Manning Clark subject of a new bio, warts and all
FOR the historian a new terror has been added to death.
It is that some other historian will write their biography. Brian Matthews's life of Manning Clark is not the first -- that was published by Stephen Holt in 1999 -- nor the last, as Mark McKenna has a work in progress. But in its exposure of Clark's imperfections, it is one of the most candid.
Gone are the days of reticence when Max Crawford, writing about the death of his mentor Arnold Wood, could leave the reader in some doubt as to whether Wood committed suicide. This biography gives us Clark's battles with booze, his philandering and his lack of appreciation for a long-suffering wife. Yet Matthews's overall attitude is one of admiration for this complex historian, arguing that despite all the shortcomings, Clark remains one of the giants.
Of course Clark colluded with his biographers. As a historian he would have known that the diaries in which he confided his backslidings would reveal them to any reader patient enough to decipher his appalling handwriting. Clark's biographer is under challenge to resist being beguiled by the old storyteller's myths about himself. This is of particular importance for Matthews, as one of his main concerns is to explore the ways in which Clark's personality shaped his approach to the writing of history.
The outlines of the story are well known. Charles Manning Hope Clark was born in 1915, son of an Anglican clergyman and a mother from the minor colonial gentry. A scholarship boy at Melbourne Grammar, he progressed by way of the University of Melbourne to Balliol College, Oxford. There he married Dymphna Lodewyckx from Melbourne and visited Nazi Germany on the eve of World WarII....
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It is that some other historian will write their biography. Brian Matthews's life of Manning Clark is not the first -- that was published by Stephen Holt in 1999 -- nor the last, as Mark McKenna has a work in progress. But in its exposure of Clark's imperfections, it is one of the most candid.
Gone are the days of reticence when Max Crawford, writing about the death of his mentor Arnold Wood, could leave the reader in some doubt as to whether Wood committed suicide. This biography gives us Clark's battles with booze, his philandering and his lack of appreciation for a long-suffering wife. Yet Matthews's overall attitude is one of admiration for this complex historian, arguing that despite all the shortcomings, Clark remains one of the giants.
Of course Clark colluded with his biographers. As a historian he would have known that the diaries in which he confided his backslidings would reveal them to any reader patient enough to decipher his appalling handwriting. Clark's biographer is under challenge to resist being beguiled by the old storyteller's myths about himself. This is of particular importance for Matthews, as one of his main concerns is to explore the ways in which Clark's personality shaped his approach to the writing of history.
The outlines of the story are well known. Charles Manning Hope Clark was born in 1915, son of an Anglican clergyman and a mother from the minor colonial gentry. A scholarship boy at Melbourne Grammar, he progressed by way of the University of Melbourne to Balliol College, Oxford. There he married Dymphna Lodewyckx from Melbourne and visited Nazi Germany on the eve of World WarII....