Christina Stead

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Christina Stead (17 July 1902—31 March 1983) was an Australian novelist and short-story writer noted for her satirical wit and psychological penetration. She was a committed Marxist although never a member of the Communist Party. She lived many years in England and the United States but returned to Australia after she was denied the Britannica-Australia prize on the grounds that she had "ceased to be an Australian".

She wrote 15 novels and several volumes of short stories. She also worked as a Hollywood scriptwriter in the 1940s, contributing to Madame Curie and the John Ford/John Wayne war movie, They Were Expendable.

Her first novel, Seven Poor Men of Sydney (1934) dealt with the lives of radicals and dockworkers, but she was not a practitioner of social realism.

Her best-known novel, The Man Who Loved Children was based on her own childhood, the title is ironic, and was published in 1940. It was not until the poet Randall Jarrell wrote the introduction for a new American edition in 1965 that the novel began to receive a larger audience. Letty Fox: Her Luck, often regarded as an equally fine novel, was officially banned in Australia for several years because the book was considered amoral and salacious.

[edit] Works

Novels

  • Seven Poor Men of Sydney (1934)
  • The Beauties and Furies (1936)
  • House of all Nations (1938)
  • The Man Who Loved Children (1940)
  • For Love Alone (1945)
  • Modern Women in Love (1945) edited with William Blake
  • Letty Fox: Her Luck (1946)
  • A Little Tea. A Little Chat (1948)
  • The People with the Dogs (1952)
  • Dark Places of the Heart (1966)
  • Cotters’ England (1967)
  • Australian Writers and their work (1969)
  • The Little Hotel: A Novel (1973)
  • Miss Herbert: The Suburban Wife (1976)
  • I'm Dying Laughing: The Humourist (1986)
  • The Palace With Several Sides: A Sort of Love Story (1986)

Short stories

  • The Salzburg Tales (1934)
  • The Puzzleheaded Girl: Four Novellas (1965)
  • A Christina Stead Reader (1978) edited by Jean B. Read
  • Ocean of Story: The Uncollected Stories of Christina Stead, edited by R. G. Geering (1985)

Letters

  • Web of Friendship: Selected letters, 1928-1973, edited by R.G. Geering (1992)
  • Talking Into the Typewriter: Selected letters, 1973-1983, edited by R.G. Geering (1992)
  • Dearest Munx: The Letters of Christina Stead and William J. Blake, edited by Margaret Harris (2006) ISBN 0-522-85173-8

Translations

  • In balloon and Bathyscaphe by Auguste Piccard (1955)
  • Colour of Asia by Fernando Gigon (1956)

Secondary sources

[edit] External links

[edit] References

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Persondata
NAME Stead, Christina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Twentieth century expatriate Australian novelist
DATE OF BIRTH 17 July 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
DATE OF DEATH 31 March 1983
PLACE OF DEATH Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
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