Frank Moorhouse: A Life

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Many writers fashion a career out of their writing. Some fashion brilliant careers. Very few, however, commit to their art in a manner that inflects every aspect of their own daily life. Frank Moorhouse was one of the rare writers who actively chose to live a life that was as grounded in conscious aesthetic and ethical choices as was his writing.

A decade before his death in 2022, Frank Moorhouse asked renowned journalist, writer and academic Catharine Lumby to be his biographer. This was an inspired choice, influenced by their decades of friendship and by Lumby's close engagement with, and appreciation for, Moorhouse's writing. She 'got' him and his work, he said, in a way few others did.

Frank Moorhouse was one of Australia's best-known and most-loved authors, here and around the world. His career spanned the genres of the novel, the short story, the essay, the memoir, the erotic novella, the screenplay and the historical monograph. He even invented a literary form: the discontinuous narrative. Moorhouse was also one of the country's foremost public intellectuals, his contribution to Australian cultural, social and political life was prolific, erudite and astoundingly broad. Throughout his career he moved between the roles of activist, author, advocate and scholar. His interests ranged across intimate relationships, social mores, history, politics, international law, foreign policy, intellectual property and censorship.
On all these subjects, he wrote and spoke with distinctive elegance, wit and perception.

Given Moorhouse's impact on literature and public intellectual life, it is astonishing that this is the first literary biography of a man recognised as one of our most important writers and thinkers. In this fascinating and crucial work, Catharine Lumby threads the intellectual and aesthetic aspects of Moorhouse's literary, personal and political life into a sparkling dialogue, highlighting the depth of his impact on Australian literature and culture.

Author Bio

Catharine Lumby is the Director of the Journalism and Media Research at the University of NSW. She was the Foundation Chair of the Media and Communications Department at the University of Sydney. She is the author of seven books and numerous book chapters and journal articles. Professor Lumby is a well-known public commentator who has worked as a news reporter, feature writer and columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Bulletin magazine. She sits on the Education and Welfare Committee and the Research Committee of the National Rugby League, advising them on gender issues. She is also a member of the Advertising Standards Board. She has been awarded five Australian Research Council grants and is a member of the ARC Cultural Research Network. Catharine has an Arts/Law degree and a PhD and she has written prolifically, in both popular and academic contexts, on gender, sexuality, popular culture, fine arts and literature. She has been researching Frank Moorhouse's work for four years and has known him for fifteen years.