West, Morris Langlo

▪ 2000

      Australian writer (b. April 26, 1916, Melbourne, Australia—d. Oct. 9, 1999, Sydney, Australia), was the internationally known author of some 30 books—some of the early ones published under an assortment of pseudonyms—which sold more than 60 million copies and were translated into 27 languages. Many of his works, of which the best known were the nonfiction Children of the Sun (1957; also published as Children of the Shadows) and the novels The Devil's Advocate (1959) and The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963), reflect the influence Roman Catholicism had on his life and reveal the church's inner workings; those that included intrigue with their religious content were referred to as religious thrillers. West's early education was at a Christian Brothers seminary, but he realized that the disciplined life of a monk was not his calling and left before taking final vows. He had by that time earned (1937) a B.A. from the University of Melbourne and taught modern languages and mathematics, and during World War II he spent several years in the armed forces, reaching the rank of lieutenant. In 1943 West worked for six months as secretary to former prime minister William Morris Hughes and then went to work for a radio network; he also formed his own radio production company. West's first book, Moon in My Pocket, based on his life in the seminary, was published in 1945. After having suffered a nervous breakdown in the early 1950s and with tax obligations hanging over him, West wrote Gallows on the Sand (1955) and Kundu (1956). Sales of those two books made it possible for him to go to Italy, where his work with Father Mario Borelli in attempting to aid street children inspired his first big success, Children of the Sun. Of his works that followed, a number were filmed, including The Devil's Advocate (filmed 1977), The Naked Country (1960; filmed 1985), The Shoes of the Fisherman (filmed 1968), and Cassidy (1986; filmed 1989), and others were adapted into radio or stage plays. Also among West's works were the play The Heretic (1970), the treatise Scandal in the Assembly (1970; with Robert Francis), and the books The Clowns of God (1981), Lazarus (1990), The Lovers (1993), and Vanishing Point (1996). He was working on a novel, The Last Confession, at the time of his death.

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