Jump to content

Judah Waten

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Judah Waten
BornJudah Leon Waten
(1911-07-29)29 July 1911
Odessa, Russian Empire
Died29 July 1985(1985-07-29) (aged 74)
Melbourne, Australia
OccupationWriter, novelist
NationalityAustralian
Notable worksAlien Son (1952)
Distant Land (1964)

Judah Leon Waten AM (29 July 1911 – 29 July 1985) was an Australian novelist who was at one time seen as the voice of Australian migrant writing.

Life and career

[edit]

Born in Odessa to a Russian-Jewish family, after a brief sojourn in Palestine,[1] Judah Waten arrived in Western Australia in 1914, where the family settled in Midland Junction, before shifting to Perth.[2] He attended Christian Brothers' College, Perth and, moving to Melbourne in 1926, University High School, Melbourne. He joined the Communist Party of Australia while still at school.[3] Between 1931 and 1933, he visited Europe, where he engaged in left-wing political activities in England, and spent three months in Wormwood Scrubs Prison.

He wrote novels, short stories and a history of the Great Depression in Australia. He is best known for two books, his autobiographical novel, Alien Son, first published in 1952 and for Distant Land, a story about a Yiddish-speaking Polish couple, the husband a former Talmudic prodigy turned intellectual and his wife Shoshanah, as they struggle to recreate and conserve their Jewish culture in a strange land. He travelled to the Soviet Union several times, once with Manning Clark and James Devaney.[4] He was involved in the Realist Writers Group, International PEN, the Fellowship of Australian Writers and served on the Literature Board of the Australia Council.

In 1967, he became a member of the National Committee of the Communist Party. However, he left the party in 1972 to join the pro-Soviet Socialist Party of Australia.[3]

In 1985 he died on his birthday in Heidelberg, and was survived by his wife, who was of Scottish descent,[5] and their daughter.[3]

Honours and awards

[edit]

In 1979 he was awarded membership of the Order of Australia.[6]

In 1985 he was posthumously awarded the Patrick White Award.

Bibliography

[edit]

Novels

  • Alien Son (Angus & Robertson, 1952)
  • The Unbending (Australasian Book Society, 1954)
  • Shares in Murder (Australasian Book Society, 1957)
  • Time of Conflict (Australasian Book Society, 1961)
  • Distant Land (F. W. Cheshire, 1964)
  • Season of Youth (F. W. Cheshire, 1966)
  • So Far No Further (Wren Publishing, 1971)
  • Scenes of Revolutionary Life (Angus & Robertson, 1982)

Non-fiction

  • The Depression Years, 1929-1939 (F. W. Cheshire, 1971, Australia Since the Camera series)

Memoir

  • From Odessa to Odessa: The Journey of an Australian Writer (F. W. Cheshire, 1969)
  • "My two literary careers", essay (Southerly, 1971)
  • "Why I came home - naked - fifty years ago", essay (The Bulletin, 24 April 1984)

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Judah Waten, From Odessa to Odessa, Cheshire 1969 p.1
  2. ^ Waten, From Odessa to odessa, pp.1-3.
  3. ^ a b c Carter, David. "Judah Waten". Australian Dictionary of Biography.
  4. ^ Waten, From Odessa to Odessa, p.9
  5. ^ Judah Waten, From Odessa to Odessa, p.14.
  6. ^ It's an Honour: AM

Further reading

[edit]
[edit]


Stub icon Stub icon

This article about an Australian writer is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Judah_Waten&oldid=1240207494"