Eve Langley Eve Langley i(A19391 works by) (a.k.a. Eve Maria Langley; Oscar Wilde)
Born: Established: 1 Sep 1908 Forbes, Forbes area, Parkes - Forbes area, Central West NSW, New South Wales, ; Died: Ceased: Jun 1974 Katoomba, Blue Mountains, Sydney, New South Wales,
Gender: Female
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

BiographyHistory

Eve Langley was born at Forbes, New South Wales, in 1908. She was educated in Forbes and later worked at several jobs in Melbourne before accompanying her sister, June, as an itinerant farm labourer during the 1920s. In 1932 she moved to New Zealand and began work on a novel based on her experiences during the 1920s. In 1937 she married artist Hilary Clark. Her novel, The Pea Pickers, shared the S. H. Prior Memorial Prize (run by the Bulletin) in 1940 with two other novels and was published in 1942. But in that year her marriage failed and she was committed to the Auckland Mental Hospital where she remained for seven years. Her children were subsequently placed in orphanages. On her release she worked on another novel, White Topee, which appeared in 1954. That year she also changed her name by deed poll to Oscar Wilde, a figure who played a significant role in her second novel. The manuscript of her third novel 'Wild Australia' was rejected by Angus and Robertson in 1953. Between 1956 and 1960 Langley travelled to Australia and Greece before settling permanently at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. She wrote prolifically during these years, but her work remained unpublished until 1999 when Lucy Frost published an edition of Langley's autobiographical writings entitled Wilde Eve. Eve Langley died alone in her cottage "Iona Lympus" in 1974.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon The Pea Pickers Sydney London : Angus and Robertson , 1942 Z454411 1942 single work novel (taught in 1 units)

'In The Pea Pickers, a novel based on Eve Langley's own experiences, Steve and Blue are two girls who, dressed as men, are taken on as itinerant workers for the farmers of Gippsland. They pack apples and pick peas. But their disguise is partial - and their quest is for love. For Blue the novel ends in marriage; but not for Steve. For her, desire is never straightforward, and love - for men, for women, for country - leaves her confused, but independent. ' (Publication summary)

1940 joint winner S.H. Prior Memorial Prize

Known archival holdings

Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (NSW)
Last amended 2 Oct 2008 09:36:25
Other mentions of "" in AustLit:
    X