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Patrick White

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was an Australian novelist and playwright who explored themes of religious experience, personal identity and the conflict between visionary individuals and a materialistic, conformist society. Influenced byF the modernism of James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf, he developed a complex literary style and a body of work which challenged the dominant realist prose tradition of his home country, was satirical of Australian society, and sharply divided local critics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1973.


Added content. Replaced pooly sourced content with reliably sourced content. Replaced some tangential detail with more detail about relationship with mother. See Talk.


Hello all

I have expanded the content, replacing some poorly sourced and tangential information with more reliably sourced detail about White's troubled relationship with his mother and about his early unpublished novels. I have consistently used short footnote citations.

Happy to discuss.

Childhood and adolescence

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White was born in Knightsbridge, London, on 28 May 1912. His Australian parents, Victor Martindale White, a wealthy sheep grazier, and Ruth (née Withycombe) were in England on an extended honeymoon.[1][2] The family returned to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. As a child he lived in a flat with his sister, a nanny, and a maid while his parents lived in an adjoining flat. In 1916 they moved to a large house, "Lulworth", in Elizabeth Bay. At the age of four White developed asthma, a condition that had taken the life of his maternal grandfather, and his health was fragile throughout his childhood.[3]

At the age of five he attended kindergarten at Sandtoft in Woollahra, close to their home. His mother often took him to plays and pantomimes and White developed a life long love of the theatre. Nevertheless, White felt closer to his nurse, Lizzie Clark, who taught him to tell the truth and "not blow his own trumpet".[4]

In 1920, he attended Cranbrook School but his asthma worsened. Two years later he was sent to Tudor House School, a boarding school in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, where it was thought the climate would help his lungs. White enjoyed the freedom provided by the school where discipline was lax. He read widely from the school library, wrote a play and excelled at English. In 1924 the boarding school ran into financial trouble, and the headmaster suggested that White be sent to a public school in England.[5]

In April 1925, his parents took White to England to enrol in Cheltenham College in Gloucestershire. In his first years at Cheltenham, he was withdrawn and had few friends. He found his housemaster to be sadistic and puritanical, and White's certitude of his own homosexuality increased his sense of isolation. He later wrote of Cheltenham, "When the gates of my expensive prison closed I lost confidence in my mother, and [I] never forgave."[6]

One of White's few pleasures was the time spent at the home of his cousin, the painter Jack Withycombe. Jack's daughter Elizabeth Withycombe became a mentor to him while he was completing his first, privately-published, volume of verse, Thirteen Poems, written between 1927 and 1929.[7][8] White also became friends with Ronald Waterall who was two years his senior at Cheltenham and shared his passion for the theatre. He and White would spend their holidays in London seeing as many shows as they could.[9]

White asked his parents if he could leave school to become an actor. His parents compromised and allowed him to leave school without taking his final examinations if he came home to Australia to try life on the land. But their son had already changed his mind on his future profession and was determined to become a writer.[10]

In December 1929, White left Cheltenham and sailed to Sydney. He spent two years working as a jackaroo on sheep stations at Bolaro in the Monaro district of New South Wales and at Barwon Vale in northern New South Wales. The landscapes impressed White and he wrote two unpublished novels during this time: "The Immigrants" and "Sullen Moon".[11]

White's uncle, who owned Barwon Vale, convinced White's parents that their son was not suited to the life of a grazier. White's mother was happy for him to become a writer but she wanted him to have a career as a diplomat as well. On this basis his parents agreed to send him to Cambridge. While studying for the entrance examinations, White completed a third unpublished novel, "Finding Heaven".[12]




April 1925. Parents take Paddy to England to Cheltenham school near Bath. 67

White never forgave his mother for sending him to Cheltenham. 69

At Cheltenham White was withdrawn and had few friends. 70-71

Housemaster Arthur Bishop was a sadistic puritan who made White miserable. 70-72

At 14 he knew he was homosexual and was filled with self loathing,amd was a misanthrope.74-75



White struggled to adjust to his new surroundings at Cheltenham College, England, describing it later as "a four-year prison sentence". He withdrew socially and had a limited circle of acquaintances. Occasionally, he would holiday with his parents at European locations, but their relationship remained distant. But he did spend time with his cousin Jack Withycombe during this period, and Jack's daughter Elizabeth Withycombe became a mentor to him while he was writing his first book of poems, Thirteen Poems between the years 1927–29.[7]

While at school in London White made one close friend, Ronald Waterall, an older boy who shared similar interests. White's biographer, David Marr, wrote that "the two men would walk, arm-in-arm, to London shows; and stand around stage doors crumbing for a glimpse of their favourite stars, giving a practical demonstration of a chorus girl's high kick ... with appropriate vocal accompaniment". When Waterall left school White again withdrew. He asked his parents if he could leave school to become an actor. The parents compromised and allowed him to finish school early if he came home to Australia to try life on the land. They felt he should work on the land rather than become a writer, and hoped his work as a jackaroo would temper his artistic ambitions.[10]

White spent two years working as a stockman at Bolaro, a 73-square-kilometre (28 sq mi) station near Adaminaby on the edge of the Snowy Mountains in southeastern Australia. Although he grew to respect the land, and his health improved, it was clear that he was not suited to it.[10]: 93–99 

Hewitt, Helen Verity (2002). Patrick White: Painter Manque. Carlton, Victoria: Miegunyah Press. ISBN 0-522-85032-4.

Marr, David, ed. (1994). Patrick White: Letters. Milsons Point, NSW: Random House Australia. ISBN 0091829925.


White, Patrick (1981). Flaws in the Glass: A Self-Portrait. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 022402924X.

White, Patrick (1992). Brennan, Paul; Flynn, Christine (eds.). Patrick White Speaks. London: Penguin. ISBN 0140159339.

Marr, David (2 April 2008). "Patrick White: The final chapter". The Monthly.

Sources

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Barnes, John (2014). "Australia's Prodigal Son". In vanden Driesen, Cynthia; Ashcroft, Bill (eds.). Patrick White Centenary : The Legacy of a Prodigal Son. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 9781443860406.

Brisbane, Katherine (2009). "Theatre from 1950". In Pierce, Peter (ed.). The Cambridge History of Australian Literature. Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521881654.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

Kiernan, Brian (1980). Patrick White. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312598076.

Lever, Susan (2009). "The challenge of the novel: Australian fiction since 1950". In Pierce, Peter (ed.). The Cambridge History of Australian Literature. Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521881654.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

Marr, David (1991). Patrick White: A Life. Sydney: Random House Australia. ISBN 0091825857.

Thomas, Martin (2024). "Patrick White and the path to Sarsaparilla: How a great novelist became a great unread". Australian Journal of Biography and History. 8 (8): 155–170. doi:10.22459/AJBH.08.2024.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)

Webby, Elizabeth (2012). "White, Patrick Victor (Paddy) (1912–1990)". Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 30 July 2024.

Wilde, William H.; Hooton, Joy; Andrews, Barry (1994). "Patrick White". The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195533811.

Williams, Mark (1993). Patrick White. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312089902.

  1. ^ Marr (1991), p. 4.
  2. ^ Webby (2012).
  3. ^ Marr (1991), pp. 27, 30–32.
  4. ^ Marr (1991), pp. 33–39, 66–67.
  5. ^ Marr (1991), pp. 45–46, 57–66.
  6. ^ Marr (1991), pp. 67–75, 598.
  7. ^ a b "Thirteen poems / by P.V.M. White". National Library of Australia. OCLC 221969779. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  8. ^ Marr (1991), pp. 82–85.
  9. ^ Marr (1991), pp. 79–80.
  10. ^ a b c Marr, David (1991). Patrick White: A Life. Sydney: Random House Australia. ISBN 0091825857.
  11. ^ Marr (1991), pp. 88–106.
  12. ^ Marr (1991), pp. 109–12.
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