Patrick White

Article summary

Patrick Victor Martindale White (28 May 1912 – 30 September 1990) was an Australian novelist and playwright who explored themes of religious experience, personal identity and the conflict between visionary individuals and a materialistic, conformist society. Influenced by the modernism of James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf, he developed a complex literary style and a body of work that challenged the dominant realist prose tradition of his home country, was satirical of Australian society, and sharply divided local critics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1973 and is the only Australian to receive it. Born in London to affluent Australian parents, White spent his childhood in Sydney and on his family's rural properties. He was sent to an English public school at the age of 13, and went on to read modern languages at Cambridge. After graduating in 1935 he embarked on a literary career. His first published novel, Happy Valley (1939), was awarded the Gold Medal of the Australian Literature Society. In World War II he served as an intelligence officer in the Royal Air Force. While stationed in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1941, he met Manoly Lascaris, who became his life companion and, as White later wrote, "the central mandala in my life's hitherto messy design." In 1948 White returned to Australia, where he bought a small farm on the outskirts of Sydney.…

Key claims

1. date of birth: 1912-05-28 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95
2. date of foundation: 1975 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95
3. publication date: 1939 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95
4. publication date: 1927 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95
5. publication date: 1935 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95
6. publication date: 1939 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95
7. publication date: 1955 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95
8. publication date: 1970 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95
9. publication date: 1986-04-01 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95
10. publication date: 1987 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95
11. publication date: 1988 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95
12. publication date: 2012 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95

Discussion questions

1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
2. The record states that the date of birth is "1912-05-28". What evidence would count against this claim?
3. The record states that the date of foundation is "1975". What evidence would count against this claim?
4. The record states that the publication date is "1939". What evidence would count against this claim?
5. The record states that the publication date is "1927". What evidence would count against this claim?
6. The record states that the publication date is "1935". What evidence would count against this claim?
7. The record states that the publication date is "1939". What evidence would count against this claim?
8. The record states that the publication date is "1955". What evidence would count against this claim?
9. The record states that the publication date is "1970". What evidence would count against this claim?
10. The record states that the publication date is "1986-04-01". What evidence would count against this claim?
11. The record states that the publication date is "1987". What evidence would count against this claim?
12. The record states that the publication date is "1988". What evidence would count against this claim?
13. The record states that the publication date is "2012". What evidence would count against this claim?
14. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
15. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1377071237