Gerald Glaskin

Gerald Marcus Glaskin
Born	16 December 1923(1923-12-16) Perth, Australia
Died	2000 Perth, Australia
Pen name	Neville Jackson
Nationality	Australian

Gerald Marcus Glaskin (16 December 1923 - 2000^[1]) was a Western Australian author. Although he won the Commonwealth Prize for Literature in 1955, his works were received more favourably in Europe than in Australia where he had virtually no public profile, and he lived mostly in Asia and later the Netherlands, until returning to Perth in 1968.

Glaskin's extensive time overseas may have been because of the oppressive Australian moral climate of the period against homosexuality. In 1961 he had been charged with indecent exposure (presumably while sexually cruising) on a Perth beach.^[2]

His published works were extensive. He wrote poetry, short stories, and novels. Some works also included issues of science fiction and new-age spiritual guidance related to the interpretation of dreams. He was also involved in the Fellowship of Australian Writers.

A resident of Cottesloe, he was enthusiastic for its beach environment.^[3] As a writer in Western Australia conditions were not always supportive of the profession.^[4]

Glaskin's novel A Waltz Through the Hills^[5] was made into a 1989 film of the same title.

The Christos Experiment (or Christos Phenomenon), a phenomenon discussed by several of Glaskin's books,^[6] is an Altered State of Consciousness that can produce extraordinarily vivid and realistic Out-of-Body Experiences, Past-Life Experiences and Other-Life Experiences.

His most commercially successful work^[7][1] was a novel about a homosexual love affair, No End To The Way (1965), published under the pseudonym Neville Jackson.^[8] Interviewed in later life about the novel, Glaskin said: "It was banned in Australia and the paperback publishers, Corgi, researched the Australian censorship laws, and discovered that the book could not be shipped to Australia. So they chartered planes and flew them in".^[9] It may have been inspired by his relationship with Leo van de Pas, whom he met in a gay bar in Amsterdam, and lived with in later life.^[10]

Glaskin was also silent financial partner in The Coffee Pot, a popular Perth meeting place for homosexuals, bohemians and students which was established in the 1950s by Dutch Indonesian migrants, and was then the city's only late night cafe.^[11][2]

Works

• A world of our own (1955)
• A minor portrait (Barrie Books, London, 1957 - fiction)
• The mistress (Panther Books, 1957 - fiction)
• A lion in the sun (Varrie and Rockliff, 1960 - fiction)
• A change of mind (Doubleday, 1960 - fiction)
• The land that sleeps: Travel and adventure in the virgin west of Australia (Doubleday, NY, 1960 - travel)
• A waltz through the hills (Barrie and Rockliff, 1961 - fiction)
• A small selection of short stories (Barrie and Rockliff, 1962)
• Flight to landfall (Barrie and Rockliff, 1963 - fiction)
• The man who didn't count (Delacorte Press, 1965 - fiction)
• The road to nowhere (1967)
• Bird in my hands; a personal experience (Jenkins, 1967)
• Windows of the mind: Discovering your past and future lives through massage and mental exercise (Wildwood House, London, 1974)
• Two women:Two novellas (Ure Smith, Sydney, 1975)
• Worlds within: Probing the Christos experience (Wildwood House, London, 1976)
• A door to infinity: Proving the Christos experience (Wildwood House, London, 1979)
• One way to wonderland (1984)
• A many-splendored woman:A memoir of Han Suyin (Graham Brash, Singapore, 1995)

Notes

1. ^ Obituaries included: The West Australian, 15 March 2000, Arts Today p.5 (newspaper) Westside observer, 17 March 2000, p.3, The Sunday times (Perth, W.A.), 26 March 2000, p.53, Western word, June 2000, p.7, and in the Poste Newspapers.
2. ^ Burbidge, John 2007 Underexposed: Gerald Glaskin’s fiction. The Gay and Lesbian Review WorldwideVol 14, Issue 6 http://www.glreview.com/article.php?articleid=719 (accessed July 2011)
3. ^ Gerald Glaskin - talks about his love of Cottesloe (March 1984); suffers bad health needing hospitalisation (Sept. 1984). The West Australian, 24 March 1984, p.146; 26 Sept. 1984, p.13
4. ^ Clary, Mike (1971) It isn't easy to make a living as a writer. (WA authors comment on making a living as a writer). Daily News, 7 July 1971, p. 10
5. ^ Waltz Through the Hills/ Gerald Glaskin at the Internet Movie Database
6. ^ Worlds within: Probing the Christos experience. Wildwood House, London. 1976. and A door to infinity: Proving the Christos experience. Wildwood House, London. 1979
7. ^ Fisher, Jeremy No end to the way: using G.M. Glaskin’s life and works in creative writing teaching, University of New England, in Strange Bedfellows: Refereed Conference Papers of the 15th Annual AAWP Conference, 2010'
8. ^ State Library of Western Australia index
9. ^ Burbidge, John (Nov-Dec 2007), "Underexposed: Gerald Glaskin's fiction", The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3491/is_/ai_n29385790, retrieved 23 January 2009 
10. ^ Fisher, Jeremy No end to the way: using G.M. Glaskin’s life and works in creative writing teaching, University of New England, in Strange Bedfellows: Refereed Conference Papers of the 15th Annual AAWP Conference, 2010'
11. ^ Coffee Pot Exhibition Catalogue City Of Perth, 2010 ISBN 9780980851311

Persondata
Name	Glaskin, Gerald
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	16 December 1923
Place of birth	Perth, Australia
Date of death	2000
Place of death	Perth, Australia