Paul Wenz Paul Wenz i(A16502 works by)
Also writes as: Paul Warrego
Born: Established: 18 Aug 1869 Reims,
c
France,
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Western Europe, Europe,
; Died: Ceased: 23 Aug 1939 Forbes, Forbes area, Parkes - Forbes area, Central West NSW, New South Wales,
Gender: Male
Arrived in Australia: 1892
Heritage: French
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BiographyHistory

Son of a wool-merchant, Paul Wenz was educated in Paris at the Ecole Alsacienne where he began an enduring friendship with Andre Gide. With a number of spinning mills to supply, Wenz's father had wool-buying agencies in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. Paul Wenz visited Australia in 1892 while on a long tour of the family wool interests and spent two years working as a jackeroo in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. After working in New Zealand and South America, he returned to France in 1897, but was back in Australia as a settler by 1898. He purchased a property on the Lachlan River between Forbes and Cowra, New South Wales, pursuing a successful career as a grazier while overseeing his family's wool-buying agencies.


In 1900, the French magazine L'Illustration began publishing Wenz's short stories set in Australia and the Pacific Islands. Many of these stories were collected in volumes published in France, beginning with L'Autre Bout du Monde (1905). His only book in English was Diary of a New Chum (1908), a collection of sketches in novella form published in Melbourne. After serving as a liaison officer for British and Australian troops in France during World War I, he published several novels, beginning with L'homme du soleil couchant (1923) which had been serialised in the Revue de Paris in 1915. His final book, L'Echarde (1931) was a fanciful memoir of his childhood. Wenz became increasingly active in Australia's literary scene, but he was unable to find support to publish translations of his works in Australia. He died of pneumonia in 1939 and was buried in the Forbes cemetery.

Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • Author writes in these languages: ENGLISH, FRENCH
  • In addition to the indexed works, Wenz wrote another Australian bush novel, 'Walkaringa', which has not been published. (Source: Diary of a New Chum and Other Lost Stories, 1990)
  • See also the full Australian Dictionary of Biography Online entry for Wenz, Paul.

Known archival holdings

Albinski 230
State Library of NSW (NSW)
A. Gide Papers, Bibliotheque Jacques Doucet, Paris
Last amended 9 Jun 2014 13:05:41
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