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'Inga Clendinnen was one of Australia’s greatest writers and thinkers. This selection covers the full scope of her writing, from Tiger’s Eye to Aztecs, from Boyer Lectures to essays on all manner of topics. The rich array is introduced by acclaimed historian James Boyce, who traces Clendinnen’s life and evolving thought.
'Boyce writes that Clendinnen’s ‘ability to write serious history for a general readership was unrivalled in this country … Her writings are an enduring testament to the truth that while we might “live within the narrow moving band of time we call the present … the secret engine of our present is our past, with its plastic memories, its malleable moralities, its wreathing dreams of desirable futures”.’ ' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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A Pen on Fire : The Enduring Appeal of Inga Clendinnen
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June no. 432 2021; (p. 15-16)
— Review of Inga Clendinnen : Selected Writings 2021 anthology criticism 'It is wonderful to immerse oneself for days in the precise, elegant, passionate words of historian Inga Clendinnen (1934–2016), as this welcome collection of her writings enables one to do. Clendinnen’s distinctive voice comes through: warm, confidential, witty, and driven by a fierce intelligence. All her major writings are here – essays, articles, lectures, memoirs, and extracts from her books – deftly selected by James Boyce, a historian thirty years younger than Clendinnen and himself a highly original thinker and writer. As Boyce observes in his perceptive introduction, ‘Clendinnen’s subject was nothing less than human consciousness.’' (Introduction) -
James Boyce (ed.), Inga Clendinnen: Selected Writings
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 8-14 May 2021;
— Review of Inga Clendinnen : Selected Writings 2021 anthology criticism'As this posthumous collection shows, Inga Clendinnen’s faith in the public defined her work. “I … think my readers are as enthralled by the tough issues as I am,” she writes. “ ‘Popular history’ need not mean – must not mean – dumbed-down history.”' (Introduction)
-
James Boyce (ed.), Inga Clendinnen: Selected Writings
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 8-14 May 2021;
— Review of Inga Clendinnen : Selected Writings 2021 anthology criticism'As this posthumous collection shows, Inga Clendinnen’s faith in the public defined her work. “I … think my readers are as enthralled by the tough issues as I am,” she writes. “ ‘Popular history’ need not mean – must not mean – dumbed-down history.”' (Introduction)
-
A Pen on Fire : The Enduring Appeal of Inga Clendinnen
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June no. 432 2021; (p. 15-16)
— Review of Inga Clendinnen : Selected Writings 2021 anthology criticism 'It is wonderful to immerse oneself for days in the precise, elegant, passionate words of historian Inga Clendinnen (1934–2016), as this welcome collection of her writings enables one to do. Clendinnen’s distinctive voice comes through: warm, confidential, witty, and driven by a fierce intelligence. All her major writings are here – essays, articles, lectures, memoirs, and extracts from her books – deftly selected by James Boyce, a historian thirty years younger than Clendinnen and himself a highly original thinker and writer. As Boyce observes in his perceptive introduction, ‘Clendinnen’s subject was nothing less than human consciousness.’' (Introduction)
