Review

The biographer Hazel Rowley was fiercely determined and courageous

By Christine Kearney
September 4 2021 - 12:00am
  • Life as Art: The biographical writing of Hazel Rowley. Edited by Della Rowley and Lynn Buchanan. Melbourne University Press, $34.99.

When Hazel Rowley died unexpectedly in 2011, Australia lost an outstanding biographer. Rowley produced acclaimed biographies of Christina Stead (1993), Richard Wright (2001), Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sarte (2005) and Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt (2010). The breadth of Rowley's writing was tremendous, and an unexpected pleasure in this book is that it gives the reader a distinctive potted history of the 20th century, and of the forces and ideas which shaped it, from existentialism to McCarthyism.

Subscribe now for unlimited access.

$0/

(min cost $0)

or signup to continue reading

See subscription options

Get the latest Launceston news in your inbox

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date.

We care about the protection of your data. Read our Privacy Policy.