'Stepladder to Hindsight is about a fascinating man who has reached a turning point in his life and looks back. In this work, renowned academic and life-writer Richard Freadman turns the pen on himself, producing an immensely compelling narrative of his life. Elegant and richly self-aware, Stepladder to Hindsight gives us unbridled access to a complex life and a unique mind. Within these pages you will find humour and tragedy, peppered with astute literary commentary and philosophical musings. This 'almost memoir' is fiercely intelligent and so addictively personal that it is hard to put down. What the critics said: "...an eloquent book, a unique combination of compelling storytelling, searching reflection, with an extraordinary range of mood and style - an original take on the art of life writing." - Arnold Zable ' (Publication summary)
'Life writing scholars know Richard Freadman, a long-time professor of literature at Latrobe University in Melbourne, as one of the academics who have made Australia ‘the promised land of autobiography studies’ and as an author who has not hesitated to practice what he preaches about the importance of first-person writing. His monograph, Threads of Life: Autobiography and the Will examined how autobiographers have dealt with the philosophical problem of the freedom of the will and the ability of individuals to shape their own lives. Freadman personalised this issue in Shadow of Doubt: My Father and Myself , a memoir of his father, which centres on the question of how what Freadman sees as his father’s failure of will affected not only his parent’s life but his own. The seriousness of Freadman’s personal wrestling with the ethical issues posed by life writing, and especially writing about his own family members, was eloquently expressed in an essay, ‘Decent and Indecent: Writing My Father’s Life’, in Paul John Eakin’s edited volume The Ethics of Life Writing.' (Introduction)
'Life writing scholars know Richard Freadman, a long-time professor of literature at Latrobe University in Melbourne, as one of the academics who have made Australia ‘the promised land of autobiography studies’ and as an author who has not hesitated to practice what he preaches about the importance of first-person writing. His monograph, Threads of Life: Autobiography and the Will examined how autobiographers have dealt with the philosophical problem of the freedom of the will and the ability of individuals to shape their own lives. Freadman personalised this issue in Shadow of Doubt: My Father and Myself , a memoir of his father, which centres on the question of how what Freadman sees as his father’s failure of will affected not only his parent’s life but his own. The seriousness of Freadman’s personal wrestling with the ethical issues posed by life writing, and especially writing about his own family members, was eloquently expressed in an essay, ‘Decent and Indecent: Writing My Father’s Life’, in Paul John Eakin’s edited volume The Ethics of Life Writing.' (Introduction)
