School of Culture and Communication - Theses
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ItemA critical biography of George Johnston( 1987)A Critical Biography of George Johnston discusses the relation between the life and the work of Australian novelist George Henry Johnston, 1912 - 1970. The early chapters of the thesis are concerned to give an outline of Johnston's family background in the Melbourne suburb of Elsternwick, his schooling, his work as a lithographer and as a reporter, and his first marriage, all of which are compared with Johnston's autobiographical fiction covering the same period in his life. Following this, the narrative traces Johnston's years as a war correspondent overseas, and his development as a writer of documentary books on war subjects. Some space is given to his later reflections on the role of war correspondent. After the war, Johnston married Charmian Clift, with whom he had three children, and with whom his career as a writer of fiction got underway when they began writing novels in collaboration. Clift was to have a profound influence on Johnston's life and writing. In 1951 Johnston and his family went to London, where he was a newspaper executive. The chapters dealing with this period show the increasing strain on Johnston of attempting to write novels while working, and the damage it began to do to his health. In 1954 he gave up journalism, and with his family went to live as a full-time author on the Greek island of Hydra. From about this time Johnston and Clift wrote separately, and Johnston's attempts to become a highly paid international novelist met with only sporadic success. The financial strain, and the temptations of living in a community of foreign artists, affected Johnston's marriage and eventually his health, and in 1959 TB was diagnosed. From this time Johnston became introspective, deeply unhappy, and much more serious about his writing. His writing had so far been of mediocre quality at best, and this thesis gives only descriptive space to it. But from 1959 on his new seriousness began to make itself felt, and his writing grew in stature as it increased in autobiographical focus. The development of this is discussed in detail. With his health bad and his life in disarray, Johnston grew nostalgic about his past in Australia, and out of this came his most acclaimed novel, My Brother Jack, written in 1963. There is a substantial chapter dealing with the complex forces that produced this work. Its success in Australia brought Johnston home in 1964, and when Clift and the children joined him later, there was renewed optimism that they could get their lives back in balance. This was the case for a year or so, but again Johnston's poor health, worsened by smoking, intervened. His last years were spent turning the fictionalized autobiography begun in My Brother Jack into a trilogy. The tortuous nature of this material, and his worsening illness, requiring lung surgery, slowed his progress, but its importance to him, which is discussed at length in the closing chapters, sustained him. He was devastated by Clift's suicide in 1969, and lasted only another year himself, just failing to complete the final volume of his trilogy.