Patrick White

Born:	28 May 1912(1912-05-28) Knightsbridge, London, United Kingdom
Died:	30 September 1990 (aged 78)
Occupation:	novelist, short story writer, playwright, poet, essayist
Nationality:	Australian
Genres:	Fictional prose

Patrick Victor Martindale White (May 28, 1912, Knightsbridge, London – September 30, 1990) was an Australian author widely regarded as one of the major English-language novelists of the 20th century. From 1935 until death, he published twelve novels, two short story collections, eight plays, and non-fiction. His fiction freely employs shifting narrative vantages and the stream of consciousness technique. In 1973, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Patrick White, born February 25, 1986 in Daphne, Alabama, is a redshirted sophomore NCAA football player for the West Virginia Mountaineers. ... Patrick White (born January 20, 1989 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota) is a ice hockey center drafted by the Vancouver Canucks 25th overall in the first round of the2007 NHL Entry Draft. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... May 28 is the 148th day of the year (149th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Knightsbridge is a street and district spanning the City of Westminster and theRoyal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London notable for its eclectic mix of rich, famous, and international residents including several billionaires Roman Abramovich, oligarchs from Russia, China and India, international businessman Lord Marshall of Knightsbridge, trend setters Charles... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... is the 273rd day of the year (274th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ... This article is about work. ... In English usage, nationality is the legal relationship between a person and a country. ... A literary genre is one of the divisions of literature into genres according to particular criteria such as literary technique, tone, or content. ... Prose is writing distinguished from poetry by its greater variety of rhythm and its closer resemblance to the patterns of everyday speech. ... May 28 is the 148th day of the year (149th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Knightsbridge is a street and district spanning the City of Westminster and theRoyal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London notable for its eclectic mix of rich, famous, and international residents including several billionaires Roman Abramovich, oligarchs from Russia, China and India, international businessman Lord Marshall of Knightsbridge, trend setters Charles... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... is the 273rd day of the year (274th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ... For other uses, see Author (disambiguation). ... In literature and storytelling, a point of view is the related experience of the narrator — not that of the author. ... In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a literary technique which seeks to portray an individuals point of view by giving the written equivalent of the characters thought processes, either in a loose internal interior monologue, or in connection to his or her sensory reactions to external occurrences. ... The Nobel Prize in literature is awarded annually to an author from any country who has produced the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency. The work in this case generally refers to an authors work as a whole, not to any individual work, though individual works are sometimes...

Childhood and adolescence

Patrick White: A Life by David Marr (1991). The cover portrait is a detail from a 1980 painting of White by Australian artist Brett Whiteley.

White was born in London to Australian parents, who settled in Sydney when he was six months old. As a child, he lived in one flat with his sister, nanny and maid, while his parents lived in an adjoining flat. He remained distant from his parents lifelong. At the age of four, White developed asthma, a condition that had taken the life of his maternal grandfather. His health was fragile throughout his childhood, which ruled out his participation in many childhood activities, and stimulated his imagination. He would perform private rites in the garden, and would dance for his mother’s friends. He loved the theatre, which he first visited at an early age. At the age of ten, White was sent to Tudor House School, a boarding school in the New South Wales highlands, in an attempt to calm his asthma. It took him some time to adjust to the presence of other children. At boarding school he started to write plays. At this early age, he took to writing about noticeably adult themes. In 1924, the boarding school ran into financial trouble, and the headmaster suggested that White be sent to boarding school in England, a suggestion to which his parents acceded. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 407 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (588 × 866 pixel, file size: 212 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) This image is of a book cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned either by the artist who created the cover or... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 407 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (588 × 866 pixel, file size: 212 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) This image is of a book cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned either by the artist who created the cover or... Front of the Brett Whiteley gallery in Surry Hills, Sydney For other uses, see Brett Whiteley (disambiguation). ... This article is about the metropolitan area in Australia. ... The Tudor House School, is a private day and boarding, preparatory school for boys in Moss Vale, New South Wales, Australia. ... “NSW” redirects here. ...

White struggled to adjust to his new surroundings at Cheltenham College, his new school. He was later to describe it as "a four-year prison sentence". White withdrew inside himself and had few friends there. Occasionally, he would holiday with his parents at European locations, but their relationship remained distant. In London, he did make one close friend, Ronald Waterall, an older boy with similar interests. White’s biographer, David Marr, wrote that they would walk arm in arm to London shows, stand around stage doors to catch a glimpse of their favourite stars and give practical demonstrations of chorus girls’ high kicks, with appropriate noises. When Waterall left school, White withdrew into himself again. He asked his parents if he could leave school to become an actor, and they compromised, allowing him to finish school early on the condition that he came home to Australia first, to try life on the land. Cheltenham College is a famous English coeducational independent school in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. ... David Marr (born in Sydney 1947) is an Australian journalist and author. ...

Travelling the world

White spent two years working as a stockman at Bolaro, a 73 km² station on the edge of the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales. His parents felt that he should work on the land rather than become a writer; they hoped that once he became a jackaroo, his artistic ambitions would fade. White grew to respect the land, and his health started to improve. However, it was clear that he was not cut out for this life. Australian Stockmans Hall of Fame ( a museum in Longreach, Queensland, Australia ) A stockman is the name given to a person who looks after the livestock on a station. ... Worldwind image of Snowy Mountains The Snowy Mountains (known for short as the Snowies) are the highest Australian mountain range and contain the Australian mainlands highest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko, which reaches 2228 metres AHD. They are located in southern New South Wales and are part of the larger Australian...

From 1932 to 1935, White lived in England, studying French and German literature at King's College, Cambridge. He did not enjoy his first term there, because he fell in love with a young man who had come to King's to become an Anglican priest, but dared not speak of his feelings for fear of losing the friendship. Like many homosexual men of that period, he feared that his sexuality would doom him to a lonely life. Then one night, the student priest, after an awkward liaison with two women, admitted to White that women meant nothing to him sexually; this became White’s first love affair. Full name The King’s College of Our Lady and St Nicholas in Cambridge Motto Veritas et Utilitas Truth and usefulness Named after Henry VI Previous names - Established 1441 Sister College(s) New College, Oxford Provost Prof. ... Homosexuality refers to sexual interaction and / or romantic attraction between individuals of the same sex. ...

While at Cambridge University, a collection of his poems was published under the title The Ploughman and Other Poems, and wrote a play that was performed by an amateur group. White received his Bachelor of Arts in 1935, and briefly settled in London, where he lived in an area that was frequented by artists. Here, he thrived for a time, writing several unpublished works and reworking a novel, Happy Valley, that he had written while jackarooing. In 1937, White’s father died, leaving him ten thousand pounds. This enabled him to write full-time in relative comfort. Two more plays followed, before he succeeded in finding a publisher for Happy Valley. The novel was well received in London, but poorly in Australia. He wrote another novel, Nightside, but abandoned it after receiving negative comments. He later spoke of regretting that he had not finished it. The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and has a reputation as one of the worlds most prestigious universities. ...

Towards the end of the 1930s, White spent some time in the United States, including Cape Cod, Massachusetts and New York City, where he wrote The Living and the Dead. By the time World War II broke out, he had returned to London and joined the Royal Air Force. He was accepted as an intelligence officer, and was posted to the Middle East. He served in Egypt, Palestine and Greece before the war was over. While in the Middle East, he had an affair with an officer, Manoly Lascaris, who was to become his life partner. This article is about the area of Massachusetts known as Cape Cod. For other uses, see Cape Cod (disambiguation). ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... “RAF” redirects here. ...

The growth of White's writing career

Voss (1957). The cover art was the first of several works produced especially for White's novels by Australian artist Sidney Nolan.

After the war, he returned to Australia once again, buying an old house in Castle Hill, in the semi-rural outskirts of Sydney. Here, White settled down with Manoly Lascaris, the officer he had met during the war. They lived there for 18 years, selling flowers, vegetables, milk and cream. During these years, he started to make a reputation for himself as a writer, publishing The Aunt's Story and The Tree of Man, which was published in the United States in 1955 and shortly after in England. The Tree of Man was released to rave reviews in the US, but, in what was to become a typical pattern, was panned by Australian critics. White had doubts about whether to continue writing, after his books were largely ignored in Australia (three of them having been called ‘un-Australian’ by critics), but decided to keep going. His first breakthrough in Australia came when his next novel, Voss, won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1288 × 966 pixel, file size: 225 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) This image is of a book cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned either by the artist who created the cover or... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1288 × 966 pixel, file size: 225 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) This image is of a book cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned either by the artist who created the cover or... Voss is an epic novel by Patrick White, first published in 1957. ... Sidney Nolan, The Trial, 1947: enamel on composition board; 90. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The annual Miles Franklin Literary Award is one of the most illustrious events on the Australian literary calendar. ...

In 1961, White published Riders in the Chariot. This was to become a bestseller, and won him a second Miles Franklin Award. In 1963, White and Lascaris decided to sell the house at Castle Hill that they had named "Dogwoods". During the 1960s, several of his published works depicted the fictional town of Sarsaparilla; these works include the collection of short stories, The Burnt Ones, and the play, The Season at Sarsaparilla. By now, he had clearly established his reputation as one of the world's great authors. However, he remained an essentially private person, resisting opportunities for interviews and public appearances, although his circle of friends had widened significantly. Riders in the Chariot cover Riders in the Chariot, a novel by Australian Author Patrick White, Nobel Prize winner of 1973, was published in 1961 and won the Miles Franklin Award in that year. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

In 1968, White wrote The Vivisector, a character portrait of an artist. Many people drew links to his friend, artist Sidney Nolan, but White always vehemently denied that it was about Nolan. Around this time, he decided that he would not accept any more prizes for his work. He declined both the $10,000 Britannia Award and another Miles Franklin Award. White was approached by Harry M. Miller to work on a screenplay for Voss, but nothing came of it. He became an active opponent of literary censorship and joined a number of other public figures in signing a statement of defiance against Australia’s decision to participate in the Vietnam War. Sidney Nolan, The Trial, 1947: enamel on composition board; 90. ... Harry Maurice Miller (born 6 January 1934) is an Australian promoter and publicist. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000...

In 1973, he was rewarded with his Nobel Prize for Literature, "for an epic and psychological narrative art, which has introduced a new continent into literature". White had his friend, painter Sidney Nolan, travel to Stockholm to accept the prize on his behalf. The announcement of the award had immediate effects on his career: his publisher doubled the print run for The Eye of the Storm and gave him a larger advance for his next novel. He used the money from the prize to establish a trust for the Patrick White Award. This annual award is for writers who have been highly creative over a long period, but have not received adequate recognition. White was also made Australian of the Year. In typical fashion, his acceptance speech told Australians to spend the day reflecting on the state of the country. The Nobel Prize in literature is awarded annually to an author from any country who has produced the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency. The work in this case generally refers to an authors work as a whole, not to any individual work, though individual works are sometimes... The Patrick White Award is an annual literary prize established by Patrick White who used his Nobel Prize in Literature award to establish a trust for this prize. ... The Australian of the Year Awards commenced in 1960. ...

White's house 20 Martin st

Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 793 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1091 × 825 pixel, file size: 498 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Patrick Whites house, 20 Martin St Centenial Park. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 793 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1091 × 825 pixel, file size: 498 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Patrick Whites house, 20 Martin St Centenial Park. ...

The twilight years

He supported Gough Whitlam's Labor government of 1972 to 1975, and after Whitlam was ousted in the 1975 constitutional crisis, became particularly anti-royalist. He made a rare appearance on national television to make his views known. Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC (born 11 July 1916), known as Gough Whitlam (, pronounced Goff), is an Australian former politician and 21st Prime Minister of Australia. ...

During the 1970s, White’s health began to deteriorate—his teeth were crumbling, his eyesight was failing and he had chronic lung problems. In 1979, his novel The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but White requested that it be removed, to give younger writers a chance. Soon after, White announced that he had written his last novel, and in the future, he would only write for radio or the stage. This article needs to be wikified. ... The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, also known as the Man Booker Prize, or simply the Man Booker, is one of the worlds most important literary prizes, and awarded each year for the best original novel written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland in...

In 1981, White published his autobiography, Flaws in the Glass: A Self-Portrait, which explored several issues he had said little about publicly beforehand, such as his homosexuality and his refusal to accept the Nobel Prize personally. On Palm Sunday, 1982, White addressed a crowd of 30,000 people, calling for a ban on uranium mining and for the destruction of nuclear weapons. Palm Sunday is a moveable feast in the Christian calendar which falls on the Sunday before Easter. ...

In 1986 he published one last novel, Memoirs of Many in One, though that was curiously attributed as being "by Alex Xenophon Demirjan Gray, edited by Patrick White". In the same year, his novel Voss was turned into an opera. White refused to see it when it was first performed at the Adelaide Festival, because Queen Elizabeth II had been invited, instead choosing to see it in Sydney. In 1987, White wrote Three Uneasy Pieces, with his musings on ageing and our efforts to achieve aesthetic perfection. When David Marr finished his biography of White in July 1990, White sat with him for nine days going over the details. Memoirs of Many in One is a 1986 novel by Patrick White, in which White is taken to be editing the papers of a fictional Alex Gray. ... Voss is an epic novel by Patrick White, first published in 1957. ... The Adelaide Festival of Arts is an arts festival held biennially in South Australian capital of Adelaide. ... Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor; born 21 April 1926) is Queen of sixteen sovereign states, holding each crown and title equally. ... David Marr (born in Sydney 1947) is an Australian journalist and author. ...

Works

Novels

• Happy Valley (1939)
• The Living and the Dead (1941)
• The Aunt's Story (1948)
• The Tree of Man (1955)
• Voss (1957)
• Riders in the Chariot (1961)
• The Solid Mandala (1966)
• The Vivisector (1970)
• The Eye of the Storm (1973)
• A Fringe of Leaves (1976)
• The Twyborn Affair (1979)
• Memoirs of Many in One (1986) - despite the title, a novel
• The Burnt Ones (1964) - a collection of short stories
• The Cockatoos (1974) - a collection of short stories
• Flaws in the Glass (1981) - a memoir

Plays The Living and the Dead is a novel by Nobel Prize laureate Patrick White, his second published book (1941). ... Voss is an epic novel by Patrick White, first published in 1957. ... Riders in the Chariot cover Riders in the Chariot, a novel by Australian Author Patrick White, Nobel Prize winner of 1973, was published in 1961 and won the Miles Franklin Award in that year. ... The Vivisector is a novel by Patrick White, first published in 1970. ... This article needs to be wikified. ... Memoirs of Many in One is a 1986 novel by Patrick White, in which White is taken to be editing the papers of a fictional Alex Gray. ... As a literary genre, a memoir (from the French: mémoire from the Latin memoria, meaning memory) forms a subclass of autobiography, although it is an older form of writing. ...

• Bread and Butter Women (1935) Unpublished.
• The School for Friends (1935) Unpublished.
• Return to Abyssinia (1947) Unpublished.
• The Ham Funeral (1947) prem. Union Theatre, Adelaide, 1961.
• The Season at Sarsaparilla (1962)
• Night on Bald Mountain (play) (1964)
• A Cheery Soul (1963)
• Big Toys (1977)
• Signal Driver: A Morality Play for the Times (1982)
• Netherwood (1983)
• Shepherd on the Rocks (1987)

References

This article or section cites its sources but does not provide page references. You can improve this article or section by introducing citations that are more precise.

• A Conversation with Patrick White, Australian Writers in Profile, Southerly, No.3 1973
• Barry Argyle, Patrick White, Writers and Critics Series, Oliver and Boyd, London, 1967
• Peter Beatson, The Eye in the Mandala, Patrick White: A Vision of Man and God, Barnes & Nobles, London, 1976
• John Docker, Patrick White and Romanticism: The Vivisector, Southerly, No.1, 1973
• Simon During, Patrick White, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, VIC, 1996.
• Helen Verity Hewitt, Patrick White and the Influence of the Visual Arts in his Work, Doctoral Thesis, Dept. of English, University of Melbourne, 1995.
• Holland, Patrick (2002-05-27). Patrick White (1912 - 1990). glbtq.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-21.
• Clayton Joyce (ed.)Patrick White: A Tribute, Angus & Robertson, Harper Collins, North Ryde, 1991.
• Brian Kiernan, Patrick White, Macmillan Commonwealth Writers Series, The Macmillan Press, London, 1980.
• Alan Lawson (ed.)Patrick White: Selected Writings, University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia, 1994
• David Marr, Patrick White - A Life, Random House Australia, Sydney, 1991.
• David Marr (ed.), Patrick White Letters, Random House Australia, Sydney, 1994.
• Laurence Steven, Dissociation and Wholeness in Patrick White's Fiction, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Ontario, 1989.
• Patrick White, Patrick White Speaks, Primavera Press, Sydney, Publisher Paul Brennan, 1989.
• William Yang, Patrick White: The Late Years, PanMacmillan Australia, 1995

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External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Patrick White

• Autobiography at the official Nobel Prize web site.
• Why bother with Patrick White? A very complete website for Patrick White
• [1] Weblog readers' group discussing Patrick White's novel The Vivisector
• [2] Press release about the recent acquisition of the papers of Patrick White by the National Library of Australia
• [3] Finding aid for the papers of Patrick White

• [4] A detailed analysis of Voss by Len Webster