AustLit logo

AustLit

Adrian Mitchell Adrian Mitchell i(A12886 works by) (a.k.a. A. C. W. Mitchell)
Born: Established: 1941 Adelaide, South Australia, ;
Gender: Male
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 Accessible and Still in Good Stead Adrian Mitchell , single work review
— Review of I'm Dying Laughing : The Humourist Christina Stead , 1986 single work novel
1 1 y separately published work icon Where Shadows Have Fallen : The Descent of Henry Kendall Adrian Mitchell , Mile End : Wakefield Press , 2020 19946923 2020 single work biography

'Henry Kendall was once regarded as Australia's finest poet, compared favourably with Wordsworth. His poetry was romantic, sentimental in its celebration of the Australian bush he loved. But he was more Henry Lawson than John Keats: a self-pitying wife deserter, cadger and drunkard. And it ran in the family.

'From 1859, Kendall published prolifically in newspapers and periodicals. But he struggled to support a wife and children through poems and articles, his first poetry book was a financial failure (though critically acclaimed) and his brother and sister contributed to his financial troubles.

'Often in debt and on the precipice of bankruptcy, Kendall suffered from poverty, ill health and drunkenness. In 1870, he was charged with forging a cheque, and found not guilty on grounds of insanity; two years later, he spent time in an insane asylum. But from 1876, he began to rebuild his life and career, and in 1880 his collection Songs from the Mountain was an outstanding success.

'In this intriguing work of literary investigation, celebrated author and historian Adrian Mitchell delves deep into Kendall's storied life and uncovers a dark past that casts new shadows on his legacy. He discovers that this habitually self-effacing poet had good reason to keep himself and his family out of the limelight. This is the true story of Henry Kendall, his parents and his grandparents - and he had every reason to dread it being made public.' (Publication summary)

1 1 y separately published work icon The Beachcomber's Wife Adrian Mitchell , Adelaide : Wakefield Press , 2016 10475131 2016 single work novel

'It should have been a paradise, but paradise is what you lose, it is what you might have had.

'An elderly woman who has lived for many years on a tropical island off the Queensland coast with her beachcomber husband waits for help from the mainland. For three harrowing days, alone. He has died, his body lies in their cabin just up from the beach, and while she awaits help she reviews her reclusive life there, of nearly 25 years with him. She is a woman with a glint in her mind's eye.

'The Beachcomber's Wife draws upon the published writings of E.J. Banfield, who lived an isolated life with his wife Bertha on Dunk Island through the first decades of the twentieth century. He made very little reference to her in his work (Confessions of a Beachcomber and others). This account imagines what it might have been like from her point of view. It follows Banfield's practice, of fact cemented with fiction.'

1 4 y separately published work icon The Profilist Adrian Mitchell , Mile End : Wakefield Press , 2015 8289597 2015 single work novel historical fiction

'There were likely to be deserts enough for Goliath to feel quite at home, he said. But that gave rise to a puzzle as to why we would want to go exploring there. Never mind. My task was to record what we saw.

'By his training as a profilist - a silhouette painter - Ethan Dibble has learned to take a sidelong view of life. When he arrives in early colonial South Australia he has no idea of what to expect; but with his knack for observation and detachment, and a wry sense of humour, he finds that the variety of activity and events provides colour in plenty. There is no black and white here. First Adelaide, then the Victorian goldfields, then Sydney and Melbourne attract his wandering attentiveness.

'In The Profilist, Adrian Mitchell paints a compelling picture of the early years of the Australian colonies, in the imagined voice of the artist Samuel Thomas Gill - or someone very like him.'

1 1 y separately published work icon Plein Airs and Graces : The Life and Times of George Collingridge Adrian Mitchell , Kent Town : Wakefield Press , 2012 Z1895418 2012 single work biography

'Plein Airs and Graces examines the extraordinary life of George Collingridge de Tourcey, a landscape painter of the late nineteenth century, just ahead of the Australian impressionists. When he emigrated from France to Australia he grew passionate about the possibilities of his new country, and worked tirelessly to contribute to it - not least for his Discovery of Australia (1895), in which on the evidence of ancient maps he argued controversially for Portuguese and Hispanic pre-discovery of Australia. [Source: Trove]

1 You are out of Time Adrian Mitchell , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Change - Conflict and Convergence : Austral-Asian Scenarios 2010; (p. 166-175)
1 2 y separately published work icon Dampier's Monkey : The South Seas Voyages of William Dampier, Including William Dampier's Unpublished Journal Adrian Mitchell , William Dampier , Kent Town : Wakefield Press , 2010 Z1755471 2010 selected work biography diary

'William Dampier, the 'devil's mariner' as he has been called, a far voyager and traveller extraordinaire, lived in an era when, more truly than in other periods of history, the past was being put behind the present, and everything was new - a new world discovered by the first stirrings of the new science, under a new political and economic formation.

Dampier's Monkey examines the late-17th century ways of comprehending an expanding world by re-evaluating the travel narratives of the buccaneer William Dampier. Included in this book is Dampier's journal of his voyage in the South Seas from 1681 to 1691, complete with his annotations and illustrations, published here for the first time. ' (Wakefield Press website)

1 Comfort Discs Adrian Mitchell , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , July-August no. 323 2010; (p. 39)

— Review of The Bush Poems of A. B. (Banjo) Paterson A. B. Paterson , 2008 selected work poetry ; The Campfire Yarns of Henry Lawson Henry Lawson , 2009 selected work short story ; The Sentimental Bloke, The Poems of C. J. Dennis C. J. Dennis , 2010 selected work poetry ; The Battlefield Poems of A.B. (Banjo) Paterson A. B. Paterson , 2010 selected work poetry
1 No Smoking Gun Adrian Mitchell , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 321 2010; (p. 31)

— Review of Sunflower : A Tale of Love, War and Intrigue Colin McLaren , 2010 single work novel
1 The Downside of Fussiness Adrian Mitchell , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , July-August no. 313 2009; (p. 16)

— Review of Tag : A Man, A Woman, and the War to End All Wars Barry Heard , 2009 single work novel
1 The Man Who Kept His Hat On : The Novels of 'Banjo' Paterson Adrian Mitchell , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 310 2009; (p. 54-56)
1 'Plug It With a Cork' Adrian Mitchell , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 306 2008; (p. 13)

— Review of The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet Colleen McCullough , 2008 single work novel
1 Pain of Home-Longing Adrian Mitchell , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , September no. 304 2008; (p. 19)

— Review of Sea of Many Returns Arnold Zable , 2008 single work novel
1 Personal Histories Adrian Mitchell , 2008 single work column
— Appears in: Newswrite : The NSW Writers' Centre Magazine , March no. 177 2008; (p. 7, 23)
1 Two Cultures Revisited Adrian Mitchell , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 300 2008; (p. 29)

— Review of The Comfort of Figs Simon Cleary , 2008 single work novel
1 The Transgressor Adrian Mitchell , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , February no. 298 2008; (p. 47)

— Review of Tense Little Lives : Uncollected Prose of Ray Mathew Ray Mathew , 2007 selected work short story extract
1 Koch's Strategy of Archetypes Adrian Mitchell , 2007-2008 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December-January no. 297 2007-2008; (p. 26-27)

— Review of The Memory Room Christopher Koch , 2007 single work novel
1 12 y separately published work icon Drawing the Crow Adrian Mitchell , Kent Town : Wakefield Press , 2006 Z1252996 2006 selected work autobiography prose 'These essays represent a South Australian point of view, or something like a set of South Australian eyes, to put down on paper how it was for us, growing up through the fifties, in a perfectly ordinary home, in a perfectly ordinary suburb, and rediscovering the richness of it. - from the introduction by Adrian Mitchell.' (Publication summary)
 
1 Venus in the Spa i "Warm garden airs drift through the summer night.", Adrian Mitchell , 2004 single work poetry
— Appears in: Literature and Aesthetics , December vol. 14 no. 2 2004; (p. 26)
1 Sandcastles i "Sky and ocean curve in one large sphere:", Adrian Mitchell , 2004 single work poetry
— Appears in: Literature and Aesthetics , December vol. 14 no. 2 2004; (p. 25)
X