The expatriate West Australian author, Randolph Stow, has died at his home in England at the age of 74.
Stow was born in Geraldton, Western Australia, in 1935. He followed his education at the University of WA with lecturing in English Literature at the Universities of Adelaide, WA and Leeds. He worked on an aboriginal mission as an anthropoligist and as a patrol officer in the Trobriand Islands. He had lived in England since 1966.
In 1958 he won the second Miles Franklin Award for his novel To the Islands, and in 1979 he was presented with the Patrick While Literary Award.
Many tributes to the author are already starting to appear with a number of people commenting on Stephen Romei's piece on The Australian newspaper's literary blog, "A Pair of Ragged Claws".
Stow was born in Geraldton, Western Australia, in 1935. He followed his education at the University of WA with lecturing in English Literature at the Universities of Adelaide, WA and Leeds. He worked on an aboriginal mission as an anthropoligist and as a patrol officer in the Trobriand Islands. He had lived in England since 1966.
In 1958 he won the second Miles Franklin Award for his novel To the Islands, and in 1979 he was presented with the Patrick While Literary Award.
Many tributes to the author are already starting to appear with a number of people commenting on Stephen Romei's piece on The Australian newspaper's literary blog, "A Pair of Ragged Claws".
The commentary at Ragged Claws is fantastic - from poets and travellers to friends from England who remember Stow as a local.
Also I was fortunate enough to get a highly informative comment from Roger Averill this morning on my post on same.
Still very sad though. I would rather he was still here, and people were making the deserved fuss. At least most of the books have been reissued recently, which is good.
Such sad news... I read The Merry-go-round in the Sea last year. I loved it so much I read it twice.
Yesterday I dug out my copy of To the Islands and devoured it in one sitting. I can't believe he wrote such a brilliant book when he was just 22. Staggering, really.