Frank Moorhouse

A cultural history of the times that shaped Frank Moorhouse and which Moorhouse himself helped to shape.

"My writing allows me flight from society through solitude while permitting me to rejoin society on some of my own terms through the trading of the finished work with the society.
My imaginative narrative gives me relief from prevaility and strident ideologies by allowing me the heresy of decadence (as in erotica).
Namely, revenge against normality, reversal of normality and regression from normality.
My imaginative narrative is relief from prevailing self by allowing the potential self, the discarded self, the rejected self and the non-self to have play.
My imaginative narrative is relief from privacy by allowing exposure of self and the network of self."
- Frank Moorhouse, 1985, private telex

Frank Moorhouse was legendary in Australian literary and cultural life, the author of a huge and diverse body of work - essays, short stories, journalism, scripts, the iconic Edith Trilogy - an unapologetic activist, intellectual, libertarian and champion of freedom of speech and sexual self determination. Though he lived his life publicly, his private stories have not been shared, the many paths he forged left unexamined, until now.

Matthew Lamb shared many a luncheon table with Moorhouse and immersed himself in the archived life and cultural ephemera of Frank's world. This landmark study, from Moorhouse's own publisher, the first in a projected two volumes, is the fascinating and comprehensive story of how one of Australia's most original writers and pioneer of the discontinuous narrative came to be.

Fearless, sardonic and utterly dedicated to his creative life, his relationships with friends, other writers and lovers were complex and long-lasting. Lamb shares the strange paths that Frank traversed and gives us a cultural history of the times that shaped Moorhouse and which Moorhouse himself helped to shape.

About the Author

Matthew Lamb is a former editor of Review of Australian Fiction and Island magazines. He has two PhDs, in Literature and Philosophy, respectively.