Published on Monday, 22 April 2024 at 2:02:14 PM
Randolph Stow
An excerpt from City of Greater Geraldton Heritage Place Record #40Randolph Stow was born in Geraldton on the 28th of November 1935. He was a novelist and poet noted for his economic writing voice and robust descriptive powers. His first novel, A Haunted Land (1956), was a wild tale with Gothic influences. Stow attended Geraldton Primary School and Geraldton High School before going on to university where his first two novels and some poetry were written before being published by Macdonald and Co in London. After some years spent as a lecturer in English Literature, he worked on an aboriginal mission in the Kimberley.Stow then worked as an assistant to anthropologist, Charles Julius in the Trobriand Islands in Papua New Guinea. It was here that he suffered a physical and mental breakdown and was repatriated to Australia. These experiences informed his later novel, Visitants. During a sojourn in Aztec, New Mexico, he wrote perhaps his best-known novel, The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea. He won the Miles Franklin Award in 1958 and the Patrick White Award in 1979. Randolph Stow died on the 29th of May 2010. Ben Marsh.
Photo Caption: Randolph Stow and “Billy” c. 2000 (P 14885), [Helen McArthur], Courtesy of Geraldton Regional Library.
Snapshots is an initiative of the Geraldton Regional Library. For more information, or to donate a historical photo or slide to the library, contact Heritage Services at the Geraldton Regional Library on 9956 6659 or library@cgg.wa.gov.au
Image Number: P 14885
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