Geoffrey Dutton (1922–1998)
Author of The Australian Collection: Australia's Greatest Books
About the Author
Works by Geoffrey Dutton
The innovators: The Sydney alternatives in the rise of modern art, literature, and ideas (1986) 11 copies
The Australian heroes : a rousing roll call of 47 of Australia's greatest heroes and heroines (1981) 7 copies
On my island : poems 3 copies
Night flight and sunrise 2 copies
Australian Poetry, 1962 2 copies
A Long Way South. An account of a journey by car from London to Australia. With plates (1953) 2 copies
Flowers & Fury: Poems 2 copies
The Australian bedside book : a selection of writings from The Australian literary supplement (1987) 2 copies
Australia and the Monarchy 1 copy
Paintngs of S. T. Gill 1 copy
Australia’s Heritage: The Making of a Nation (Vol 3 Part 40); Uprising at the Eureka Stockade 1 copy
Night fishing 1 copy
Tisi and the yabby 1 copy
Antipodes in shoes 1 copy
The Beach 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Dutton, Geoffrey Piers Henry
- Birthdate
- 1922-08-02
- Date of death
- 1998-09-17
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Australia
- Birthplace
- Anlaby, South Australia, Australia
- Place of death
- Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
- Places of residence
- Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
- Education
- University of Oxford (Magdalen College)
University of Adelaide - Occupations
- lecturer (English)
editor
historian - Relationships
- Dutton, Ninette (wife|divorced)
- Organizations
- Royal Australian Air Force (WWII)
Penguin Australia (founding editor)
Adelaide University (Senior Lecturer in English, 953-1962) - Awards and honors
- Order of Australia (Officer ∙ 1976)
Visiting Fellow, University of Leeds
Visiting Professor, Kansas State University
Members
Reviews
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 91
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 657
- Popularity
- #38,400
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 11
- ISBNs
- 86
- Languages
- 2
1970 was a terrific year in Oz Lit. I was too impecunious to buy books in 1970 but I made up for it afterwards. Among my favourites are
The Bay of Noon, by Shirley Hazzard
A Horse of Air, by Dal Stivens and winner of the Miles Franklin Award
The Vivisector by Nobel Prize winner Patrick White. A Review from the Archives is already in draft form for eventual publication.
And now, also Tamara. It is, admittedly, a rather obscure title by historian, poet, novelist, and author of non-fiction Geoffrey Dutton (1922-1998). In his day he was a prominent figure in the Australian literary scene but maybe not so well-known outside it, and maybe also now forgotten here. He doesn't get a mention in the 2009 edition of Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature, and though he rated considerable column inches in the 1985 edition of the Oxford Companion to Australian Literature, Tamara is mentioned only as a love story set in Russia. Which wouldn't have made me want to read it.
Yet this is a book that is maybe more fascinating now, than when it was first published, and since Dutton's fiction doesn't have much of a presence online, this is a longer review than usual...
Tucked into my copy of Dutton's third novel Tamara was a printout of a rather churlish contemporary newspaper review by an academic who shall remain nameless. The caustic framing of the title and the dismissive tone of the review may well have discouraged potential readers if they (a) understood what the critic was on about and (b) took any notice of it. It begins like this:
In 1970 without the benefit of Wikipedia, did anybody know who Djilas was? More importantly, did they know anything about the USSR apart from Cold War propaganda? Dutton did. The dust jacket on my edition tells me that he'd been there himself, in 1966, to attend a festival to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the birth of Shota Rustavelli, the Georgian epic poet, and he'd managed to wrangle some time away from official scrutiny in Georgia and around the Black Sea. His impressions from this trip inspired Tamara.
This is the blurb from the dustjacket:
It is obvious that the Soviets who co-opt Angus know as little about Australia as Australians did about the USSR. It is inconceivable to his Soviet hosts that Angus might not be as devoted to his country's poetry as they are to theirs. (When I was in Russia in 2012, even the shop girls wanted to show off their knowledge of great literature, not just Puskhin and Tolstoy but also the canon of Western greats such as Dickens and Austen.)
There are allusions all over the place in that paragraph, some of them having different meanings with the passage of time.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/10/13/tamara-1970-by-geoffrey-dutton/… (more)