Patrick White letters. David Marr. 1994.

Patrick White spent his whole life writing letters. He wanted them all burnt, but thousands survive to reveal him as one of the greatest letter-writers of his time.

From the aftermath of the First World War until his death in 1990, letters poured from White’s pen: they are shrewd, funny, dramatic, pigheaded, camp and above all, hauntingly beautiful. He wrote novels to sway a hostile world, but letters were for friends.

The culmination of ten years’ work and reflection by David Marr, the volume tells the story of White’s life in his own words. These are the letters of a great writer, a profound critic,@ gossip with the sharpest eyes and tongue, a man who loved and hated ferociously, a keen cook, an angry patriot and a believer never free of doubt.