This first-ever collection of Australian poet Judith Wright's nonfiction is a compelling portrait of a prescient voice on modern Australia.
'Judith Wright (1915-2000) is one of the best-known Australian poets of her generation. Born into a pioneering bush family, her commitments to environmental protection, history writing and obtaining recognition for First Nations people drew her in new directions and assumed a major role in her life. She was the first president of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland, a founder of the Australian Conservation Foundation and a member of the Aboriginal Treaty Commission.
'This selection of her nonfiction, the first of its kind, brings together essays, speeches, family history, correspondence, memoir and criticism to reveal the personal and philosophical threads that bind together her work and life. It makes plain the shifts and transformations in her thinking, and the female friendships - in particular, with writer and activist Oodgeroo Noonuccal - that opened her to new perspectives and connections.
'This addition to the Australian Thinkers series shows what happens when a poet talks about a nation. It reveals a way of thinking about Australia - its land, history and culture - that draws on the best of human possibility.' (Publication summary)
(Introduction)
'Judith Wright is a giant of Australian letters. Though most famous as a poet, she was also a very fine writer in prose, and it is this dimension of her writing that is brought to life in a new selection of her non-fiction.'
'This is an essential gathering and representative selection from the vast body of Judith Wright’s nonfiction. It is well organised into thematic sections, with each essay, article and extract from longer work introduced precisely and briefly. Georgina Arnott is proving to be one of Australia’s most astute and sensitive non-Indigenous critics of colonial historicising. She is a Wright expert and a judicious and attuned editor of this collection. The introduction is keen, empathetic and contextualising.' (Introduction)
'This is an essential gathering and representative selection from the vast body of Judith Wright’s nonfiction. It is well organised into thematic sections, with each essay, article and extract from longer work introduced precisely and briefly. Georgina Arnott is proving to be one of Australia’s most astute and sensitive non-Indigenous critics of colonial historicising. She is a Wright expert and a judicious and attuned editor of this collection. The introduction is keen, empathetic and contextualising.' (Introduction)
'Judith Wright is a giant of Australian letters. Though most famous as a poet, she was also a very fine writer in prose, and it is this dimension of her writing that is brought to life in a new selection of her non-fiction.'
(Introduction)
