Amy Witting interviewed by Peter Coleman [sound recording]
- Bib ID:
- 2203962
- Format:
- Audio
- Author:
- Witting, Amy, 1918-2001, interviewee
- Access Conditions:
- Access open for research, personal copies and public use.
- Description:
-
- 1992
- 8 sound tape reels (ca. 241 min.) : analog, 7 1/2 ips, two track, mono. ; 7 in.
- Summary:
-
Witting, a novelist and poet, speaks of her difficulties writing as a young woman in the 1930s; writing for her school magazine; Jim McAuley and Ern Malley; discovering James Joyce; her experiences at university; the influence of Faulkner; sexism in literary circles; teachers' college; John Reid; A.D. Hope at teachers' college; publishing of her first Amy Witting stories; being diagnosed with T.B.; Kenneth Slessor review; the derivation of the name Amy Witting; women's oppression of women; story for the New Yorker; Robert Hemenway; "A piece of the puzzle is missing"; critics and publishers; "The Visit"; proof reading with Nancy Kerr; the novels "I for Isobel" and "Housewife"; modern poets; awards; Meredith and Chloe; publishing "I for Isobel"; writing poetry; McAuley's conversion; "Angry Penguins"; truth in the poems of Ern Malley; Stewart and McAuley as poets; McAuley and Ern Malley's poems; meeting John and Nancy Kerr; Whitlam's dismissal.
- Biography/History:
-
Amy Witting, pseudonym for Joan Fraser Levick, was born on 26 January 1918 in Annandale, an inner-city suburb of Sydney, then a 'tough place' inhabited by many who were typical Australian "battlers" that provided much material for the main theme of her writing - survival. Joan attended the local Catholic school, St Brendan's, at Annandale from 1923 to 1929 then secondary school at Fort Street Girls High from 1930 to 1934. Family circumstances were difficult and she was also often ill with what was eventually diagnosed in 1953 as tuberculosis. At the University of Sydney, from 1935 to 1937, she studied English and Modern Languages and became part of what Peter Coleman refers to as the 'sourly brilliant literary circle' that gathered around James McAuley. Other members of this literary elite group included Harold Stewart, Dorothy Auchterlonie (later Green), Oliver Somerville, Alan Crawford and Ronald Dunlop. Following a Teachers' College scholarship she gained a Diploma of Education in 1939.
In the 1940s she undertook a number of transfers to country positions within NSW. In 1948 she went to Kempsey, where she remained until 1953, meeting her future husband, Les Levick, an Industrial Arts high school teacher. Thanks to encouragement from fellow teacher and already established novelist Thea Astley in the early 1960s Levick began publishing her stories under her pseudonym, starting with 'Goodbye, Ady, Goodbye, Joe' accepted and published in The New Yorker in April 1965. After six years at Cheltenham Girls High (1957 to 1962) she was appointed as Mistress of Modern Languages at North Sydney Girls High School which she held for seven years. After retirement she taught English as a second language for twenty years. In late 1989 her powerful novel "I for Isobel" was published, attracting considerable critical attention, and since then most of the backlog of her stories and poetry (written over a lifetime) have been published. She received the Patrick White Award in 1993.
- Notes:
-
- Recorded on July 13 and Sept. 14, 1992 at Woollahra and Epping, N.S.W.
- Digital master available National Library of Australia ;
- Index/Finding Aid Note:
- Transcript available (typescript; 81 leaves)
- Subject:
- Occupation:
- Other authors/contributors:
- Coleman, Peter, 1928-2019, interviewer
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
Contact us for information about copying. For access conditions return to the record display above.
- Reason for copyright status:
- Until 2062 [Created/Published Date + 70 Years]
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Sound Recording
- Published status:
- Unpublished
- Creation date:
- 1992
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.
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