Orwell, a lively, independent and distinct literary voice 'searching for the temper of the people, accepting it, and moving on from there'. Through the eyes – and unforgettable words – of this preternaturally observant and articulate man, we see a recognisable modern Australia emerge. Shortlisted for the 2024 National Biography Award 'A compulsive read about a writer who shaped the way we Australians think about ourselves' —Judith Brett 'Unmissable for anybody interested in the intellectual life of this country' —Sean Kelly 'Ryan Cropp's thoughtful life of Donald Horne … charted the restless and provocative habits of his subject with care and elegance, and animated decades of faded news and current affairs with colour and poise.' —Patrick Mullins, Australian Book Review 'Books of the Year 2023' 'In his accomplished and insightful biography … Cropp has captured a full life, well lived, that was a tribute to the importance of paying attention and making a difference.' —Julianne Schultz, The Conversation




The Modern Hercules


Book Description

The Modern Hercules explores the reception of the ancient Greek hero Herakles – the Roman Hercules – in western culture from the nineteenth century to the present day, exploring the hero’s transformations of identity and significance in a wide range of media.




Twilight of the Elites


Book Description

A passionate account of how the gulf between France’s metropolitan elites and its working classes are tearing the country apart Christophe Guilluy, a French geographer, makes the case that France has become an “American society”—one that is both increasingly multicultural and increasingly unequal. The divide between the global economy’s winners and losers in today’s France has replaced the old left-right split, leaving many on “the periphery.” As Guilluy shows, there is no unified French economy, and those cut off from the country’s new economic citadels suffer disproportionately on both economic and social fronts. In Guilluy’s analysis, the lip service paid to the idea of an “open society” in France is a smoke screen meant to hide the emergence of a closed society, walled off for the benefit of the upper classes. The ruling classes in France are reaching a dangerous stage, he argues; without the stability of a growing economy, the hope for those excluded from growth is extinguished, undermining the legitimacy of a multicultural nation.