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

Biography

Porter was born in Albert Park, Victoria,[1] grew up in Bairnsdale, and worked as a journalist, teacher and librarian.[2] A car accident just before the outbreak of World War II prevented him from serving in the armed forces. 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]

On 24 July 1983 he was knocked down by a hit-and-run driver in Ballarat and received brain damage.[4] He died on 29 September 1984.

Honours

In the 1982 Queen's Birthday Honours Porter was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to literature.[5] The life and work of Porter has also been honoured since 2006 through the annual Hal Porter Short Story Competition, under the auspices of the East Gippsland Art Gallery, in Bairnsdale, Victoria, Australia.[6]

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

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