No end to the way: Using G.M. Glaskin's life and works in creative writing teaching

Abstract

G.M. Glaskin (1923-2000) was a prominent Australian writer of the 1950s and 1960s who won the Commonwealth Literary Prize for literature in 1955, but who has slipped from critical attention since. In large part this is because he was a prolific writer across many genres (fantasy, popular fiction, writing for children, and memoir) and forms (novel, short stories, plays and screenplays), thus making his output difficult to categorise. He also wrote a book that is not only a landmark in the rare use of sustained second person narrative voice but also perhaps Australia's first openly gay novel. This combination of style and shock was representative of the writer as well as the man. Although he began writing in Perth, encouraged by the city's literary elite (Mary Durack, John K. Ewers and Henrietta Drake-Brockman), his works were received more favourably internationally than in Australia and he lived mostly overseas, in Asia and later the Netherlands, until 1968, when he returned permanently to Perth. There is some evidence that suggests Glaskin may have been encouraged to stay away because of his sexuality. Although only No end to the way is overtly homosexual, homoeroticism features in a number of his short stories. His work was influenced significantly by his time in Asia and his books set there embrace cultural differences as well as push boundaries on sexual matters. Most of his books were published in the United Kingdom and in European language translations and this enabled Glaskin to live on the proceeds of his writing from 1959. This paper provides a history of the reception of his work through contemporary reviews and summaries of his major works. Reading Glaskin's work can offer many opportunities for writing students to appreciate and experiment with a variety of techniques, styles and issues. Combined with a study of Glaskin's life, students will learn as well about personalities and creativity in Australian literature in the period, particularly in Western Australia, and some understanding of what life was like for homosexual men of this period. Two works, the second person narrative novel 'No end to the way' (1965) and the novella 'The eaves of night' (1965), which uses transcripts of tapes and memoir, are examined here in detail since they provide a starting point for renewed examination of Glaskin's works and also for creative writing exercises.