Damaged Men: The Precarious Lives of James McAuley and Harold Stewart [Hardcover]

Michael Ackland (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 186508445X | ISBN-13: 978-1865084459 | Publication Date: July 28, 2001

Best known as the founding editor of "Quadrant", an unrepentant Cold War warrior and an advocate of the sanctity of Christian marriage, poet and polemicist, James McAuley, is shown here to have had darker traits which escaped the limelight. The biography also explores his many links with Harold Stewart and what turned this writer, critic and habitue of Sydney's bohemian world, into a rabid hater of his native land. Why did he choose to spend the last 30 years of his life in self-imposed exile in Japan. The resulting narrative traces McAuley and Stewarts' collaborative decades - peaking with Australia's most notorious literary hoax - and their harsh falling-out in later years, set against the backdrop of Australian life between the Great Depression and the Vietnam War. The book probes the lives of the two talented and enigmatic figures, who made enduring and prescient contributions to Australia's political, spiritual and literary culture.

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About the Author

Michael Ackland teaches in the School of Literary, Visual and Performance Studies at Monash University. His twin interests are biography and the intersection of literature with the history of ideas. To write Damaged Men he gained access to previously untapped manuscripts and private papers belonging to both McAuley and Stewart.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Allen & Unwin (July 28, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 186508445X
• ISBN-13: 978-1865084459
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,523,872 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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