Essays by Patrick White
Essays by
Patrick White
Russell Drysdale, The Cricketers (1948)
Novels | Plays | Short Stories | Memoir | Screenplay | Essays | Music | Poems | Letters | Speeches | Interviews | Other works| Unpublished works
Patrick White was a prolific writer outside of his well-known novels. These are the four essays he published during his lifetime. (See also Miscellaneous pieces and speeches.)
The Prodigal Son (1958)
PW makes his first notable appearance on the public stage, in Australian Letters, a new magazine edited by Geoffrey Dutton and Max Harris. This was in response to an essay by Alister Kershaw, The Last Expatriate, in which Kershaw spoke about why chose to leave Australia and live in Paris.
PW reflects on the fact that he had spent 15 years in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. He then made a return to the country of his birth, in spite of the “Great Australian Emptiness”. He talks about the “exaltation of the average”, which led him in response to write The Tree of Man and then Voss. He writes too about the tendency toward, even worship of, realism in Australian fiction. He attempted to find a new way to explore Australia, using the symbolism and romantic methods that had taken root in Europe and the USA. Different commentators have found different interpretations in this piece. To some, such as Mark Williams, there is a “distaste for the common experience of Australia”. To others, PW is proud of a role he might play in “opening a window” for Australian readers.
Published in Australian Letters 1.3
Published in Patrick White Speaks.
Autobiographical Essay (1973)
A biographical reflection, written for his Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm, 10/12/1973. PW did not attend as he was in Australia. Sidney Nolan accepted on his behalf, reading this.
Published in Selected Writings.
Patriotism, aka It Seems As Though Life Itself Now Depends on Sport (1984)
26/1/1984 (Australia Day). A rare occasion on which PW was commissioned to write a piece for a newspaper, rather than submitting an unsolicited letter. This was published in the Sydney Morning Herald, and ignited the usual controversy. The elderly PW ruminated on his life and relationship with Australia, from life during wartime and Menzies’ monarchism through to the current corruption of the wealthy, the cries of nationalists, and all the things that “ordinary Australians” didn’t want to hear. Ultimately, PW calls on Australians to search their hearts.
The letter was ridiculed by many and endorsed by others. Responses to the editor the following week ranged from “Bravo, Patrick White” and praise for uttering “truths which officialdom and rampant commercialism want to forget” through to “spiteful”, “intellectual bigot”, and “waste of space”.
Published in Patrick White Speaks and Selected Writings.
The Bicentenary (1988)
This was originally written to be delivered as an interview with George Negus on Good Morning Australia during Australia’s bicentennial celebration. The footage was largely unused so PW offered the full text to Canberra-based magazine Blast which published it in its 5th issue (Autumn 1988).
Published in Patrick White Speaks.
Confused? Keen to use some of my content? Check out my Terms and Conditions.