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Biography

Thomas Keneally

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Overview

  • Born
    October 7, 1935 · Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  • Birth name
    Thomas Michael Keneally
  • Nickname
    • Tom

Biography

    • Thomas Keneally, (born October 7, 1935, Sydney, Australia), Australian writer best known for his historical novels. Keneally's characters are gripped by their historical and personal past, and decent individuals are portrayed at odds with systems of authority.

      At age 17 Keneally entered a Roman Catholic seminary, but he left before ordination; the experience influenced his early fiction, including The Place at Whitton (1964) and Three Cheers for the Paraclete (1968). His reputation as a historical novelist was established with Bring Larks and Heroes (1967), about Australia's early years as an English penal colony. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1972; film 1980) won Keneally international acclaim; it is based on the actual story of a half-caste Aboriginal who rebels against white racism by going on a murder spree. The Great Shame (1998), a work inspired by his own ancestry, details 80 years of Irish history from the perspective of Irish convicts sent to Australia in the 19th century.

      Although Australia figures prominently in much of Keneally's work, his range is broad. His well-received Gossip from the Forest (1975) examines the World War I armistice through the eyes of a thoughtful, humane German negotiator. He is also praised for his treatment of the American Civil War in Confederates (1979). His later fiction includes A Family Madness (1985), To Asmara (1989), Flying Hero Class (1991), Woman of the Inner Sea (1992), Jacko (1993), Homebush Boy (1995), Bettany's Book (2000), The Tyrant's Novel (2003), The Widow and Her Hero (2007), and The Daughters of Mars (2012).

      Keneally's best-known work, Schindler's Ark (1982; also published as Schindler's List; film 1993), tells the true story of Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who saved more than 1,300 Jews from the Nazis. Like many of Keneally's protagonists, Schindler is a rather ordinary man who acts in accord with his conscience despite the evil around him. The book won him the Man Booker Prize and he also worked with Steven Spielberg on the original drafts of the Schindler's List screenplay which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Adapated Screenplay. He was shortlisted on three further occasions for the Man Booker prize
      - IMDb mini biography by: Paul G Andrews

Family

  • Spouse
      Judith Martin(1965 - present) (2 children)

Trivia

  • Oskar Schindler's story went relatively unknown for several decades before Keneally wrote it. It was only after emigrating to America that Leopold Pfefferberg (one of the Schindlerjuden) began talking to any author he could find about publishing the story. All were unreceptive. Thomas Keneally only happened to meet Pfefferberg by chance, and upon learning that he was a Holocaust survivor, immediately agreed to write their story.
  • He is of Irish descent.
  • Is an avid fan of the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles rugby league team in Sydney's Northern Beaches.
  • Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, Vol. 130, pp. 230-237. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.
  • He was awarded the A.O. (Officer of the Order of Australia) in the 1983 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to Literature.

Quotes

  • Keneally's home in Sydney's Northern Beaches has its own trophy room. In it, hangs pictures, plaques and signed shirts of his beloved Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles rugby league team. He remarked, "Now, these people really are involved in serious magic. Forget the Booker Prize (which he won in 1982 for his book, Schindler's Ark). If Cliffy Lyons (Sea Eagles legend) comes up to me and says, you know, 'G'day, Tom, mate. Writing much these days?' Well, that's enough for me. I'm a happy man."

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