Donald Horne

Professor Donald Horne (26 December 1921 – 8 September 2005) was an Australian journalist, writer, social critic, and academic who became one of Australia's best known public intellectuals.

Horne published three novels and more than twenty volumes of history, memoir and political and cultural analysis. He also edited The Bulletin, The Observer and Quadrant. His best known work was The Lucky Country (1964), an evaluation of Australian society that questioned many traditional attitudes: "Australia is a lucky country, run by second-rate people who share its luck."

Life

Donald Horne's early life was recounted in the first volume of his memoirs The Education of Young Donald (1967). He was born in Kogarah, Sydney and raised in Muswellbrook and Sydney. He enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Sydney in 1939 and went on to a successful career in journalism. Horne worked for a number of Frank Packer's publications, first as a journalist for The Telegraph, then editor of the magazine Weekend, and later the periodical The Observer. As editor of the flagship magazine The Bulletin, he removed the magazine's long standing motto "Australia for the White Man", an action in which he took great pride. He was co-editor of Quadrant Magazine.

He became a professor of political science at the University of New South Wales, and was Chancellor of the University of Canberra from 1992-1995.^[1]

He also worked on writing, arts and citizenship boards and was an executive member of the Australian Constitutional Commission.

Throughout his long career, he was unorthodox and independent-minded, without a consistent political allegiance. He was, however, known through much of his public career for his republicanism and opposition to the White Australia Policy.

Despite his academic career, he never completed his undergraduate degree, though he received four honorary doctorates.

He was still giving media interviews up to the last year of his life.

He was named as one of Australia's Living National Treasures by the National Trust. He had two children with his wife Myfanwy Horne.

Recognition

In 2008, the University of Canberra announced the establishment of the Donald Horne Institute for Cultural Heritage.^[1] It will be housed on campus in a purpose-built building that will be fully operational in 2011. The institute will have research and teaching programs, and an exhibition space. It will "be integrated with Canberra's cultural treasure houses, including the National Museum, National Gallery, National Library, National Archives and War Memorial."^[1] It is envisaged that it will also interact with a range of other organisations including Federal Parliament, government departments, Aboriginal organisations, other universities and UNESCO.

Selected bibliography

• 10 Steps to a more Tolerant Australia, Penguin Books, Camberwell, Vic., c2003
• The Arts and the Australian Economy, Australia Council, Melbourne, 1985
• The Australian People: Biography of a Nation, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1973
• Billy Hughes Bookman Press, Melbourne, 2000
• Confessions of a New Boy, Viking, Ringwood, Vic., 1985
• Death of the Lucky Country, Penguin Books Australia, Ringwood, Vic., 1976
• Dying: A Memoir (with wife, Myfanwy Horne), Viking, Camberwell, Vic, 2007
• The Education of Young Donald, Penguin Books, Ringwood, Vic., 1988
• God is an Englishman, Penguin Books, Ringwood, Vic., 1969
• The Great Museum: The Re-presentation of History, Pluto Press, Leichhardt, NSW, 1984
• How to be an Intellectual, Footscray Institute of Technology, Footscray, Vic., 1985
• Ideas for a Nation, Pan Books, Sydney, 1989
• An Interrupted Life, HarperCollins, Pymble, N.S.W., 1998
• Looking for Leadership: Australia in the Howard Years, Penguin Books, Ringwood, Vic., 2001
• The Lucky Country: Australia in the Sixties Penguin Books, Melbourne, 1964
• Money Made Us, Penguin Books Australia, Ringwood, Vic., 1976
• The Permit, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1965
• Portrait of an Optimist, Penguin Books, Ringwood, Vic., 1988
• Right Way - Don't Go Back, Sun Books, South Melbourne, Vic., 1978
• Winner Take All, Penguin Books, Ringwood, Vic., 1981
• Time of Hope: Australia 1966-72, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1980

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Macdonald, Emma "Slice of the lucky country", Sunday Canberra Times, 2008-07-06, p. 4