New Writers?
p. 59 · Read in the full issue
Where Are The New Writers?
“Tolala” (Gordon Thomas) in his regular Talk-Talk column in June “PIM”, asked that question.
Where were the writers, he said, of the type who wrote so prolifically of Papua and New Guinea before the War.
“Where are those imaginative, scribbling personalities in P-NG whose writings are stirring the emotions or selling the Territory in New York, London or even Sydney?” asked “Tolala”.
“You occasionally pick up a volume dealing in a quasi scientific manner with someone’s research in the more distant regions of the Territory. But there is little fiction writing; no romances. None of the Lionel Armit short stories or the Beatrice Grimshaw novels. The drift seems to have gone to the Polynesian groups and itinerant writers who tarry a while, absorb the atmosphere and pass on.”
On this page Australian author Olaf Ruhen supports “Tolala”, but carries the matter further.
Mr. Ruhen knows his subject.
Besides being the author of “Land of Dohori” (tales of New Guinea), “Naked under Capricorn” and “White Man’s Shoes”, his name is well known to millions of readers of the “Saturday Evening Post”, which for a number of years has regularly published his short stories with a New Guinea background. He lives in Mosman, Sydney.