Patrick White

Australian post-modern novelist, short story writer and playwright who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973. As of 2000, he is the only Australian to have received this honor. Born in England in 1912, educated at Cambridge and serving in the RAF during World War 2, some Australians consider Mr. White 'unAustralian,' but are simply unable to appreciate how accuately he depicts the collective Australian psyche. His works are saturated with emotion, sometimes being nearly unreadable for their startling accuracy and poignancy. He has been criticized (by no one less than his long-time gardener, whom the protagonist of A Cheery Soul is based on) for ‘inaccuarate characterizations of women,’ owing to his being a homosexual. I don’t agree with this viewpoint, especially after having read The Eye of the Storm which focuses, in part, on the reminiscences and last weeks of an elderly woman. Mr. White was often quoted as saying that it is the 'eccentric individuals who offer the only hope of salvation.'