View source for Randolph Stow

{{short description|Australian writer (1935–2010)}}
{{for|the South Australian judge|Randolph Isham Stow}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2015}}
{{Use Australian English|date=September 2015}}
{{infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name          = Randolph Stow
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| pseudonym     = 
| birth_name     = Julian Randolph Stow
| nickname      = Mick<ref name="austlit">[https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A6363 AustLit, 2016, ''Randolph Stow'' (23 September 2018). ]</ref>
| birth_date     = {{Birth date|1935|11|28|df=y}}
| birth_place    = [[Geraldton]], [[Western Australia]]
| death_date     = {{death date and age|2010|5|29|1935|11|28|df=y}}
| death_place    = [[Harwich]], [[Essex]], England, United Kingdom
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| alma_mater    = [[University of Western Australia]]
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| notableworks  = ''[[To the Islands]]'' (1958); <br>''[[Tourmaline (novel)|Tourmaline]]'' (1963); <br>''[[The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea]]'' (1965)
| spouse(s)     = 
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| awards        = [[Miles Franklin Award]] (1958)<br />[[Patrick White Award]] (1979)
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'''Julian Randolph Stow''' (28 November 1935 – 29 May 2010) was an  Australian-born writer, novelist and poet.

==Early life==
Born in [[Geraldton]], [[Western Australia]], Randolph Stow was the son of Mary Campbell Stow née Sewell and Cedric Ernest Stow, a lawyer.<ref name="austlit"/>

Stow attended Geraldton Primary and High schools,  [[Guildford Grammar School]], the [[University of Western Australia]], and the [[University of Sydney]]. During his undergraduate years in Western Australia he wrote two novels and a collection of poetry, which were published in [[London]] by Macdonald & Co.  He taught English literature at the  [[University of Adelaide]], the University of Western Australia and the [[University of Leeds]].

==Career==
He also worked on an [[Mission (station)|Aboriginal mission]] in the [[Kimberley (Western Australia)|Kimberley]], which he used as background for his third novel ''To the Islands''. Stow further worked as an assistant to an [[anthropologist]], Charles Julius, and as a cadet [[patrol officer]] in the [[Trobriand Islands]] off the east coast of [[New Guinea]]. In the Trobriands he suffered a mental and physical [[Mental breakdown|breakdown]] that led to his repatriation to Australia. Twenty years later, he used these last experiences in his novel ''Visitants''.

Stow first visited England in 1960 and lived there for a few years, although he returned several times to Australia. ''Tourmaline'', his fourth novel, was completed in 1962 while he taught in [[Leeds]]. In 1964 and 1965 he travelled in North America on a [[Harkness Fellowship]], including a sojourn in [[Aztec, New Mexico]], during which he wrote one of his best known novels, ''The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea''. While living in Perth (WA) in 1966 he wrote his popular children's book ''Midnite''.

From 1969 to 1981 he lived at [[East Bergholt]] in [[Suffolk]] in England, his ancestral county, and he used traditional tales from that area to inform  his novel ''The Girl Green as Elderflower''.  The last decades of his life he spent in nearby [[Harwich]], the setting for his final novel ''The Suburbs of Hell''. He last visited Australia in 1974.

Stow died in England on 29 May 2010 of a [[pulmonary embolism]], having been diagnosed with [[liver cancer]].<ref>[http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/alr/index.php/theaustralian/comments/randolph_stow_australia_loses_one_of_its_greatest_writers The Australian, 31 May 2010] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100614032204/http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/alr/index.php/theaustralian/comments/randolph_stow_australia_loses_one_of_its_greatest_writers |date=14 June 2010 }}</ref>

== ''The Girl Green as Elderflower'' (1980) ==
''The Girl Green as Elderflower'' is often considered to be closely linked to Stow's life.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Bennett|first=Bruce|date=December 1981|title=Discussions with Randolph Stow|journal=Westerly|pages=53–61}}</ref> After dealing with a bout of [[malaria]] in [[Papua New Guinea]], he moved to [[East Bergholt]] in [[Suffolk]] in England from 1969 to 1981, his ancestral county, and he used traditional tales from that area, many of which he translated from Latin himself, to inform his novel.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Tipping|first=Richard Kelly|date=November 1987|title=A Conversation with Randolph Stow|journal=Antipodes|volume=1|pages=71–74}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> The regional stories Stow used for the novel were collected by [[William of Newburgh]], [[Gervase of Tilbury]], [[Gerald the Welshman]], [[Ralph of Coggeshall|Ralph Coggeshall]], [[Roger of Howden|Roger Howden]], and [[Walter Map]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Duckworth|first=Melanie|date=2011-11-01|title=Grievous Music: Randolph Stow's Middle Ages|journal=Australian Literary Studies|doi=10.20314/als.e8d9ec4f7b|issn=0004-9697}}</ref> Many of the characters in the novel are based on Stow's friends. He conducted research in advance of publication for several years. In 1978, he and [[John Constable]]'s great-great-grandson were in a serious car accident, which finally spurred Stow to begin writing the novel. On New Year's Day 1979, he began writing and finished thirty-two days later.<ref name=":0" />

Stow was influenced by the focus on particular places in English [[Victorian literature]] and set the entire novel in [[Suffolk]].<ref name=":0" /> Literary scholar Melanie Duckworth has claimed that, in ''The Girl Green as Elderflower,'' Suffolk is not mere setting, but rather a textured and historied place. Although he kept the location static, the novel takes place over a variety of time periods. It focuses one place throughout and across time. Stow engages in what Duckworth calls "Australian [[medievalism]]," drawing connections between the [[Middle Ages]] and [[Postcolonialism|postcolonial]] [[Australia]] and [[Papua New Guinea]]. This connection is most clear between the medieval legend of [[Green children of Woolpit|green children]] and the novel's titular Welsh "girl green." Stow draws a parallel between greenness and strangeness in the medieval period to the aftermath of contemporary [[Colonialism|colonial]] projects. Ultimately, according to Duckworth, it is trauma (both for the main character, Crispin Clare, and the colonial/postcolonial places he inhabits) that draws the narrative out of and across time. Destabilization of time is positioned as a means of recovery, particularly for Clare.<ref name=":1" />

In March 2019, La Mama Courthouse Theatre in [[Melbourne]], Australia adapted ''The Girl Green as Elderflower'' into a musical. It was adapted by Richard Davies and directed and orchestrated by Sara Grenfell.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://theatrepress.com.au/2019/03/24/review-the-girl-green-as-elderflower/|title=Review: The Girl Green as Elderflower|date=2019-03-24|website=Theatre Press|language=en|access-date=2019-12-12}}</ref>

==Awards and legacy==
His novel ''To the Islands'' won the [[Miles Franklin Award]] for 1958.<ref>[http://theconversation.com/the-case-for-randolph-stows-to-the-islands-28193 Suzie Gibson. The Case for Randolph Stow's To the Islands. The Conversation, 24 June 2014.]</ref> He was awarded the [[Patrick White Award]] in 1979. As well as producing fiction, poetry, and numerous book reviews for ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'', he also wrote libretti for musical theatre works by [[Peter Maxwell Davies]].

A considerable number of Randolph Stow's poems are listed in the State Library of Western Australia online catalogue<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/ |title=Catalogue: State Library of WA & WA Health Libraries Network |access-date=19 August 2006 |archive-date=12 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180912182347/http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> with indications where they have been anthologised.

==Personal life and family==
Julian Randolph Stow's paternal grandfather was [[Francis Leslie Stow]], a [[Department of the Attorney General (Western Australia)#Solicitor General|Crown Solicitor of Western Australia]].<ref>''The West Australian'', 15 May 1935 p. 12.</ref> Stow's great-grandfather was [[Randolph Isham Stow]], a judge on the [[Supreme Court of South Australia]] and Attorney-General of South Australia; a great-great-uncle, [[Jefferson Stow]] was prominent as an explorer of [[northern Australia]], and Stow's great-great-grandfather, the Rev. [[Thomas Quinton Stow]], was a pioneering Congregational minister in South Australia.<ref name="austlit"/> The Stow family was from [[Suffolk]], where they had owned land for several generations before [[Thomas Stow]] was appointed the colonial missionary to [[South Australia]] by the London Colonial Missionary Society in 1836. In 1837, they relocated to South Australia. After Thomas Stow's death, the [[Stow Memorial Church]] was constructed in his honor. His wife, Elizabeth Randolph Eppes, was American and her mother was [[Thomas Jefferson]]'s first cousin. The Stow lineage can be traced back to the [[House of Plantagenet|Plantagenets]] and [[William the Conqueror]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Beston|first=John B.|date=1975|title=The Family Background and Literary Career of Randolph Stow|journal=The Literary Half-yearly|volume=16|pages=125–134}}</ref>

Stow's mother's family settled in Australia in the 1830s and were some of the earliest to arrive. His great-grandfather, George Sewell, arrived in Australia in 1835; soon after, the rest of his family relocated from [[Essex]] to Australia. Sewell eventually moved from [[Perth]] to [[Geraldton]], where his descendants remained.<ref name=":3" /> Stow grew up very interested in the traditional stories and histories of the region.<ref name=":2" />

A deeply private person, Stow's life was dogged at times by loneliness and depression (including two suicide attempts), probable alcoholism, an addiction to prescription drugs, and a struggle to come to terms with his [[homosexuality]] in a time when it was oppressed.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cordite.org.au/reviews/hall-stow-falkiner/|title=Phillip Hall Reviews Mick: A Life of Randolph Stow|website=Cordite Poetry Review|date=22 March 2016 |access-date=2016-04-20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://overland.org.au/2013/02/the-private-letters-of-poets/|title=The private letters of poets|website=Overland literary journal|date=5 February 2013 |access-date=2016-04-20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/randolph-stows-farewell-to-australia-for-a-life-of-selfexile-20160202-gmitek.html|title=Randolph Stow's farewell to Australia for a life of self-exile|website=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=2 February 2016 |access-date=2016-04-20}}</ref>

==Awards list==
* Australian Literature Society gold medal, 1957, 1958
* 1958 [[Miles Franklin Literary Award]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Past winners|url=http://www.milesfranklin.com.au/about_pastwinners_NEW|website=Miles Franklin Literary Award|access-date=2 January 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150108101928/http://www.milesfranklin.com.au/about_pastwinners_NEW|archive-date=8 January 2015|df=dmy-all}}</ref>
* Britannica–Australia award, 1966
* Grace Leven Prize, 1969
* 1979 [[Patrick White Award]]
* 1989 The Randolph Stow Young Writers Award was established in his honour to encourage school students in the [[Geraldton, Western Australia|Geraldton]] region of [[Western Australia]] to write.<ref>{{cite web|title=Randolph Stow Young Writers Award|url=http://library.cgg.wa.gov.au/randolph-stow-young-writers-award/|website=City of Greater Geraldton Regional Library|access-date=15 December 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150102140358/http://library.cgg.wa.gov.au/randolph-stow-young-writers-award/|archive-date=2 January 2015|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

==Selected works==
{{div col}}

===Novels===
*''A Haunted Land'' (1956)<ref>{{Citation | author1=Randolph Stow | title=A haunted land | publication-date=1957 | publisher=New York Macmillan | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/15755182 | access-date=17 March 2021}}</ref>
*''The Bystander'' (1957)<ref>{{Citation | author1=Stow, Randolph | title=The bystander | publication-date=1957 | publisher=Macdonald | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/8500219 | access-date=17 March 2021}}</ref>
*''[[To the Islands]]'' (1958) (revised in 1982)
*''[[Tourmaline (novel)|Tourmaline]]'' (1963)
*''[[The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea]]'' (1965)
*''Visitants'' (1979)<ref>{{Citation |author1=Stow, Randolph |title=Visitants: a novel |date=1981 |publisher=The Text Publishing Company |edition=1st American |isbn=978-0-8008-8018-7}}</ref>
*''The Girl Green as Elderflower'' (1980)<ref>{{Citation | author1=Stow, Randolph | title=The girl green as elderflower | year=1980  | publisher=Secker and Warburg | isbn=978-0-436-49731-5}}</ref>
*''The Suburbs of Hell'' (1984)<ref>{{Citation | author1=Stow, Randolph |title=The Suburbs of Hell |date=2015 |publisher=The Text Publishing Company |isbn=978-1-922253-12-5}}</ref>

===Poetry===
*''Act One'' (1957)<ref>{{Citation | author1=Stow, Randolph | title=Act one : poems | publication-date=1957 | publisher=MacDonald | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/8473190 | access-date=17 March 2021}}</ref>
*''Outrider: Poems 1956–1962'' (1962)<ref>{{Citation |author1=Stow, Randolph |author2=Nolan, Sidney |title=Outrider: poems, 1956–1962 |date=1962 |location=London |publisher=Macdonald |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/8473216 |access-date=17 March 2021 |via=Trove}}</ref>
*''[[A Counterfeit Silence: Selected Poems]]'' (1969)
*''The Land's Meaning: New Selected Poems'' ed. [[John Kinsella (poet)|John Kinsella]]<ref>{{Citation | author1=Randolph Stow | author2=Kinsella, John, 1963– | title=The land's meaning new selected poems | publication-date=2012 | publisher=Fremantle, W.A Fremantle Press | edition=1st | isbn=978-1-921888-09-0}}</ref>

===Children's===
*''Midnite: The Story of a Wild Colonial Boy'' 1967

===Musical theatre===
*''[[Eight Songs for a Mad King]]'' 1969, libretto
*''[[Miss Donnithorne's Maggot]]'' 1974, libretto
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
* Carey, Gabrielle ''Moving Among Strangers: Randolph Stow and My Family'', University of Queensland Press, 2014
* Falkiner, Suzanne ''Mick: A Life of Randolph Stow'', University of Western Australia Press, 2016

==External links==
{{Library resources box
 |by=yes
 |viaf=112071232}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110224154217/http://www.cgg.wa.gov.au/notable-people/randolph-stow Randolph Stow – Writer]
* [http://www.nla.gov.au/openpublish/index.php/jasal/article/view/1839/2237 Graeme Kinross-Smith 'Randolph Stow: a Photo essay' ''JASAL'' 10, 2010]
* [http://www.nla.gov.au/openpublish/index.php/jasal/article/view/1458/2205 David Fonteyn Ecological Allegory: ''Tourmaline'', an Example' ''JASAL'' 10 (2010)]
* [http://www.nla.gov.au/openpublish/index.php/jasal/article/view/1488/2225 Kerry Leves ' Toxic flowers: Randolph Stow's unfused horizons' ''JASAL'' 10 (2010)]
* [http://www.nla.gov.au/openpublish/index.php/jasal/article/view/41/62 Bernadette Brennan 'Words of Water: Reading Otherness in ''Tourmaline'' and ''Oyster'' ' ''JASAL'' 3 (2004)]

{{Miles Franklin Literary Award}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stow, Randolph}}
[[Category:Randolph Stow| ]]
[[Category:1935 births]]
[[Category:2010 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Leeds]]
[[Category:Australian opera librettists]]
[[Category:Australian people of English descent]]
[[Category:Deaths from liver cancer in England]]
[[Category:People educated at Guildford Grammar School]]
[[Category:Harkness Fellows]]
[[Category:People from Geraldton]]
[[Category:University of Western Australia alumni]]
[[Category:Writers from Western Australia]]
[[Category:Miles Franklin Award winners]]
[[Category:Patrick White Award winners]]
[[Category:ALS Gold Medal winners]]
[[Category:20th-century Australian novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Australian poets]]
[[Category:Australian male poets]]
[[Category:20th-century Australian dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Australian male novelists]]
[[Category:Australian male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century Australian male writers]]
[[Category:Deaths from pulmonary embolism]]