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Jim Davidson Jim Davidson i(A4416 works by) (a.k.a. James Hector Davidson)
Born: Established: 1942 ;
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 An Interview with Elizabeth Harrower Jim Davidson (interviewer), 2020 single work interview
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2020;
1 National Accounts : Meanjin, By Its Editors Jonathan Green , Jim Davidson , Judith Brett , Jenny Lee , Christina Thompson , Stephanie Holt , Ian Britain , Sophie Cunningham , Sally Heath , Zora Sanders , 2020 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , Summer vol. 79 no. 4 2020;
1 Read, Learn, Buy! : Australia's Most Extraordinary Bookseller Jim Davidson , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 425 2020; (p. 42-43)

— Review of Under the Rainbow : The Life and Times of E.W. Cole Richard Broinowski , 2020 single work biography

'Melburnians above a certain age will remember Coles in Bourke Street. Unknown to most of them, it stood on the site of another Coles, Cole’s Book Arcade, for half a century probably the most famous shop in Australia. Its founder, Edward William Cole, is now the subject of an engaging biography by Richard Broinowski.' (Introduction)

1 Unlikely Scribes Quartet Jim Davidson , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 16 May 2020; (p. 17)

— Review of Friends and Rivals : Four Great Australian Writers Brenda Niall , 2020 single work biography

'Mateship is so central to the traditional view of Australia that John Howard wanted it written into the preamble of the Constitution. But Brenda Niall asserts in Friends & Rivals, a fine account of four female writers, that “mateship is the antithesis of individualism. When women question or confront their destiny, cracks appear.” Half a beat behind The Bulletin writers — rhapsodising about mateship in “the real Australia” — there were several women who ignored it, worked their way around it and, in one case, challenged it directly.' (Introduction)

1 Struggle, with Grace Notes Jim Davidson , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 416 2019; (p. 42-43)

— Review of Peggy Glanville-Hicks : Composer and Critic Suzanne Robinson , 2019 single work biography

'Australian classical music. Not quite an oxymoron, but certainly an unfamiliar phrase. Yet Australian literature has been promoted by a battery of university courses overseas, following the beachhead established by Patrick White’s Nobel Prize. Similarly, Australian art has twice had great moments of impact: the Whitechapel exhibition of 1961 for the Nolan–Boyd generation, and now the continuing worldwide interest in Aboriginal art. Our rock stars have repeatedly made worldwide reputations; in classical music, Australian singers have regularly risen to the top. But classical composition has been something else. Apart from the quirky Percy Grainger – deftly working in small forms, sometimes with large resources – no Australian composer has had a significant influence overseas (though Brett Dean is shaping up as a contender). Grainger had to abandon Australia to do so, eventually taking out American citizenship.' (Introduction)

1 'A Revolutionary Wife' : Colonial Belle Meets Principled Weathercock Jim Davidson , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 411 2019; (p. 40-41)

'The name of Julia Sorell – the granddaughter of an early governor – never quite died in Tasmania. A faint memory survived of a high-spirited young woman who was the belle of Hobart, a woman who broke hearts and engagements, including one with the current governor’s son. (It was also rumoured – with political intent – that she seduced his father, Sir John Eardley-Wilmot.) An element of scandal arose all the more readily because her own mother had deserted her father for a military man, and had run off with him when he returned to his regiment in India.'  (Introduction)

1 [Review] Barry Humphries : The Man Behind the Mask Jim Davidson , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August no. 403 2018; (p. 74)
1 3 y separately published work icon A Führer for a Father : The Domestic Face of Colonialism Jim Davidson , Kensington : NewSouth Publishing , 2017 11677889 2017 single work autobiography

‘I was written out of the family story. This book is my attempt to write myself, and my mother, back into it.’

'In this singular memoir, historian and biographer Jim Davidson writes about his fraught relationship with his authoritarian and controlling father, whose South African background and time in Papua New Guinea and Fiji prompted his own post-war mini-empire of dominance. A manipulative and emotionally ferocious man, he rejects his son and creates a second family, shutting Jim out and eventually disinheriting him, but never really leaving him alone.

'Traversing territory across Australia, South Africa, India, and London, this beautifully written book tells of a time of crushing conformity, sharply reminding us that some experiences can never be written out of our personal histories. ' (Publication Summary)

1 Developing the Real Story of Australia Jim Davidson , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 9 July 2016; (p. 20)

— Review of The Art of Time Travel : Historians and Their Craft Tom Griffiths , 2016 multi chapter work criticism biography
'A hundred years ago Germans described England as "the land without music", wrongly. But perhaps Australia could be termed the land without history. We have our commemorations, increasingly dominated by Anzac Day, and there is the ever-growing interest in family history. But - for ill as much as an unburdened good - historical consciousness does not inform our lives. ...'
1 Harmony, with Discord : The Christesens and the Palmers (From a Work in Progress) Jim Davidson , 2015 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 74 no. 2 2015; (p. 82-91)
'Australia's most famous literary couple in the 1940s were Vance and Nettie Palmer. Vance, a handsome man of little more than average height, usually sported a bow tie over regular blue shirts, which suited him; otherwise he dressed in neat, brown, casual clothes, which went well with his 'customary shade of mahogany'. And, answering a question that was on everyone's lips, he had served overseas - even if the Armistice had been declared in 1918 before he saw action. He had already been to Europe twice, the second time moving in the circle of A.R. Orage and the New Age. here he had rubbed shoulders with such people as Katherine Mansfield, Wyndham Lewis and Ezra Pound. More importantly, Vance had imbibed guild socialist ideas of community, craftsmanship and folk curlture, sustaining a lifelong detestation of cities, industrial society and mass culture.' (Author's introduction)
1 The Boer War : A Longer Shadow Jim Davidson , 2015 single work essay
— Appears in: Griffith Review , April no. 48 2015; (p. 25-29)
1 Review : The Censor's Library : Uncovering the Lost History of Australia's Banned Books. Jim Davidson , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , June vol. 38 no. 2 2014; (p. 247-249)

— Review of The Censor's Library Nicole Moore , 2012 single work criticism
1 Stephen’s Vector Jim Davidson , 2014 single work essay
— Appears in: Overland , Spring no. 216 2014; (p. 91-97)
'Jim Davidson on Stephen Murray-Smith's progress to Overland.
1 The Biography as Periscope : Exploring Australian Ambiences Jim Davidson , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 73 no. 1 2014; (p. 94-103)
1 Untitled Jim Davidson , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , 1 March vol. 37 no. 1 2013; (p. 133-134)

— Review of Republics of Letters : Literary Communities in Australia 2012 anthology criticism
1 Cultured Detachment Jim Davidson , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 16-17 March 2013; (p. 30-31) The Age , 16 March 2013; (p. 26) The Canberra Times , 16 March 2013; (p. 23)

— Review of From a Distant Shore : Australian Writers in Britain 1820–2012 Bruce Bennett , Anne Pender , 2012 single work criticism
1 Diarist of a Somebody Jim Davidson , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 28 May 2011; (p. 24)

— Review of An Eye for Eternity : The Life of Manning Clark Mark McKenna , 2011 single work biography
1 An Exploration of Light and Shade in Family and History Jim Davidson , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 19 March 2011; (p. 27)

— Review of Not Dark Yet : A Personal History David Robert Walker , 2011 single work autobiography
1 A Cork upon the Ocean : Meanjin and the Changing Context 1940-2010 Jim Davidson , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , [Autumn] vol. 70 no. 1 2011; (p. 126-140)
1 Untitled Jim Davidson , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Historical Studies , vol. 41 no. 3 2010; (p. 409-410)

— Review of Impact of the Modern : Vernacular Modernities in Australia 1870s-1960s 2008 anthology criticism
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