Patrick White (1912–1990) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973 and remains one of Australia’s most celebrated writers. This book represents new work by an outstanding list of White scholars from around the globe. White’s centenary revived mainstream interest in White in Australia and included a major exhibition on his life at the National Library of Australia. So too did the discovery of a highly significant hoard of hitherto unknown papers which were released by White’s literary executor Barbara Mobbs in 2006. The book aims to carry this momentum outwards to the rest of the world.

The contributors’ research is lodged in forwards-oriented methodologies and expressed in accessible language. On the whole, the collection is notable for its acknowledgement of White’s homosexuality in relation to the development of his literary style, in its consideration of the way his writing ‘works’ on/with readers, and for its contextualizing of his life and oeuvre in relation to London and to London life.

The title of the book reflects the effect on White scholarship of the newly discovered papers, the focus of numerous chapters on the farcical and ‘knockabout’ qualities of White’s work, and the contributors’ intention to inspire further work on White from a rising generation of scholars of twentieth-century literature beyond Australia.

Ian Henderson is the Head of the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King’s College London and lectures in the Department of English Language and Literature. Anouk Lang is a lecturer in Digital Humanities in the Department of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh.

Introduction (Ian Henderson); Part I. Resurrected Papers; 1. The Evidence of the Archive (Margaret Harris and Elizabeth Webby); 2. Leichhardt and ‘Voss’ Revisited (Angus Nicholls); Part II. Many in One; 3. White’s London (David Marr); 4. Elective Affinities: Manning Clark, Patrick White and Sidney Nolan (Mark McKenna); 5. ‘Dismantled and Reconstructed’: ‘Flaws in the Glass’ Re-Visioned (Georgina Loveridge); 6. Patrick White’s Late Style (Andrew McCann); Part III. The Performance of Reading; 7. Patrick White’s Expressionism (Ivor Indyk); 8. The Doubling of Reality in Patrick White’s ‘The Aunt’s Story’ and Paul Schreber’s ‘Memoirs of My Nervous Illness’ (Aruna Wittman); 9. Desperate, Marvellous Shuttling: White’s Ambivalent Modernism (Gail Jones); 10. ‘Time And Its Fellow Conspirator Space’: White’s ‘A Fringe of Leaves’ (Brigid Rooney); Part IV. Queer White; 11. Knockabout World: Patrick White, Kenneth Williams and the Queer Word (Ian Henderson); 12. Queering Sarsaparilla: Patrick White’s Deviant Modernism (Anouk Lang); Contributors; Index

‘Patrick White haunts us because he dared to speak the deliciously unsayable whether on sexuality, politics, the battle between personality and truth, or the impact of the Australian voice. This collection of essays documents and challenges the depth and internationalism of new critical reception. It is inspired, dealing with a quest for truth in White’s writings and the tensions between the belief and disbelief in a postcolonial global world of the sacred and the profane.’ —Ann McCulloch, Deakin University

‘A lively reminder that great writing continues to speak beyond its author’s death, this fine collection of essays by Patrick White scholars from around the world brings fresh perspectives from the archives and biography, and from modernist, postcolonial and queer studies, to the rich range of White’s work.’ —Susan Sheridan, Flinders University

‘With standout essays by Gail Jones, Ivor Indyk and Ian Henderson, this book leaves the critical battles of yesteryear behind to advance Patrick White studies in new and timely directions.’ —Jennifer Rutherford, University of Adelaide

‘Patrick White haunts us because he dared to speak the deliciously unsayable whether on sexuality, politics, the battle between personality and truth, or the impact of the Australian voice. This collection of essays documents and challenges the depth and internationalism of new critical reception. It is inspired, dealing with a quest for truth in White’s writings and the tensions between the belief and disbelief in a postcolonial global world of the sacred and the profane.’ —Ann McCulloch, Deakin University

‘A lively reminder that great writing continues to speak beyond its author’s death, this fine collection of essays by Patrick White scholars from around the world brings fresh perspectives from the archives and biography, and from modernist, postcolonial and queer studies, to the rich range of White’s work.’ —Susan Sheridan, Flinders University

‘With standout essays by Gail Jones, Ivor Indyk and Ian Henderson, this book leaves the critical battles of yesteryear behind to advance Patrick White studies in new and timely directions.’ —Jennifer Rutherford, University of Adelaide