What makes a literary reputation endure, and why do some writers disappear from view despite once standing at the centre of a nation's culture?

In this episode biographer Susan Lever joins poet and critic Peter Kirkpatrick to discuss her major new biography, A.D. Hope, tracing the life of a writer whose career spanned almost the entire twentieth century.

From rural Tasmania and Sydney University to Oxford, Canberra and the centre of Australian literary life, the conversation examines Hope's poetry, criticism and public intellectual role, as well as the literary debates that shaped his reputation. Along the way, Lever explores Hope's relationships with figures including James McAuley, Patrick White and Manning Clark, his attitudes to modernism, censorship and religion, and the tensions between his public persona and private life.

The discussion also considers Hope's place in Australian literary history today.

This conversation coincides with the publication of a review of Susan Lever’s A.D. Hope in the Sydney Review of Books, offering another perspective on Hope’s life, work and legacy.

This episode of Fully Lit was recorded at Gleebooks on Gadigal land in Sydney.

Voices

Susan Lever is one of Australia’s leading literary critics and biographers, whose books include studies of Australian fiction and the acclaimed biography A.D. Hope.

Peter Kirkpatrick is a poet, literary historian and Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Sydney, whose work explores Australian poetry, popular culture and literary history.

Credits

This episode was recorded on Gadigal land at Sydney's Gleebooks - for more literary events like this one, see the Gleebooks events page.

Fully Lit is brought to you by Impact Studios at UTS, the Sydney Review of Books, and the UTS Writing and Publishing Program, and is produced by Regina Botros.

Executive Producers: Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang.

Recorded by Gleebooks.

Mixed by Regina Botros.

Further Reading

A.D. Hope by Susan Lever

Damian Maher reviews Susan Lever’s biography of A.D. Hope, published in the Sydney Review of Books

The Wandering Islands by A.D. Hope

Collected Poems 1930–1970 by A.D. Hope

The Cave and the Spring: Essays on Poetry by A.D. Hope

The Best Australian Poems of A.D. Hope, edited by David Brooks

The Wild Reciter: Poetry and Popular Culture in Australia, 1890–2020 by Peter Kirkpatrick