Hal Porter, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetHal Porter
Twentieth century Australian author
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Albert Park, Victoria, Australia
About Hal Porter
- Harold Edward (Hal) Porter (16 February 1911 – 29 September 1984) was an Australian novelist, playwright, poet and short-story writer. Porter was born in Albert Park, Victoria, grew up in Bairnsdale, Victoria and worked as a journalist, teacher and librarian.
- 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.In the 1982 Queen's Birthday Honours Porter was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to literature.After Porter's death, his friend and biographer Mary Lord revealed in her book Hal Porter: Man of Many Parts that Porter had had sexual relations with Lord's then ten-year-old son; despite this, she chose to remain friends with him.
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