'‘A life well and fully lived in a time when everything seemed possible, and the world seemed to be becoming more open, adventurous, generous and sensual, with the bonds of community and care supplanting the conformist and materialist individualism of the fifties. OK, it was a dream, but my God what a dream and Michael threw himself into the pursuit of that dream with demonic conviction and energy.’ –David Williamson
'‘A career that is remarkable for how prolific and innovative it has been in so many areas, whether Wilding was working as a short story writer, novelist, critic, editor, commentator, anthologist, or publisher. Few Australian writers have successfully ventured so much and for so long. Moreover, a surprising coherence exists among this variety. Wilding’s work is driven by his political radicalism, which seems as much to do with a probing, sometimes acrid, intelligence, as sentiment. While much of Wilding’s work has an autobiographical kernel, the scope is always broad, and the social and political dimensions of any story are essential elements. Wilding’s is the story of a maverick who worked within an establishment institution, yet was capable of opening his imagination both to the possibilities of academic life and to the more capacious narratives of Australian history, literary history, and contemporary life.’ –Peter Pierce, Dictionary of Literary Biography' (Publication summary)
'In 1963, Michael Wilding left Oxford for Sydney, moving from an imperial center of British education to a far-flung colonial outpost beyond the daily reach of The Times, bringing with him "a generalised left wing politics" and "a working class resentment of exclusion from privilege" (161). In addition, his intellectual baggage contained a firm decision to become a writer. It was Wilding who would "in the smithy of his soul" help forge the literary conscience of the nation whose renowned man of letters he was to become.
'Growing Wild is a memoir which reads like a Künstlerroman in postmodernist style, tracing the trajectory of intellectual awakening and artistic development of the protagonist as he negotiates relationships with his family and the politics and history of both his native and adoptive countries. Wilding's memoir picks up where Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man leaves off the protagonist-in self-exile after he has left a restrictive environment for a freedom to become an artist, a writer. It begins in epic fashion, in medias res or "Among Leavisites" rather, landing the protagonist in the midst of F. R. Leavis's acolytes at University of Sydney's English Department and then, in broken chronology, takes the reader back to the first words on the slate in the English Midlands.' (Publication abstract)
'In 1963, Michael Wilding left Oxford for Sydney, moving from an imperial center of British education to a far-flung colonial outpost beyond the daily reach of The Times, bringing with him "a generalised left wing politics" and "a working class resentment of exclusion from privilege" (161). In addition, his intellectual baggage contained a firm decision to become a writer. It was Wilding who would "in the smithy of his soul" help forge the literary conscience of the nation whose renowned man of letters he was to become.
'Growing Wild is a memoir which reads like a Künstlerroman in postmodernist style, tracing the trajectory of intellectual awakening and artistic development of the protagonist as he negotiates relationships with his family and the politics and history of both his native and adoptive countries. Wilding's memoir picks up where Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man leaves off the protagonist-in self-exile after he has left a restrictive environment for a freedom to become an artist, a writer. It begins in epic fashion, in medias res or "Among Leavisites" rather, landing the protagonist in the midst of F. R. Leavis's acolytes at University of Sydney's English Department and then, in broken chronology, takes the reader back to the first words on the slate in the English Midlands.' (Publication abstract)
