Australian writer and academic (1915?1991)
Dorothy Auchterlonie
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Born
| (
1915-05-28
)
28 May 1915
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Died
| 21 February 1991
(1991-02-21)
(aged 75)
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Other names
| Dorothy Green
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Occupation(s)
| Journalist, academic, poet, author
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Spouse
| Henry Mackenzie Green
(m. 1944)
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Dorothy Auchterlonie
AO
(also known as
Dorothy Green
; 28 May 1915 ? 21 February 1991) was an English-born Australian academic, literary critic and poet.
Life
[
edit
]
Auchterlonie was born in
Sunderland
, County Durham in England. In 1927 when she was 12 years old, her family moved to Australia.
[1]
Educated in both England and Australia, Auchterlonie went on to study at the
University of Sydney
, where she completed a first-class honours and then an M.A. in English. During her time there Auchterlonie became a member of an elite group that included the brilliant and flamboyant
[2]
poet
James McAuley
,
Joan Fraser (who wrote under the pseudonym Amy Witting)
,
Harold Stewart
, Oliver Somerville, Alan Crawford and Ronald Dunlop. James McAuley and Harold Stewart were later to become notorious for perpetrating the
Ern Malley
hoax. The group was described by
Peter Coleman
in his book on James McAuley, as the 'sourly brilliant literary circle',
[3]
[4]
an oblique reference to
Thomas de Quincey
.
[5]
In 1944, Auchterlonie married literary historian and critic,
H. M. Green
(1881?1962), who was then the Librarian at the
University of Sydney
.
[1]
She worked as an ABC broadcaster and journalist in Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra from 1942 to 1949, and, in 1955, became co-principal of a Queensland school. In 1961, she became the first female lecturer at
Monash University
, lecturing in literature. Her teaching career included positions at both the
Australian National University
and the
Australian Defence Force Academy
.
During her academic career (1961?1987) she threw herself into championing Australian literature and publishing literary criticism to re establish authors she felt were undervalued, notably
Martin Boyd
,
E. L. Grant Watson
,
[6]
Patrick White
, '
Henry Handel Richardson
',
Christopher Brennan
,
Christina Stead
and
Kylie Tennant
. In 1963, after publisher Angus & Robertson had approached her for an abridgement suitable for students, she began to revise her husband H. M. Green's massive
History of Australian Literature
, republished in two volumes in 1985. Her major study of Henry Handel Richardson,
Ulysses Bound
was published in 1973 and revised in 1986.
[7]
In 1970, she began researching a major biography of writer and biologist E. L. Grant Watson, which led to the publication of
Descent of Spirit
in 1990, but at her death in 1991 the project remained uncompleted.
Along with supporting environmental causes and volunteer work for the Australian Council of Churches, she was prominent in campaigning with an ADFA colleague, David Headon, in speeches and writing
against nuclear arms
. She visited Moscow in 1987 as one of nine Australian delegates invited to a peace forum by the USSR Government.
[8]
In 1991, a collection of Auchterlonie's writings and papers was purchased by the
National Library of Australia
.
[9]
Additional papers and documents are held in the Australian Defence Force Academy Library, Canberra.
Recognition
[
edit
]
Auchterlonie was awarded a
Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM)
in 1984
[10]
and was made an
Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)
in 1988 for her services to literature, teaching and writing.
[11]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
As Dorothy Green
- Fourteen Minutes
(1950; with H. M. Green)
- H. M. Green's History of Australian Literature Vols 1 & 2
(revised by D.G.) Angus & Robertson, Australia 1984
- The Music of Love: critical essays on literature and life
Penguin Books, Melbourne 1984
- Ulysses Bound: a study of Henry Handel Richardson and her fiction
Allen & Unwin, Sydney 1986
- Imagining the Real: Australian Writing in the Nuclear Age
(ed. with David Headon) ABC Enterprises, Sydney 1987
- Descent of Spirit: Writings of E.L. Grant Watson
(ed.) Primavera Press, Sydney 1990
- The Writer, the Reader and the Critic in a Monoculture
, Foundation for Australian Literary Studies 1986; Primavera Press, Sydney 1991
As Dorothy Auchterlonie:
- Kaleidoscope
Viking Press, Sydney 1940
- The Dolphin
ANU Press, Canberra 1967
- Something to Someone: Poems
Brindabella Press, Canberra 1983
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Green, Dorothy (birth name: Auchterlonie, Dorothy )"
. AustLit Agent
. Retrieved
3 August
2007
.
- ^
"McAuley, James"
. Austlit Agent
. Retrieved
3 August
2007
.
- ^
Coleman, Peter (1980).
The heart of James McAuley : life and work of the Australian poet
. Sydney: Wildcat Press. p. 132 p.
ISBN
0-908463-05-7
.
- ^
"An introduction to the life and work of Amy Witting: Australian realist fiction writer and poet"
. Flinder's University. Archived from
the original
on 16 August 2005
. Retrieved
3 August
2007
.
- ^
"Biographical Essays, by Thomas de Quincey"
. The Full Text Archive
. Retrieved
4 August
2007
.
- ^
Green, Dorothy 'The Daimon and the Fringe-Dweller: The Novels of Grant Watson’ Meanjin Quarterly Vol. 30 no. 3, Spring 1971
- ^
Oxford Companion to Australian Literature
Wilde, Hooton, Andrews, Oxford University Press, Melbourne 1994
- ^
McDonald, Willa
Warrior for Peace: Dorothy Auchterlonie Green
Australian Scholarly Publishing 2010
- ^
"MS 5678 Papers of Dorothy Green (1915?1991)"
.
- ^
"Dorothy Green"
.
Australian Honours Search Facility, Dept of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
. Retrieved
7 November
2020
.
- ^
"Dorothy Green, OAM"
.
honours.pmc.gov.au
. Retrieved
2 December
2019
.
Sources
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Books
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