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y separately published work icon Killing the Black Dog single work   prose  
  • Author:agent Les Murray http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/murray-les
Issue Details: First known date: 1997... 1997 Killing the Black Dog
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

''On the last day of 1985, I went home to live in Bunyah, the farming valley I had left some twenty-nine years earlier. My wife and our younger children followed two days later … at last I was going home, to care for my father in his old age and to live in the place from which I'd always felt displaced. What I didn't know was that I was heading home in order to go mad.'

'Killing the Black Dog is Les Murray's frank and courageous account of his struggle with depression. Since this essay first appeared, hosts of readers have drawn insight from his account of the disease, its social effects and its origins in his family's history. Murray describes how patches of daylight now balance out those of darkness in his life.' (Publication summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Alternative title: Les Murray and the Black Dog
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Killing the Black Dog : Essay and Poems Les Murray , Leichhardt : Federation Press , 1997 Z483382 1997 selected work poetry prose

    'Killing the Black Dog is Les Murray's courageous account of his struggle with depression, accompanied by poems specially selected by the author. Since the first edition appeared in 1997, hosts of readers have drawn insight from his account of the disease, its social effects and its origins in his family's history.

    'As Murray writes in this revised and updated edition, the title was premature. He had mistaken a remission for a cure, and thought himself freed from the severe depressive illness which had twice invaded his life. Now, in a new afterword, he describes a relapse, but also shares some of the fruits of his further contemplation. He shows gratitude for help previously unacknowledged, and describes how patches of daylight now balance out those of darkness in his life. A further half dozen poems have been added, reflecting a more complex understanding of depression and its role in the lives of its sufferers.' (From Black Inc.'s website, abstract for the revised edition.)

    Leichhardt : Federation Press , 1997
    pg. 1-24
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Best Australian Essays 2012 Ramona Koval (editor), Collingwood : Black Inc. , 2012 Z1903122 2012 anthology essay prose criticism 'Collects the year's finest works of non-fiction. These essays roam widely, capturing the preoccupations and events of the previous year. Showcasing our finest writers on a range of topics both public and personal, The Best Australian Essays is an indispensable record of the year that was.' (Publisher's blurb)
    Collingwood : Black Inc. , 2012
    pg. 136-148
    Note: With title: Les Murray and the Black Dog
    • Collingwood, Fitzroy - Collingwood area, Melbourne - North, Melbourne, Victoria,: Black Inc. , 2015 .
      image of person or book cover 3382183667244694441.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 64p.
      Note/s:
      • Published: 23/09/2015
      ISBN: 9781863957724
      Series: y separately published work icon Short Blacks Collingwood : Black Inc. , 2015 8753321 2015 series - publisher Number in series: 10

Works about this Work

The Angry Genius of Les Murray J. M. Coetzee , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: New York Review of Books , 29 September vol. 58 no. 14 2011;

— Review of Taller When Prone Les Murray , 2010 selected work poetry ; Killing the Black Dog Les Murray , 1997 single work prose
The Angry Genius of Les Murray J. M. Coetzee , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: New York Review of Books , 29 September vol. 58 no. 14 2011;

— Review of Taller When Prone Les Murray , 2010 selected work poetry ; Killing the Black Dog Les Murray , 1997 single work prose
Last amended 24 Jul 2015 08:38:34
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