Charmian Clift was the second wife and literary collaborator of George Johnston.
11 Facts About Charmian Clift
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Charmian Clift's child grew up to become Suzanne Chick, who at the age of 48 discovered who her birth mother was, and wrote a book about the experience.
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Charmian Clift met the songwriter Leonard Cohen while there in 1960.
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Charmian Clift moved back to Sydney with their children in 1964, after which her memoirs Mermaid Singing and Peel Me a Lotus and her novel Honour's Mimic became successes.
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Charmian Clift was well known for the 240 essays she wrote between 1964 and 1969 for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Herald in Melbourne.
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On 8 July 1969, the eve of the publication of Johnston's novel Clean Straw for Nothing, Charmian Clift committed suicide by taking an overdose of barbiturates in Mosman, a Sydney suburb, while considerably affected by alcohol.
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Academics Paul Genoni and Tanya Dalziell suggest in their 2018 book Half the Perfect World that it was the impending publication of Johnston's novel, which Charmian Clift knew would lay bare her infidelities while on the island of Hydra, which prompted her to suicide.
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Charmian Clift's ashes were later scattered in the rose garden of the Northern Suburbs Crematorium in Sydney.
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Charmian Clift met married war correspondent George Johnston in 1945 while both were enlisted in the war effort.
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Charmian Clift is depicted in the drama television series So Long, Marianne, in which she is portrayed by Anna Torv.
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In November 2023 it was announced that Charmian Clift was one of eight women chosen to be commemorated in the second round of blue plaques sponsored by the Government of New South Wales alongside, among others, Kathleen Butler, godmother of Sydney Harbour Bridge; Emma Jane Callaghan, an Aboriginal midwife and activist; Susan Katherina Schardt; journalist Dorothy Drain; Pearl Mary Gibbs, an Aboriginal rights movement activist; and charity worker Grace Emily Munro.