An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark
Shortlist year:
2012
Shortlist category:
Non-fiction
Published by:
Melbourne University Publishing
About the book
Manning Clark was a complex, demanding and brilliant man.
Mark McKenna’s compelling biography of this giant of Australia’s cultural landscape is informed by his reading of Clark’s extensive private letters, journals and diaries—many that have never been read before.
An Eye for Eternity paints a sweeping portrait of the man who gave Australians the signature account of their own history. To understand Clark’s life is to understand twentieth century Australia. Clark incessantly documented his life - leaving notes to the biographers he knew would pursue his story.
He had a deep need to be remembered and this book means he will now be understood in an unforgettable way.
About the author
Mark McKenna
Mark McKenna is one of Australia’s leading historians.
A research fellow in History at the University of Sydney, he is the author of several prize winning books, including Looking for Blackfellas’ Point: an Australian History of Place, which won the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction and Book of the Year in the 2003 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.
His essays and articles have been widely published in Australia and overseas.
Judges’ comments
This is a masterful biography, a deeply compassionate portrait of a complex and flawed man.
With a biographer’s literary skill and an historian’s diligence, Mark McKenna offers a rounded, humane treatment of Australia’s best-known historian, encompassing both Manning Clark’s life and work.
This wise, clear-eyed portrait of perhaps our most influential historian is essential reading for all Australians seeking to understand the transformation of Australian cultural nationalism in the second half of the twentieth century.
