Gavin Souter interviewed by John Farquharson [sound recording]
- Bib ID:
- 1803924
- Format:
- Audio
- Author:
- Souter, Gavin, 1929-, interviewee
- Access Conditions:
- Written permission required for research, personal copies and public use during the lifetime of the interviewee.
- Description:
-
- 1998
- 4 digital audio tapes (251 min.)
- Summary:
-
Souter speaks of his start as a cadet journalist in 1946 at the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) but was not successful until 1947, how he achieved in 1946 a place at St. Andrew College, Univ. of Sydney to undertake an Arts degree, his early life, his memories of wartime Mackay, his impressions of leading personalities at SMH in 1947, his experience as a feature writer, his period in New York from 1950-52 in the Herald office, how his trip to Papua New Guinea in 1958 to join a patrol into the Jimi Valley lead to the first contact with a people known as the Gants, how this inspired him to write a history of Papua New Guinea entitled New Guinea the Last Unknown, his unsuccessful attempt to report the Vietnam War but other journalists that did may have had links with intelligence agencies like ASIO, his literary grant to travel to Paraguay and interview descendants of Australia's utopian colony founded by William Lane resulting in a book A Peculiar People published in 1968, News Editor in the SMH office in London in 1968, his book on Australian Federation and nationalism entitled Lion and Kangaroo which won a Foundation for Australian Literacy Award, his memoir of his boyhood in Kempsey and Mackay published as The Idle Hill of Summer, how Anne Whitehead's book on the Australian colony in Paraguay complements his own, his return to Sydney under David Bowman, how as company historian from 1978 resulting in a history of the SMH issued as Company of Heralds in 1981, the conservatism of the Fairfaxes, rapid changes in print technology, how newspaper writing has improved greatly recently, discussion on the SMH books including Heralds and Angels, Warwick & James Fairfax, his commission to write Acts of Parliament to mark the Bicentennary.
- Biography/History:
-
Gavin Souter is an author, journalist and historian.
- Notes:
-
- Recorded on Oct. 21, 1998 in Sydney, N.S.W.
- Digital master available National Library of Australia;
- Index/Finding Aid Note:
- Timed summary and uncorrected transcript (typescript, 78 leaves) available.
- Subject:
- Other authors/contributors:
- Farquharson, John M., 1929-2016, interviewer
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
Contact us for information about copying. For access conditions return to the record display above.
- Reason for copyright status:
- Until 2068 [Created/Published Date + 70 Years]
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Sound Recording
- Published status:
- Unpublished
- Creation date:
- 1998
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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