Dutton, Geoffrey Piers Henry

▪ 1999

      Australian writer, critic, publisher, and activist (b. Aug. 2, 1922, Anlaby, Australia—d. Sept. 17, 1998, Canberra, Australia), was one of the country's leading literary figures and helped revive support for the republican movement. Dutton studied at the University of Adelaide until the outbreak of World War II, when he joined the Royal Australian Air Force as a flying instructor. After the war he graduated (1949) from Magdalen College, Oxford, and published his first novel, The Mortal and the Marble, in 1950. He soon returned to Australia and Adelaide, where he taught English (1954-62) while pursuing his writing career. An elegant and versatile author, Dutton penned more than 40 works, including children's books, poetry, biographies, travel writings, and five novels, most notably Queen Emma of the South Seas (1976). He also contributed lively and incisive criticism to newspapers and magazines and was known for encouraging new literary voices. A key figure in the country's publishing industry, Dutton was a cofounding editor of The Australian Book Review and the Australian Literary Quarterly and helped create Penguin Books Australia and Sun Books. Following a brief professorship (1963) at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Dutton returned home and wrote a blistering article that maintained that Australia could not achieve its potential under a monarchy. The resulting furor reignited the republican movement, a cause for which Dutton wrote and lectured until his death. He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1976, and his autobiography, Out in the Open, appeared in 1994.

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