Hal Porter

Harold Edward "Hal" Porter AM (16 February 1911 – 29 September 1984) was an Australian novelist, playwright, poet and short story writer.

Hal Porter
Born	Harold Edward Porter (1911-02-16)16 February 1911 Albert Park, Victoria, Australia
Died	29 September 1984(1984-09-29) (aged 73)
Occupation	Novelist playwright poet short story writer

Biography

Porter was born in Albert Park, Victoria,[1] grew up in Bairnsdale, Victoria and worked as a journalist, teacher and librarian.[2] A car accident just before the outbreak of war prevented him from serving in World War II. His first stories were published in 1942 and by the 1960s he was writing full-time. His 1963 memoir, The Watcher on the Cast Iron Balcony, is regarded as an Australian masterpiece.

His other works were less successful. The literary critic Laurie Clancy said: "Porter's novels are, with one exception, less successful than his stories, not least because his scorn for most of his characters becomes wearying over the length of a novel." The exception, Clancy thought, was The Tilted Cross, a historical novel set in Hobart in the 1840s.[3]

Honours

In the 1982 Queen's Birthday Honours Porter was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to literature.[4]

Book

In 1993, Mary Lord, Hal Porter's long-time friend and fellow-writer, published a controversial biography of Porter, under the title Hal Porter: Man of Many Parts.

Bibliography

Novels

• A Handful of Pennies (1958)
• The Tilted Cross (1961)
• The Right Thing (1971)

Short stories

• A Bachelor's Children (1962)
• Short Stories (1942)
• The Cats of Venice (1965)
• The Actors: An image of the new Japan (1968)
• Mr. Butterfry and Other Tales of New Japan (1970)
• Selected Stories (1971)
• Fredo Fuss Love Life (1974)
• The Portable Hal Porter (1978)
• The Clairvoyant Goat (1981)

Poetry

• The Hexagon (1956)
• Elijah's Ravens (1968)
• In an Australian Graveyard (1974)

Memoirs

• The Watcher on the Cast-Iron Balcony (1963)
• The Paper Chase (1966)
• Criss-Cross (1973)
• The Extra (1975)
• Bairnsdale: Portrait of an Australian country town (1977)

Drama

• The Tower (1963)
• The Professor (1966)
• Eden House (1969)

External links

• First Person - Hal Porter, Watcher from the Cast-Iron Balcony at Radio National
• Hill of Content Bookshop Hal Porter Short Story Competition
• "No one but I will know": Hal Porter’s Honesty by Noel Rowe
• Hal Porter Short Story Prize

References

Craven, Peter. "Porter: friend and betrayer," The Australian, 15–16 January 1994, Review 3.

Mary Lord: Hal Porter: Man of Many Parts (Random House, Sydney, 1993)

Noel Rowe: '"No one but I will know": Hal Porter's Honesty', in Australian Humanities Review, Issue 41, February 2007

1. Hal Porter Britannica Online Accessed: 21 October 2007
2. Porter, Hal (AustLit) Accessed: 14 February 2007.
3. Laurie Clancy, A Reader's Guide to Australian Fiction, Oxford, Melbourne, 1992, p. 186.
4. "Harold Edward (Hal) Porter". honours.pmc.gov.au. Retrieved 14 June 2019.