Biography/Reference
Book Details

Australian Dictionary of Biography

1940–1980 Kem–Pie

Volume 15

General Editor John Ritchie

Volume 15 of the Australian Dictionary of Biography is the third of four to deal with the 1940–1980 period, recording the lives of Australians whom many of us remember from the recent past.

Opinion

‘. . . stylistically and intellectually cohesive, quite remarkably comprehensive . . . A remarkable gift to the nation’ (Stephen Murray-Smith)

‘The Australian Dictionary of Biography has been an invaluable research tool for historians since the first volume appeared in 1966. Yet each volume has its own dynamic and this one is no exception.” (Lyndall Ryan, Australian Historical Studies, 116, April 2001)

About this Title

Volume 15 of the Australian Dictionary of Biography is the third of four to deal with the 1940–1980 period, recording the lives of Australians whom many of us remember from the recent past.

Maintaining the ADB’s tradition of scholarship, Volume 15 reflects what changed and what remained constant in Australian society during the years of World War II and its aftermath.

Sir Robert Menzies, Sir John McEwen, James McGirr and Sir Frank Nicklin, Archbishop Mowll, Sir Peter MacCallum, Ian and Josephine Mackerras, Sir Charles Lowe, Albert Monk, Crosbie Morrison, Sir Leslie Morshead, Dorian Le Gallienne, James McAuley, Jon Molvig, Eric Lambert, Sydney Sparkes Orr, Gavin Long and Margaret Kiddle, Hélène Kirsova, Loma Latour, Margaret Oppen, Mary Martin, Rosaleen Norton, Sir Frank Packer and Ezra Norton, Damien Parer, ‘Johnny’ Moyes, Russell Mockridge, ‘Ossie’ Pickworth and John Marshall, Sir Maurice Mawby, William McNair, ‘Darrell’ Lea, Maurice McCarten, Sir Kenneth Luke, Charles Kinsela, Emily and Harry Leggett, Will Mahoney and Johnny O’Keefe: from prime ministers, archbishops and newspaper proprietors to ballerinas, embroiderers and undertakers, there are 682 lives (written by 543 authors) in this volume.

Like the pieces of a mosaic, a host of lives gives a picture of our society and provides insights into the experiences of our people. While biography necessarily focuses on the individual, a range of biographies illuminates large themes in Australia’s recent history, themes such as immigration, accelerating industrialism, urbanization and suburbanization, war (World War II, Korea, Malaya and Vietnam), material progress, increasing cultural maturity, conservative and radical politics, conflict and harmony, and the loss of isolation and innocence. It also reveals something of the greatness and the littleness of which human beings are capable.

About the Author

Professor John Ritchie is general editor (since 1988) of the Australian Dictionary of Biography at the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University. He taught Australian History at Monash University in 1964–65, and British and Australian History at the Faculty of Arts, ANU, from 1969 to 1987. He has published widely.

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978-0-522-84843-4