George Johnston (novelist)

Australian journalist, war correspondent and novelist

George Johnston

Born| George Henry Johnston
(1912-07-20)20 July 1912
Melbourne, Victoria
Died| 22 July 1970(1970-07-22) (aged 58)
Sydney, New South Wales
Language| English
Nationality| Australian
Years active| 1941–1970
Notable works| My Brother Jack, Clean Straw for Nothing
Notable awards| Miles Franklin Award

George Henry Johnston OBE (20 July 1912 - 22 July 1970) was an Australian journalist, war correspondent and novelist, best known for My Brother Jack. He was the husband and literary collaborator of Charmian Clift.

## Life[edit]

George Henry Johnston was born in Melbourne and spent his childhood in the family home in Elsternwick[1] and was educated in local secondary schools before taking up an apprenticeship as a lithographer.

He was subsequently taken on as a journalist for the Melbourne Argus newspaper. He achieved a certain fame due to his dispatches as a correspondent during World War II. With his second wife, Charmian Clift he was posted to London as a European correspondent.

In 1951, Albert Arlen tried to engage Johnston's services as writer of his musical The Sentimental Bloke, but he was not interested.[2] Johnston abandoned his journalism career in 1954 and moved with Clift to the Greek island of Hydra, where he began writing full-time and took part in the island's circle of international artists, including Canadian poet Leonard Cohen and Scandinavian novelists Axel Jensen and Göran Tunström. While there he contracted tuberculosis. He returned to live in Sydney in 1964.

Johnston is best known for his trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels: My Brother Jack, Clean Straw for Nothing and A Cartload of Clay.

He was the father of four children, daughters Gae (with his first wife Elsie Esme Taylor), and Shane, and two sons: Jason and the poet Martin Johnston. From the names of his children, he created the pseudonym Shane Martin, under which name he published a total of five detective novels.

George Johnston was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1970 for services to literature.[3] He died later that year from pulmonary tuberculosis, aged 58.

He is depicted in the upcoming drama television series So Long, Marianne, in which he will be portrayed by Noah Taylor.[4]

## Awards[edit]

* Miles Franklin Award for My Brother Jack, 1964
* Miles Franklin Award for Clean Straw for Nothing, 1969
* The Sydney Morning Herald Literary Competition for High Valley, 1948[5]

## Bibliography[edit]

### Novels[edit]

* Death Takes Small Bites (1948)
* The Moon at Perigee (1948)
* High Valley (1949; with Charmian Clift)
* The Big Chariot (1953; with Clift)
* The Cyprian Woman (1955)
* The Sponge Divers (1955; with Clift)
* The Sea and the Stone (1955; with Clift)
* The Darkness Outside (1959)
* Closer to the Sun (1960)
* The Far Road (1962)
* My Brother Jack (1964)
* The Far Face of the Moon (1965)
* Clean Straw for Nothing (1969)
* A Cartload of Clay (1971)

As Shane Martin

* The Saracen Shadow (1957)
* Twelve Girls in the Garden (1957)
* The Man Made of Tin (1958)
* The Myth is Murder (1959)
* A Wake for Mourning (1962)

### Non-Fiction[edit]

* Battle of the Seaways: From the Athenia to the Bismarck (1941)
* Grey Gladiator: H.M.A.S. Sydney with the British Mediterranean Fleet (1941)
* Australia at War (1942)
* New Guinea Diary (1942)
* Pacific Partner (1944)
* Skyscrapers in the Mist (1946)
* Journey Through Tomorrow (1947)
* The Australians  (1966)

### Edited[edit]

* Images in Aspic (1965)

## Sources[edit]

* Kinnane, Garry, George Johnston: A Biography, Thomas Nelson 1986, and reprinted by Melbourne University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-522-84714-5.

## References[edit]

1. ^ Kinnane, page 5 and following
2. ^ Max Brown, Charmian and George
3. ^ It's an Honour: OBE
4. ^ Greg David, "Macha Grenon, Éric Bruneau, Patrick Watson and Kim Lévesque Lizotte join NRK and Crave original drama So Long, Marianne". TV, eh?, August 24, 2023.
5. ^ The Sydney Morning Herald Literary Competition

## Further reading[edit]

* Genoni, Paul; Tanya Dalziell (Autumn 2014). "Charmian Clift and George Johnston, Hydra 1960 : the 'lost' photographs of James Burke". Meanjin. 73 (1): 18–37.

* v
* t
* e

Recipients of the Miles Franklin Literary Award

1957–1975|

* Patrick White (1957)
* Randolph Stow (1958)
* Vance Palmer (1959)
* Elizabeth O'Conner (1960)
* Patrick White (1961)
* Thea Astley / George Turner (1962)
* Sumner Locke Elliott (1963)
* George Johnston (1964)
* Thea Astley (1965)
* Peter Mathers (1966)
* Thomas Keneally (1967)
* Thomas Keneally (1968)
* George Johnston (1969)
* Dal Stivens (1970)
* David Ireland (1971)
* Thea Astley (1972)
* No award (1973)
* Ronald McKie (1974)
* Xavier Herbert (1975)

1976–2000|

* David Ireland (1976)
* Ruth Park (1977)
* Jessica Anderson (1978)
* David Ireland (1979)
* Jessica Anderson (1980)
* Peter Carey (1981)
* Rodney Hall (1982)
* No award (1983)
* Tim Winton (1984)
* Christopher Koch (1985)
* Elizabeth Jolley (1986)
* Glenda Adams (1987)
* No award (1988)
* Peter Carey (1989)
* Tom Flood (1990)
* David Malouf (1991)
* Tim Winton (1992)
* Alex Miller (1993)
* Rodney Hall (1994)
* Helen Demidenko (1995)
* Christopher Koch (1996)
* David Foster (1997)
* Peter Carey (1998)
* Murray Bail (1999)
* Thea Astley / Kim Scott (2000)

2001–present|

* Frank Moorhouse (2001)
* Tim Winton (2002)
* Alex Miller (2003)
* Shirley Hazzard (2004)
* Andrew McGahan (2005)
* Roger McDonald (2006)
* Alexis Wright (2007)
* Steven Carroll (2008)
* Tim Winton (2009)
* Peter Temple (2010)
* Kim Scott (2011)
* Anna Funder (2012)
* Michelle de Kretser (2013)
* Evie Wyld (2014)
* Sofie Laguna (2015)
* A. S. Patrić (2016)
* Josephine Wilson (2017)
* Michelle de Kretser (2018)
* Melissa Lucashenko (2019)
* Tara June Winch (2020)
* Amanda Lohrey (2021)
* Jennifer Down (2022)
* Shankari Chandran (2023)

Authority control databases

International|

* FAST
* ISNI
* VIAF
* WorldCat

National|

* Germany
* Israel
* United States
* Czech Republic
* Netherlands
* Poland

People|

* Australia
* Trove

Other|

* SNAC
* IdRef

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template