Eleanor Dark Popular Books

Eleanor Dark Biography & Facts

Eleanor Dark AO (26 August 1901 – 11 September 1985) was an Australian writer whose novels included Prelude to Christopher (1934) and Return to Coolami (1936), both winners of the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal for literature, and her best known work The Timeless Land (1941). Life and career Eleanor Dark was born in Sydney, the second of three children of the poet, writer and parliamentarian Dowell O'Reilly and his wife, Eleanor McCulloch O'Reilly. She studied at the Redlands College for Girls at Cremorne, and was known as Pixie O'Reilly. On finishing school and unable to enter university, having failed mathematics, she learnt typing and took a secretarial job. In February 1922 she married Dr Eric Payten Dark (1889–1987), a widower and general practitioner who wrote books, articles and pamphlets on politics and medicine. She became step-mother to his two-year-old son. Eric Dark was an active member of the Labor left in New South Wales, was involved in contemporary political debate and was a committed socialist and one-time Communist. His books include The World Against Russia and Who are the Reds. They lived in Katoomba, New South Wales, where Eleanor bore their son Michael. It was here that she wrote eight of her ten novels, as well as short stories and articles. She was a frequent contributor to Walkabout magazine, where she shared, wrote Eric Lowe, her love of Australian flora This love is evident in her 1955 article on 'The Blackall Range Country' and in her sense of life and light in a 1951 article about the beauty of Central Australia: This is luminous country. The naked hills […] are incandescent, and such other colours as exist to afford contrast – the bonewhite trunks of the graceful ghost-gums, the pale yellow tufts of spinifex, and the blue of the sky – seem only to emphasise their furnace glow. She also wrote under the pseudonym "Patricia O'Rane". She and her husband were, in September 1949, charter members of the Australian Peace Council. In the 1950s they bought a farm in Montville, Queensland, where they spent part of the year for seven years. Eleanor wrote her last published work, Lantana Lane at the farm. Their son Michael had also moved to Queensland, where he eventually married and had two daughters. Dr Dark's political writing and involvement in left-wing circles attracted attention from anti-communist elements within the Menzies Government and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). Like many writers and social commentators of the time who were critical of Menzies or were left-wing, it is certain that the Darks were under surveillance. This surveillance extended to Eric Dark's first son from his first marriage, John Dark, and possibly to his second son with Eleanor, Michael Dark. Eleanor Dark's best known work is The Timeless Land (1941), the first part of a trilogy, with Storm of Time (1948) and No Barrier (1953). She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours of 1977. In her later years she suffered writer's block, osteoarthritis and depression, and lived upstairs as a virtual recluse, rarely seeing friends or relatives. She died in 1985, aged 84. Michael Dark inherited the family home 'Varuna' in Katoomba, which in 1988 was turned into a writers' centre known as Varuna, The Writers' House. It is managed by the Eleanor Dark Foundation, of which Michael Dark remained President until his death in July 2015. Novels Notes References Brooks, Barbara and Judith Clark. Eleanor Dark: A Writer's Life. (Macmillan, 1998) ISBN 0-7329-0903-1 Review External links Coote, William (2005) "Eleanor Dark's Slow dawning: a woman in rural practice in the 1920s", Medical Journal of Australia online Accessed: 2007-12-09 From an unfinished novel by Eleanor Dark Noble, Jenny Austin (2005) Representations of the mother-figure in the novels of Katharine Susannah Prichard and Eleanor Dark (Thesis at the University of New South Wales) Varuna: The Writers House. Discover the Eleanor Dark popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Eleanor Dark books.

Best Seller Eleanor Dark Books of 2024

  • Red Clay Suzie synopsis, comments

    Red Clay Suzie

    Jeffrey Dale Lofton

    Longlisted for the Center for Fiction 2023 First Novel Prize A novel inspired by true events The comingofage story of Philbet, a gay, physicallymisshapen boy in rural Georgia, who ...

  • The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill synopsis, comments

    The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill

    C.S. Robertson

    'A dark, disturbing and highly original thriller' MARK BILLINGHAM'Haunting, twisted and compelling' C.L. TAYLOR'Clever, dark, unusual and full of genuine surprises' LOUISE BEECH'On...

  • Queen Jezebel synopsis, comments

    Queen Jezebel

    Jean Plaidy

    The final novel in the classic Catherine de’ Medici trilogy from Jean Plaidy, the grande dame of historical fiction. The aging Catherine de’ Medici and her sickly son King Charles ...

  • The Dark Throne synopsis, comments

    The Dark Throne

    Amy Cissell

    The Dark Throne is the dramatic conclusion to the Eleanor Morgan series, a contemporary fantasy from USA Today Bestselling Author Amy Cissell. Eleanor Morgan has come a long way s...

  • The Very Last List of Vivian Walker synopsis, comments

    The Very Last List of Vivian Walker

    Megan Albany

    Vivian Walker is dying. This is not on her list of things to do. A darkly funny debut that proves even the most imperfect of lives is worth celebrating.'A heartbreakingly funny, un...

  • A Shorter History of Tractors in Ukrainian with Handcuffs synopsis, comments

    A Shorter History of Tractors in Ukrainian with Handcuffs

    Marina Lewycka

    Marina Lewycka returns to the characters from A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, with a hilarious erotic twist, in this laughoutloud short story, A Shorter History of Tracto...

  • Books that Made Us synopsis, comments

    Books that Made Us

    Carl Reinecke

    A cultural history of Australia told through our fiction.Australia's novels lie at the heart of the country. Capturing everyday lives and exceptional dreams, they have held up a mi...

  • Mr Majeika and the Music Teacher synopsis, comments

    Mr Majeika and the Music Teacher

    Humphrey Carpenter

    'Music teacher? What music teacher?'The sudden arrival of a new music teacher throws St barty's School into confusion. Mysterious smells start coming from the staffroom and creepyc...

  • How To Find Home synopsis, comments

    How To Find Home

    Mahsuda Snaith

    BBC RADIO 4 'BOOK AT BEDTIME' PICK‘Those who love Little Fires Everywhere and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine will love this’ My WeeklyMolly has lived on the streets for nearly...

  • The Death of an Owl synopsis, comments

    The Death of an Owl

    Paul Torday & Piers Torday

    Political chaos, MPs turning on each other, expediency and skulduggery at the highest echelons of government? No, not Brexit, but a brilliant political satire from the bestselling ...

  • Mislaid in Parts Half-Known synopsis, comments

    Mislaid in Parts Half-Known

    Seanan McGuire

    A USA Today Bestseller!Portals and danger, and a girl who can find both in the next book in the Hugo and Nebula Award–Winning Wayward Children series from Seanan McGuire.Antsy is t...

  • Under the Smokestrewn Sky synopsis, comments

    Under the Smokestrewn Sky

    A. Deborah Baker

    Under the Smokestrewn Sky is the series finale of the 4book UpandUnder series, written by bestselling author Seanan McGuire under the open pseudonym A. Deborah Baker.Since stumblin...

  • Middlebrow Modernism synopsis, comments

    Middlebrow Modernism

    Melinda J. Cooper

    Eleanor Dark (1901–85) is one of Australia’s most innovative 20thcentury writers. Her extensive oeuvre includes ten novels published from the early 1930s to the late 1950s, and rep...

  • Nina is Not OK synopsis, comments

    Nina is Not OK

    Shaparak Khorsandi

    Nina does not have a drinking problem. She likes a drink, sure. But what 17yearold doesn’t? Nina’s mum isn’t so sure. But she’s busy with her new husband and five year old Katie. A...

  • A History of Wild Places synopsis, comments

    A History of Wild Places

    Shea Ernshaw

    In this “riveting, atmospheric thriller that messes with your mind in the best way” (Laini Taylor, New York Times bestselling author), three residents of a secluded, seemingly peac...

  • When Christ and His Saints Slept synopsis, comments

    When Christ and His Saints Slept

    Sharon Kay Penman

    In When Christ and His Saints Slept master storyteller and historian Sharon Kay Penman illuminates one of the lesserknown but fascinating periods of English history. The next addit...

  • The Things We Thought We Knew synopsis, comments

    The Things We Thought We Knew

    Mahsuda Snaith

    Ten years ago, two girls’ lives changed forever.Now one of them is ready to tell their story.'A quirky lovable mystery and a brilliant, heartbreaking debut' Stylist'A new face of f...

  • Tibet synopsis, comments

    Tibet

    Dawa Norbu

    Tibet: The Road Ahead is the extraordinary account of the potential extinction of a civilisation. Written by a gifted Tibetan of humble origins, this book tells the story of ordina...