Xavier Herbert
Xavier Herbert (born May 15, 1901 in Geraldton , Western Australia , † November 10, 1984 in Alice Springs , Northern Territory ) was a writer who was well-known in Australia for his novella Poor Fellow My Country 1975 when he received the Miles Franklin Award has been. He is counted among the greats of Australian literature and is known there for his short stories and his autobiography Disturbing Element .
Life
Herbert was the son of a railroad engineer and learned an Aboriginal language as a child . In 1912 he moved from Geraldton to Fremantle and took his first job there at the age of 14 in a chemical business. Before devoting himself to writing, he worked in numerous positions in Western Australia and Victoria . After the First World War he went to Melbourne and studied medicine for a year. There his writing career began with his first book Capricornia . This book was based in part on his experience as the Protector of Aborigines in Darwin , Northern Territory . He wrote parts of this book in London between 1930 and 1932. In 1926 he went to Sydney .
He wrote relatively little in the 1940s and 1950s, except for Seven Emus . He published two books in the 1960s before writing Poor Fellow My Country and short stories in 1975 . However, his Poor Fellow My Country is considered the longest Australian novel with more than 1,400 printed pages.
Herbert stood up for the concerns of the Aborigines . This was particularly evident in his work Poor Fellow My Country , which also deals with life in the Aboriginal mission stations in Queensland and the Northern Territory .
He was considered a difficult person: his wife said that her life alternated between taking care of her husband and their children. Herbert's biographer was also disappointed with reports from him about his life.
plant
- Capricornia (1938)
- Seven Emus (1959)
- Soldiers' Women (1961)
- Disturbing Element (1963) - autobiography
- Larger than Life (1963) - collection of short stories
- Poor Fellow My Country (1975)
- South of Capricornia (1990) - publisher Russel McDougal - collection of short stories
- Frances de Groen, Peter Pierce (1992): Xavier Herbert , Geraldton
- Frances De Groen, Laurie Hergenhan (2002): Xavier Herbert Letters , University of Queensland Press, ISBN 0-702-23309-9 .
- Letters from Xavier Herbert (1983) - NLA MS 9116 from Peggy Hayes
biography
- Frances de Groen (1998): Xavier Herbert: A Biography
Literary criticism
- Sean Monahan (2003): A Long and Winding Road: Xavier Herbert's Literary Journey
- Shirley Walker: Romancer and Anatomist. Archived from the original on June 11, 2008 ; Retrieved January 12, 2013 ( A Long and Winding Road literary review : Xavier Herbert's Literary Journey ).
Web links
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Herbert, Xavier |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Australian writer and naturalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 15, 1901 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Geraldton , Western Australia |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 10, 1984 |
| Place of death | Alice Springs , Northern Territory |