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y separately published work icon The Puzzles of Childhood single work   autobiography  
Issue Details: First known date: 1989... 1989 The Puzzles of Childhood
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Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Ringwood, Ringwood - Croydon - Kilsyth area, Melbourne - East, Melbourne, Victoria,: Viking , 1989 .
      Description: illus.,port.
      Note/s:
      • Cover subtitle: His early life

Works about this Work

‘National Awakening’, Autobiography, and the Invention of Manning Clark Mark McKenna , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Life Writing , vol. 13 no. 2 2016; (p. 207-220) Life Writing after Empire 2017; Clio’s Lives : Biographies and Autobiographies of Historians 2017; (p. 81-102)
'In the late twentieth century, Australian historian Manning Clark (1915–1991) was the nation’s leading historian and public intellectual. Clark published a six-volume history of Australia (1962–1987) and was one of a vanguard of intellectuals striving to articulate a new Australian nationalism in the wake of the British Empire’s decline. His best-known volumes of autobiography were published in quick succession. Puzzles of Childhood (1989), which tells the story of his parents’ lives and the ‘nightmares and terrors’ of his childhood, and Quest for Grace (1990), which begins from his days as a student at Melbourne and Oxford universities in the 1930s and ends just as the first volume of A History of Australia is published in 1962. In addition to these two volumes, Clark’s autobiographical writings extended to reflections on historical writing, essays, speeches and interviews. This paper argues that all of Clark’s writing (including his histories) can be seen as inherently autobiographical. As Clark remarked, ‘everything one writes is a fragment in a gigantic confession of life’. Clark’s autobiographical writings point not only to the notorious unreliability of autobiography but also to much larger questions, such as the relationship between autobiographical truth and his invention as a national figure, and the author’s right to own their life story. Finally, perhaps more than any other Australian intellectual of his generation, Clark’s autobiographies narrate his life story as an allegory of national awakening. ...'
After Manning Clark : Biographer's Postscript Mark McKenna , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , Winter vol. 72 no. 2 2013; (p. 84-94)
Autobiography : The Limitations of the Quest Joan Newman , 1991 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Narrative Technique , Winter vol. 21 no. 1 1991; (p. 83-97)
Puzzling Out Childhood in the Quest for Grace Manning Clark , 1991 single work criticism
— Appears in: World Literature Written in English , Spring vol. 31 no. 1 1991; (p. 50-59)
Untitled Wayne Perkins , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: Fremantle Arts Review , March vol. 5 no. 3 1990; (p. 22-23)

— Review of The Puzzles of Childhood Manning Clark , 1989 single work autobiography
Untitled Wayne Perkins , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: Fremantle Arts Review , March vol. 5 no. 3 1990; (p. 22-23)

— Review of The Puzzles of Childhood Manning Clark , 1989 single work autobiography
Paperbacks Penelope Nelson , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 4-5 August 1990; (p. rev 7)

— Review of Murder by the Book Jennifer Rowe , 1989 single work novel ; The Puzzles of Childhood Manning Clark , 1989 single work autobiography
Timely Evocation Jill Kitson , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Bookseller & Publisher , August vol. 69 no. 996 1989; (p. 33-34)

— Review of The Puzzles of Childhood Manning Clark , 1989 single work autobiography
A Man of Constant Sorrows Peter Craven , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 115 1989; (p. 9)

— Review of The Puzzles of Childhood Manning Clark , 1989 single work autobiography
Fathers and Lives Chris Wallace-Crabbe , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Society , November 1989; (p. 51-52)

— Review of The Puzzles of Childhood Manning Clark , 1989 single work autobiography
Autobiography : The Limitations of the Quest Joan Newman , 1991 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Narrative Technique , Winter vol. 21 no. 1 1991; (p. 83-97)
Manning Clark Peter Game , 1989 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Herald , 1 September 1989; (p. 9-10)
A Son Remembers Peter Game , 1989 single work biography
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 9 September 1989; (p. 4)
Boy Manning : A Historian's Childhood Keith Dunstan , 1989 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Good Weekend , 23 September 1989; (p. 70-80)
A Calmer Clark Seeks Exit 'From Revolving Stage' Amanda Lynch (interviewer), 1989 single work interview
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 5 October 1989; (p. 3)
Last amended 13 Feb 2002 10:02:21
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