Geoffrey Dutton: little Adelaide and New York Nowhere

Abstract

It ought to be impossible to talk about literary Adelaide without due mention of Geoffrey Dutton (1922–98). As a prime mover of Writers’ Week and the Adelaide Festival of Arts, and founding co-editor of Australian Letters (1957–68) and Australian Book Review (1961-), both magazines based in Adelaide, Dutton was central to the city's post-war cultural initiatives. He was associated with the University of Adelaide, where he studied for a year before enlisting (another magazine, Angry Penguins, appeared controversially there that same year, 1940) and later taught. He was one of the English Department's lively cohort of writers and scholars who were enthusiastic about Australian and other ‘new’ literatures. From Adelaide, Dutton played important national roles too, as editor at the newly formed Penguin Australia, co-founder of Sun Books, publisher at Macmillan and editor of the Bulletin's literary supplement. He served on influential committees and boards, including the Commonwealth Literary Fund and the inaugural Australia Council. Dutton was a bold and astute editor, as shown in the commemorative volume he co-edited with his Adelaide friend and colleague Max Harris to showcase the achievements of Australian Letters. That book, The Vital Decade: Ten years of Australian art and letters (Sun Books, 1968), includes pairings of work by leading artists and poets of the day, Sidney Nolan with Randolph Stow, for example, and Clifton Pugh with Judith Wright. It also includes the famous piece Patrick White wrote for the magazine, ‘The Prodigal Son’, one of the best of all Australian essays.