51 Facts About Patrick White

Patrick Victor Martindale White was a British-born Australian writer who published 12 novels, three short-story collections, and eight plays, from 1935 to 1987.

Patrick White was the inaugural recipient of the Miles Franklin Award.

Patrick White was born in Knightsbridge, London, to Victor Martindale Patrick White and Ruth, both Australians, in their apartment overlooking Hyde Park, London on 28 May 1912.

Patrick White's family returned to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old.

At the age of four Patrick White developed asthma, a condition that had taken the life of his maternal grandfather.

Patrick White's health was fragile throughout his childhood, which precluded his participation in many childhood activities.

Patrick White loved the theatre, which he first visited at an early age.

At the age of ten Patrick White was sent to Tudor House School, a boarding school in Moss Vale in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, in an attempt to abate his asthma.

In 1924 the boarding school ran into financial trouble, and the headmaster suggested that Patrick White be sent to a public school in England, a suggestion that his parents accepted.

Patrick White struggled to adjust to his new surroundings at Cheltenham College, England, describing it later as "a four-year prison sentence".

Patrick White withdrew socially and had a limited circle of acquaintances.

Patrick White asked his parents if he could leave school to become an actor.

Patrick White spent two years working as a stockman at Bolaro, a 73-square-kilometre station near Adaminaby on the edge of the Snowy Mountains in southeastern Australia.

From 1932 to 1935 Patrick White lived in England, studying French and German literature at King's College, Cambridge University.

In 1934 Patrick White published a collection of poetry titled The Ploughman and Other Poems.

Patrick White wrote a play named Bread and Butter Women, which was later performed by an amateur group at the tiny Bryant's Playhouse in Sydney.

In 1937 Patrick White's father died, leaving him ten thousand pounds in inheritance.

Patrick White began writing another novel, Nightside, but abandoned it before its completion after receiving negative comments, a decision that he later admitted regretting.

In 1936, Patrick White met the painter Roy De Maistre, 18 years his senior, who became an important influence in his life and work.

Patrick White dedicated his first novel Happy Valley to De Maistre, and acknowledged De Maistre's influence on his writing.

Patrick White bought many of De Maistre's paintings, all of which in 1974 he gave to the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Patrick White was accepted as an intelligence officer, and was posted to the Middle East.

Patrick White served in Egypt, Palestine, and Greece before the war was over.

Patrick White named the house "Dogwoods", after trees he planted there.

Patrick White had doubts about whether to continue writing after his books were largely dismissed in Australia, but decided to persevere, and a breakthrough in Australia came when his next novel, Voss, won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award.

In 1961, Patrick White published Riders in the Chariot, a bestseller and a prizewinner, garnering a second Miles Franklin Award.

In 1968, Patrick White wrote The Vivisector, a searing character portrait of an artist.

Patrick White was an art collector who had, as a young man, been deeply impressed by his friends Roy De Maistre and Francis Bacon, and later said he wished he had been an artist.

Patrick White became an active opponent of literary censorship and joined a number of other public figures in signing a statement of defiance against Australia's decision to participate in the Vietnam War.

Nevertheless, in 1973, Patrick White did accept the Nobel Prize "for an epic and psychological narrative art, which has introduced a new continent into literature".

Patrick White's cause was said to have been championed by a Scandinavian diplomat resident in Australia.

Patrick White enlisted Nolan to travel to Stockholm to accept the prize on his behalf.

White used the money from the prize to establish a trust to fund the Patrick White Award, given annually to established creative writers who have received little public recognition.

Patrick White was invited by the House of Representatives to be seated on the floor of the House in recognition of his achievement.

Patrick White declined, explaining that his nature could not easily adapt itself to such a situation.

Patrick White was made Australian of the Year for 1974, but in a typically rebellious fashion, his acceptance speech encouraged Australians to spend the day reflecting on the state of the country.

Patrick White supported the conservative, business oriented Liberal Party of Australia until the election of Gough Whitlam's Labor government and, following the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, he became particularly antiroyalist, making a rare appearance on national television to broadcast his views on the matter.

Patrick White publicly expressed his admiration for the historian Manning Clark, satirist Barry Humphries, and unionist Jack Mundey.

Patrick White was among the first group of the Companions of the Order of Australia in 1975 but resigned in June 1976 in protest at the dismissal of the Whitlam government in November 1975 by the Governor-General Sir John Kerr.

In 1979, his novel The Twyborn Affair was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, but Patrick White requested that it to be removed to give younger writers a chance to win.

Director Jim Sharman introduced himself to Patrick White while walking down a Sydney street, some time after Patrick White had seen a politically loaded stage revue by Sharman, Terror Australis, which had been panned by Sydney newspaper critics.

Patrick White had written a letter to the editor of a newspaper defending the show.

Sharman in his theatrical circle, as well as his visual style as a director, inspired Patrick White to write a couple of new plays, notably Big Toys with its satirical portrayal of a posh and vulgar upper-class Sydney society.

In 1981, Patrick White published his autobiography, Flaws in the Glass: a self-portrait, which explored issues about which he had publicly said little, such as his homosexuality, his dislike of the "subservient" attitude of Australian society towards Britain and the Royal family, and the distance he had felt from his mother.

On Palm Sunday, 1982, Patrick White addressed a crowd of 30,000 people, calling for a ban on uranium mining and for the destruction of nuclear weapons.

In 1986 Patrick White released one last novel, Memoirs of Many in One, but it was published under the pen name "Alex Xenophon Demirjian Gray" with Patrick White named as editor.

Patrick White refused to see it when it was first performed at the Adelaide Festival of Arts, because Queen Elizabeth II had been invited, and chose instead to see it later in Sydney.

In 1987, Patrick White wrote Three Uneasy Pieces, which incorporated his musings on ageing and society's efforts to achieve aesthetic perfection.

In 2010 Patrick White received posthumous recognition for his novel The Vivisector, which was shortlisted for the Lost Man Booker Prize for 1970.

In 1970, Patrick White was offered a knighthood but declined it.

Patrick White resigned in protest at the November 1975 dismissal of the Whitlam government by Sir John Kerr.