D'Arcy Niland

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D'Arcy Niland (1919 - 1967) was the Australian author of several novels and short stories.

Niland was born in Glen Innes, New South Walesinto a large Irish Catholic family.He was named by his father after the Australian boxer Les Darcy,but changed the spelling of his first name when an adult. He left school at 14 and for a time (at age 16) worked as a copy-boy for the Sydney Sun. The Depression ended this employment and for some years he travelled the country working in a wide variety of occupations. He married the ex-pat New Zealand author Ruth Park in 1942.After their marriage the Nilands travelled through the outback of Australia for a time before settling in Surry Hills in Sydney where they earned a living writing full-time.

Between 1949 and 1952 he won many prizes for short stories and novels, and in 1955 achieved international fame with his novel The Shiralee. This was followed by Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1957) and four more novels. He also wrote radio and television plays, and hundreds of short stories, some of which were published in four books between 1961 and 1966.

Niland's best known work is The Shiralee, which portrayed an Australian swagman named Macauley and his daughter. It was published in 1955. The Shiralee was made into a movie of the same name in 1957 (starring Peter Finch - see The Shiralee), and a mini-series titled Macauley's Daughter in 1988. Niland also collected a series of Australian folk songs under the title Travelling songs of old Australia (1966).

Ruth Park has made two further tributes to Niland: the edition of his short stories, the Penguin Best Stories of D'Arcy Niland (1987) and completion of his research into the life of Les Darcy, in the form of the biography, Home Before Dark (1995), written with Rafe Champion. It is based on Niland's immense collection of 'Darcyana' - books, photographs, clippings, letters, unpublished memoirs and taped interviews - and on subsequent research. In 1961 Niland and Park had spent time in the United States gathering information on Darcy's experiences there, talking with old boxers, trainers, promoters, companions, even the doctors who fought to save his life. Picking up where Niland left off, the biography is a carefully compiled chronicle of Darcy's short life as seen through the eyes of his contemporaries, which also throws light on the national life during the years of the Great War.