Patrick White was a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, the author of more than a dozen novels and many other books, and a spokesman for (and against) an Australia he both hated and loved. In preparing this biography, David Marr secured White's co-operation in tracking down sources and using private documentary material, but retained the right to write what he wished. Marr evokes the wealthy back-country ranching society out of which White sprang, the grand houses in Sydney and the sheep "stations" the size of Belgium; the jackarooing days that laid the groundwork for his first fiction; London before the war and the North African desert where he served as an unlikely intelligence officer; the travels and love affairs in Europe and America; the inevitable return to Australia and the political and aesthetic battles that engaged him during his last years. At the same time, the book focuses on the shape of White's emotional life as a homosexual, especially its central relationship, the companionship of Manoly Lascaris, his close friend of nearly 50 years. David Marr also wrote "The Ivanov Trial" and "Barwick", which won the New South Wales Premier's Prize.
- ISBN13 9780099998501
- Publish Date 16 July 1992 (first published 11 July 1991)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 20 February 2001
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Vintage
- Edition New edition
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 736
- Language English