Description
Shortly before Walter Murdoch died in 1970, aged nearly 96, the critic Arthur Phillips had written that he had ‘probably given her more pleasure to more readers than any other Australian prose writer.’ As ‘Elzevir’ of the Melbourne Argus, Murdoch was already celebrated for his literary column ‘Books and Men’ when in 1913 he became professor of English at the University of Western Australia. He continued to entertain and instrut not only his university students but, through his writings, two generations of Australians. The publication of his selected articles as books, beginning with Speaking Personally (1930), made Murdoch the ‘essayist’ the friend of thousands beyond those already familiar with his work in newspapers. His insistence on the ‘sacred duty of growling’. He was a humourist but he was also a deeply serious teacher, who persistently expounded the value of a ‘love of reading and a capacity for clear expression’. And (as he confessed) he could not avoid the temptation to preach. All his life he preached against ‘the immemorial enemies- cruelty, injustice, humbug, and intolerance’. John LaNauze, the author of this account of a memorable Australian, was once one of Murdoch’s pupils.
Specifications:
Condition: Good. Moderate wear on sleeve, minimal wear on hardcover and pages.
Publisher: Melbourne University Press
Year: 1977
Format: Paperback
Pages: 189
ISBN: 0 522 84119 8
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