Famed Australian writer David Malouf has died at the age of 92. Best known as a novelist, the Brisbane-born literary icon was also a poet, essayist, playwright and librettist for opera. Celebrated for his 1975 semi-autobiographical novel Johnno, Malouf passed away after suffering a brief illness.
Malouf's publisher, Meredith Curnow, confirmed that he died in a Gold Coast hospital on Wednesday. Telling the Sydney Morning Herald he was 'one of a kind', Curnow said that Malouf died after being diagnosed with a 'short aggressive illness' earlier in the week. 'The gentlest of men and the best of friends to so many writers and people,' she said, adding that his influence on Australian literature was 'absolutely enormous'.
Curnow, who knew him closely for decades, continued: 'His stories are led by men, and he was never afraid to burrow into both their minds and their hearts. They were always very human. There were human interactions always at their core.'
Widely acclaimed for his innovative fiction and his masterful use of language, Malouf was one of Australia's most prized authors. In 1991, he took home the prestigious Miles Franklin for The Great World, his epic novel about the impact of World War I on two Aussies and their later internment in a Japanese prison in WWII. He was also shortlisted for the much sought-after Booker Prize for his 1993 novel Remembering Babylon. Malouf's other notable accolades include the Prix Femina Étranger from France and the International Dublin Literary Award.
Born in Brisbane in 1934, Malouf was raised in a family of mixed heritage. His father was a Christian Lebanese, while Malouf's mother hailed from England, and was descended from Sephardi Jews. Originally focusing his literary ambitions on poetry, Malouf published his first verse in 1962 after graduating from the University of Queensland in 1955. After spending time teaching in the UK and in Australia, Malouf's first major work, Neighbours in a Thicket: Poems, hit the shelves in 1974. He followed this with Johnno in 1975, a heavily autobiographical coming-of-age novel about two mates from Brisbane. It was applauded in some quarters as a breakthrough in 'gay' fiction. Malouf, who was openly homosexual, later said that the book was misunderstood and that the characters were definitely not gay.
He went on to write eight more novels. In his later years, Malouf threw his energies into writing poetry and essays. Malouf produced a final novel, Ransom, in 2009, and in 2014, he published a collection of essays, A First Place, to celebrate his 80th birthday.
