Dear Kathleen, Dear Manning: The Correspondence of Manning Clark and Kathleen Fitzpatrick 1949-1990

In good condition - ex library - has markings from use - due to differing weights in books, postage maybe adjusted at checkout.

Manning Clark and Kathleen Fitzpatrick were influential Australian historians; they were both also gifted writers. Their personal letters, published for the first time in Dear Kathleen, Dear Manning, form a revealing moving collection.

They trace the gradual development over forty years of an unlikely, but deep and sympathetic friendship - one which became more and more important to the writers as they moved into old age.

Clark's left-wing politics contrasted with Fitzpatrick's staunch liberalism; her privileged background was very different from his more austere upbringing; her stately demeanour was at odds with his studied larrikinism. Manning Clark took to the public stage, while Kathleen Fitzpatrick remained resolutely private.

Yet they struck a chord in each other, seeing themselves in some way as 'outsiders'. They were both extraordinarily sensitive and reserved people; notice the delicacy and obliqueness with which they refer to personal problems, and the sympathy they quickly extend for each other's troubles and nervous ills.

Dear Kathleen, Dear Manning offers unique insights into the professional and personal lives of two significant Australians, and into their foibles and vulnerabilities. As an exquisite example of the lost art of letter writing, this collection will be of great literary, scholarly and, above all, human interest to readers of all ages.