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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Manning Clark was a complex, demanding and brilliant man. Mark McKenna's
compelling biography of this giant of Australia's cultural landscape is
informed by his reading of Clark's extensive private letters, journals
and diaries - many that have never been read before.
'An Eye for Eternity paints a sweeping portrait of the man who gave Australians the signature account of their own history. It tells of his friendships with Patrick White and Sidney Nolan. It details an urgent and dynamic marriage, ripped apart at times by Clark's constant need for extramarital romantic love. A son who wrote letters to his dead parents. A historian who placed narrative ahead of facts. A believer who flirted with Catholicism. A controversial public figure who marked slights and criticisms with deeply held grudges.
To understand Clark's life is to understand twentieth century Australia. And it raises fundamental questions about the craft of biography. When are letters too personal, comments too hurtful and insights too private to publish? Clark incessantly documented his life - leaving notes to the biographers he knew would pursue his story. He had a deep need to be remembered and this book means he will now be understood in an unforgettable way.' (Publisher's blurb)
'An Eye for Eternity paints a sweeping portrait of the man who gave Australians the signature account of their own history. It tells of his friendships with Patrick White and Sidney Nolan. It details an urgent and dynamic marriage, ripped apart at times by Clark's constant need for extramarital romantic love. A son who wrote letters to his dead parents. A historian who placed narrative ahead of facts. A believer who flirted with Catholicism. A controversial public figure who marked slights and criticisms with deeply held grudges.
To understand Clark's life is to understand twentieth century Australia. And it raises fundamental questions about the craft of biography. When are letters too personal, comments too hurtful and insights too private to publish? Clark incessantly documented his life - leaving notes to the biographers he knew would pursue his story. He had a deep need to be remembered and this book means he will now be understood in an unforgettable way.' (Publisher's blurb)
Notes
-
Dedication: For Fiona, Siobhan and Claire McKenna
-
Epigraph:
Come now, let us consider the generations of Man,
Compound of dust and clay, strengthless,
Tentative, passing away as leaves in autumn
Pass, shadows, wingless, forlorn,
Phantoms deathbound, a dream.
-Aristophanes, The Birds
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also large print.
Works about this Work
-
Archival Poetics : Writing History from the Fragments
2015
single work
criticism
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue Website Series , April no. 28 2015; 'This paper examines ‘archival poetics’ in contemporary history and fiction writing, with a focus on Mark McKenna’s An eye for eternity: The life of Manning Clark, Megan Marshall’s Margaret Fuller: A new American life and Kim Scott’s Benang, from the heart. It investigates the ways in which the authors of these works move away from the forensic imaginary embodied in a certain kind of historiography’s approach to the archive, to create a more personal, powerful and situated kind of history writing. It argues that these works suggest that history is less about the sublime chaos of the past – which cannot be narrated without duplicity, damage or violence – than how we engage the past, which is, on reflection, an entirely different thing.' (Publication summary) -
Country and Lives : Australian Biography and Its History
2015
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Cercles , no. 35 2015; 'There have been attempts to relate national characteristics “by reference to climate, habitat and soil and investing the collective subject with psychological attributes” for over two millennia. More recently historians of modern nationalism developed elaborate typologies often citing Martin Heidegger’s arguments that “the being of the human finds its essence in the being of place — the belonging together of being and topos” [MALPAS 2012 : 5-6]. And yet the challenge to the ontological connection between self and place, what Jeff Malpas describes as the “topological analysis of self and identity”, has a long philosophical tradition, too. This debate over experience, biography and nation has implications for historians who have raised empirical questions about the development of collective sensibilities over time among recent emigrant peoples, their physical peculiarities, behaviourial quirks and emergent national character. In this paper I consider the role that biography writing played in the construction of an Australian national identity geared to what Pierre Nora famously termed as the “roman national”, or the collective discourse on the history of the nation and its place in the world. I argue that Australian historians played a significant role in the history of biograpy writing and, related to it, the debate over collective Australian identity.' (Introduction) -
An Eye for Eternity : The Life of Manning Clark by Mark McKenna
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: Reviews in Australian Studies , vol. 7 no. 4 2013;
— Review of An Eye for Eternity : The Life of Manning Clark 2011 single work biography -
Review : An Eye for Eternity : The Life of Manning Clark
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Archives and Manuscripts , vol. 40 no. 2 2012; (p. 113-114)
— Review of An Eye for Eternity : The Life of Manning Clark 2011 single work biography -
Eighty Thousand Dollar Literary Prizes Definitely Something to Write Home About
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 24 July 2012; (p. 5)
-
The Long History of Manning Clark
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 30 April - 1 May 2011; (p. 18-19)
— Review of An Eye for Eternity : The Life of Manning Clark 2011 single work biography -
Variations on this Subject
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 14 May 2011; (p. 21)
— Review of An Eye for Eternity : The Life of Manning Clark 2011 single work biography -
Diarist of a Somebody
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 2011 single work biography -
Historian Who Played his Parts
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 11-12 June 2011; (p. 34-35)
— Review of An Eye for Eternity : The Life of Manning Clark 2011 single work biography -
A Life of Historical Drama
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 26 June 2011; (p. 6)
— Review of An Eye for Eternity : The Life of Manning Clark 2011 single work biography -
Manning Clark
2011
single work
correspondence
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 7- 8 May 2011; (p. 15) -
Boy, Can He Tell a Story
2011
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 7 September 2011; (p. 22) -
Rich Pickings for a Happy Historian
2011
single work
column
— Appears in: The Australian , 7 September 2011; (p. 10) -
On Reading Mark McKenna's Biography of Manning Clark
2011
2011
single work
essay
— Appears in: Inside Story , August 2011; 'Manning Clark went on a grand quest, writes Nicholas Gruen. But perhaps it was the journey rather than the arrival that mattered' (Editor's abstract) -
Before Manning Clark
2012
single work
correspondence
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , February no. 338 2012; (p. 2)
Awards
- 2012 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's History Prize — Australian History Prize
- 2012 winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction
- 2012 winner Prime Minister's Literary Awards — Non-Fiction
- 2012 shortlisted National Biography Award
- 2012 winner Festival Awards for Literature (SA) — Award for Non-Fiction
Last amended 16 Jun 2020 14:37:44