A Second Chance
from Life Sentences Podcast Hosted by Caroline Baum
Elizabeth Harrower is not a household name in Australian writing, so how has she ended up with not one but two biographies, both published within a month of each other? By sheer coincidence, journalist Helen Trinca and literary editor Susan Wyndham both found themselves on the Harrower trail, working through the same archives, talking to the same sources, each well aware of the other. This double shot of attention is ironic, given that Harrower was best known in the fifties for her novels The Long Prospect and The Watchtower, but withdrew a subsequent novel from publication and vanished from the literary landscape until she was rediscovered in 2012 by a publisher keen to revive her work for a new audience. Both Trinca and Wyndham met Harrower on several occasions. What conclusions did they come to and where do they differ in how they see Harrower’s life and work? How do they interpret her decision to sabotage her career? In their first joint conversation, Trinca and Wyndham compare notes.
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