Jon Cleary

{{Short description|Australian writer (1917–2010)}}

{{About|the Australian author|the British-born musician|Jon Cleary (musician)|other uses|John Cleary (disambiguation)}}

{{Use Australian English|date=December 2012}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Jon Cleary

| image = Jon Cleary author.jpg

| imagesize = 200px

| caption =

| pseudonym =

| birth_name = Jon Stephen Cleary

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1917|11|22|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Erskineville, New South Wales, Australia

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2010|7|19|1917|11|22|df=yes}}

| death_place = New South Wales, Australia

| resting_place =

| nationality = Australian

| occupation = Writer

| years_active = 1942–2007

| genre = Drama, crime fiction

| notableworks = The Sundowners, Scobie Malone series

| spouse = Joy Cleary
(m. 1946–2003; her death)

| children = 2

}}

Jon Stephen Cleary (22 November 1917{{spaced ndash}}19 July 2010{{cite news|url=http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/storytelling-success-made-him-one-of-australias-great-writers-20100727-10u8z.html|first=Malcolm|last=Brown|title=Storytelling success made him one of Australia's great writers|newspaper=Brisbane Times|date=28 July 2010}}{{cite web|url=http://mooneevalleylibraries.blogspot.com/2010/07/blah-de-blah.html|publisher=The Reading Room|title=Vale to Jon Cleary|date=27 July 2010}}) was an Australian writer and novelist. He wrote numerous books, including The Sundowners (1951), a portrait of a rural family in the 1920s as they move from one job to the next, and The High Commissioner (1966), the first of a long series of popular detective stories featuring Sydney Police Inspector Scobie Malone. A number of Cleary's works have been the subject of film and television adaptations.

Early life and war service

=Early life=

Cleary was born in Erskineville, Sydney and educated at Marist Brothers College, Randwick. When he was ten his father spent six months in Long Bay Gaol for stealing five pounds. Debt collectors took everything in the Cleary household "except a piano and my mother's double bed", said Cleary. "I remember sitting on the steps with Mum, who was weeping bitterly, and she said, 'Don't ever owe anything to anybody.' That sticks with you, and it's why I gained a justifiable reputation for being tight with money." However he added that "the night after we were repossessed, our friends turned up with chairs, an old table, cakes, sandwiches – they were all battlers but they helped out."

Cleary left school in 1932, aged 14, to help his family financially. He spent the following eight years doing a variety of jobs, notably as a commercial artist for Austral Toon under Eric Porter.{{cite web|url=http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;adv=;group=;groupequals=;holdingType=;page=0;parentid=;query=vagg%20cleary;querytype=;rec=0;resCount=10 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121130060212/http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;adv=;group=;groupequals=;holdingType=;page=0;parentid=;query=vagg%20cleary;querytype=;rec=0;resCount=10 |url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-11-30 |title=Jon Cleary Interviewed by Stephen Vagg: Oral History |publisher=National Film and Sound Archive }} He wrote his first story in 1938 at the request of Joe Morley, a journalist friend of Cleary's father. It was a piece about being unemployed which Cleary did not finish because he thought it was self-pitying but he found he did enjoy the process of writing.

=War service=

Cleary enlisted in the Australian army on 27 May 1940 and served in the Middle East before being transferred to the Military History Unit. He served for a time in New Guinea, where his clerk was Lee Robinson, and was discharged on 10 October 1945 with the rank of lieutenant.{{cite web|url=http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/Veteran.aspx?serviceId=A&veteranId=134826|title=World War 2 Nominal Roll for Jon Cleary}}

Writing career

=Early stories=

Cleary began writing regularly in the army, selling his first story in 1940. The following year he won £50 prize writing a story for the Daily Mirror. It was killed by the censor but the newspaper hired Cleary to write a weekly story. He began also to write for The Australian Journal, whose editor sent four of Cleary's short stories to American agent Paul Reynolds, who began selling them to American magazines such as Cosmopolitan and The Saturday Evening Post.{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18008509|title=CLEARY HEARD NEWS IN LONDON.|newspaper= The Sydney Morning Herald|date=28 December 1946|access-date=27 February 2012|page=7|via=National Library of Australia}} and in 1945 won equal first prize in a competition for the ABC for his radio play Safe Horizon.{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26072022|title=Divided Award in ABC Competition.|newspaper=The Mercury|location=Hobart, Tasmania|date=31 January 1945|access-date=27 February 2012|page=7|via=National Library of Australia}} In 1946 a collection of his short stories was published called These Small Glories.

=''You Can't See 'Round Corners''=

Cleary's first novel was the 1947 work, You Can't See 'Round Corners, about the life of an army deserter wanted for the sensational murder of his girlfriend in wartime Sydney. Cleary started writing this in the army and finished it on board a ship en route to London where he had hoped to find work as a screenwriter. Instead he worked as a journalist for the Australia News and Information Bureau from 1948 to 50, a job he continued in New York from 1950 to 51.{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70518890|title=A Man in a Queue.|newspaper=Albany Advertiser|location=W.A.|date=8 June 1950|access-date=27 February 2012|page=2|via=National Library of Australia}}

He continued writing short stories and novels. His second novel, The Long Shadow (1949) was a thriller, a genre he tackled at the suggestion of his editor Graham Greene. Just Let Me Be (1950) was set in Coogee, and was later filmed for British TV.

=''The Sundowners''=

While in New York Cleary wrote his fourth published novel, The Sundowners, based on stories of his father. It was published in 1952 and sold three million copies, enabling Cleary to write full-time.

Cleary lived in Italy for a year then returned home to Australia in 1953 after seven years away.{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52935895|title=AUSTRALIAN AUTHOR RETURNS HOME.|newspaper=The West Australian|location=Perth|date=21 October 1953|access-date=27 February 2012|page=18|via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news|newspaper=The Age|date=31 December 1960|page=10|title=Jon Cleary "Worth a Couple of Brigades to Authors"|first=John|last=Hetherington}}

His fifth novel, The Climate of Courage (1954), was based on his war experiences and sold well in Australia and Britain. He visited the Kimberley region in 1954, and the result was Justin Bayard (1955) (later filmed as Dust in the Sun (1958)).

=International writer=

Cleary then went back to live in London. His novels became increasingly set in countries other than Australia, with Cleary travelling extensively for the purposes of research.

"I realised at 40 I did not have the intellectual depth to be the writer I would like to be, so I determined to be as good a craftsman as I might be", Cleary said later on.[http://users.tpg.com.au/waldrenm/cleary.html Murray Waldren, 'Jon Cleary: Character Builder' The Weekend Australian 1998]

He had written a book about Australian politics, The Mayor's Nest, but his English publisher was worried it would not appeal to an international audience, and suggested a book on motor racing. Cleary had lived in Italy and become familiar with the motor races there. He wrote The Green Helmet in Spain in twenty days, and it became a best seller on its publication in 1957. Cleary also wrote the script for the 1961 film version.

He contributed to the script for The Siege of Pinchgut (1959){{cite magazine|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/wrecking-australian-stories-the-siege-of-pinchgut/|date=5 January 2024|access-date=5 January 2024|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|title=Wrecking Australian stories: The Siege of Pinchgut}} and helped rewrite the script to The Sundowners (1960) but his focus remained on novels: Back of Sunset (1959) was about the Australian Flying Doctors service; Strike Me Lucky (1959) was credited solely to his wife Joy but had been reworked by Cleary; North from Thursday (1960) was set in New Guinea; The Country of Marriage (1962) was set in England; Forests of the Night (1963) was set in Burma; A Flight of Chariots (1963) was about astronauts; The Fall of an Eagle (1965) was set in Anatolia; The Pulse of Danger (1966) was set in Bhutan.

He had time for script work, contributing to the screenplay for Damon and Pythias (1962) and writing an un-used draft for The Diamond Smugglers.

=Scobie Malone=

While in London, Cleary got the idea for a book about an Australian detective who has to arrest the Australian High Commissioner. The High Commissioner (1966) introduced the world to detective Scobie Malone although initially it was meant to be a stand-alone book. The novel sold well and was turned into a film Nobody Runs Forever (1968).

Cleary followed it with The Long Pursuit (1967), set during World War II, originally written as a film script.{{cite magazine |magazine=The Bulletin |volume=88 |number=4523 |title=An Unnecessary Journey "What has happened to everyone?" |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-689430487 |first=April |last=Hersey |page=42 |date=12 November 1966}}

In 1966 Cleary returned to Australia after three years abroad and sold his Pittwater House to buy one at Kirribilli. He said "I'm a professional craftsman and I should be judged on those standards. I like to think I'm a little better than a potboiler. If I was a pot boiler I would never take off eight months to write a novel."{{cite news|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=28 August 1966|page=80|first=Christopher|last=Day|title=The Golden Years of Jon Cleary}}

Cleary said 50% of his screenplays had been filmed by that stage and that he had recently turned down $50,000 to write a TV series set in the South Pacific. "Financially I could retire, mentally I couldn't," he said. He was working on a "social comedy" called The Ballad of Fingal McBride.

He then wrote Season of Doubt (1968), set in Beirut, and Remember Jack Hoxie (1969), set in the world of pop music.

=Return to Australia=

In the 1970s, Cleary returned to Sydney to live permanently, buying a block of land at Kirribilli opposite the Sydney Opera House, next to businessman Eric McClintock. Cleary built a house on this block and it became his home for the rest of his life. During the 1970s and 1980s Cleary continued to travel two months of the year to research his novels.

He wanted to write about the Opera House so Scobie Malone returned for Helga's Web (1970), which was later filmed (Cleary wrote a script which was not used). Mask of the Andes (1971) was set in Bolivia and Man's Estate (1972) among the British upper class.

Cleary returned to Scobie Malone for Ransom (1973), set in New York, but then stopped writing about the detective as he did not wish to be trapped as a writer. He did Peter's Pence (1974) a thriller; The Safe House (1975), about World War II; A Sound of Lightning (1976), set in Montana. He also wrote the screenplay for Sidecar Racers (1975).

Cleary had a big-selling success with High Road to China (1977), an adventure story later filmed in 1982. Vortex (1978) was about tornados; The Beaufort Sisters (1979), about sisters from Kansas; A Very Private War (1980) was about coastwatchers in World War II; The Faraway Drums (1981) was about a plot to assassinate King George V; The Golden Sabre (1982) was set during the 1917 Russian Revolution; Spearfield's Daughter (1983) was later filmed as a mini series; The Phoenix Tree (1984) was set in Japan during World War II; The City of Fading Light (1985) was set in 1939 Berlin.

=Return of Scobie Malone=

After Cleary's daughter's death from breast cancer in 1987, and his wife's subsequent ill health he travelled less.Susan Geason, "Jon Cleary: A Fortunate Life", The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 December 1992, p. 111 Writing the Scobie Malone series of novels enabled him to tell Australian stories which appealed to an international audience, and he remained popular with readers throughout his career. Malone returned in Dragons at the Party (1987), about the Australian Bicentennial, then was in Now and Then, Amen (1988), Babylon South (1989), Murder Song (1990), Pride's Harvest (1991), Dark Summer (1992), Bleak Spring (1993), Autumn Maze (1994), Winter Chill (1995), Endpeace (1996), A Different Turf (1997), Five Ring Circus (1998), Dilemma (1999), Bear Pit (2000), Yesterday's Shadow (2001), The Easy Sin (2002) and Degrees of Connection (2004). He then wound up the series, feeling he was getting stale.

=Final novels=

He published three more novels, all set in Australia: Miss Ambar Regrets (2004), Morning's Gone (2006) and Four-Cornered Circle (2007), then retired.

Personal life

Cleary met his wife Joy on his boat trip to England in 1946 and married her five days after they landed. They had two daughters, Catherine and Jane,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article201844288 |title=A MAN IN A QUEUE. |newspaper=The Beverley Times |location=WA |date=24 March 1950 |access-date=18 October 2015 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}} the latter of whom died of breast cancer at age 37, predeceasing both of her parents. Joy Cleary developed Alzheimer's disease and went to live in a nursing home prior to her death in 2003.[http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bookshow/jon-cleary-transcript-available/3301788 "Jon Cleary", The Book Show – Radio National, 26 February 2006]"I was very, very lucky", said Cleary of his marriage. "We were in love from the day we met to the day we – sorry, I mean she – died."{{cite news|url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/16/1065917540171.html|first=Christine|last=Cremen|title=A time for crime and for love|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=18 October 2003}}

Cleary was good friends with fellow writers Morris West and Alexander Baron. He was a regular churchgoer, attending Mass every Sunday. For the last three years of his life, he was in ill-health, attended by a full-time carer, and in and out of hospital with heart problems.{{cite news|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/writer-crafted-novels-for-seven-decades/story-e6frg8n6-1225895270711|first=Murray|last=Waldren|title=Writer crafted novels for seven decades|work=The Australian|date=22 July 2010}} He died on 19 July 2010, aged 92. The eulogy at his funeral was delivered by his friend and neighbour Sir Eric McClintock.[http://broomediocese.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/KCP-2010-07.pdf Kimberley Community Profile, Oct 2010] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210721193539/http://broomediocese.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/KCP-2010-07.pdf |date=21 July 2021 }}. Retrieved 24 June 2017

Assessment

During his lifetime, Cleary was one of the most popular Australian authors of all time. According to Murray Waldren, "his own assessment was that he lacked a poetic eye but had an eye for colour and composition and was strong on narrative and dialogue. And he took pride in the research underpinning his works."

Cleary once stated that the book which had most influenced him was The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. "He caught perfectly the almost heroism of a man who would have been shocked to hear that he was an hero ... I've always said that Greene could say more in one phrase than most writers in a chapter.""Jon Cleary: Interview" by Dianne Dempsey, Sun Herald, 5 October 1997, p. 43

Awards

  • 1944 – Australian Broadcasting Commission prize for radio drama (Safe Horizon)
  • 1950 – Australian Literary Society's Crouch Medal for Best Australian Novel (Just Let Me Be)
  • 1975 – Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Novel (Peter's Pence)
  • 1996 – Australian Crime Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award
  • 1996 – Ned Kelly Award for Lifelong Contribution to the Crime, Mystery and Detective Genres
  • 2004 – Ned Kelly Award for Best Novel (Degrees of Connection){{cite web|title=Ned Kelly Awards|publisher= Australian Crime Fiction Database|url=http://www.crimedownunder.com/nedkellyawards.html|access-date=15 September 2007}}

Bibliography

=[[Scobie Malone]] novels=

=Other novels=

{{colbegin}}

{{colend}}

=Short stories=

{{colbegin}}

  • The Way Out (1942)The Bulletin vol. 63 no. 3268. 30 September 1942 (p. 4)
  • Remember? (1943)The Australian Journal vol. 79 no. 933. 1 December 1943 (pp. 681–82)
  • A Long Time Dying (1943)The Australian Journal vol. 79 no. 930. 1 September 1943 (pp. 499–501)
  • Clouds in the Sun (1943)The Australian Journal vol. 79 no. 928. 1 July 1943 (pp. 384–85)
  • Idyll in Havoc (1943)The Australian Journal vol. 79 no. 927 1 June 1943 (pp. 331–334)
  • Safe Horizon (1943)The Australian Journal vol. 79 no. 925. 1 April 1943 (pp. 197–99, 206)
  • Hullo, Joe (1944)The Australian Journal vol. 79 no. 935. 1 February 1944 (pp. 96, 101–04)
  • I'd Like to Be There at the Finish (1944)The Australian Journal vol. 79 no. 944. 1 November 1944 (pp. 716–17)
  • Who Pays? (1944)The Australian Journal vol. 79 no. 940. 1 July 1944 (pp. 437–41)
  • Death Comes Slowly (1944)Coast to Coast : Australian Stories, 1943 Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1944 (pp. 32–42)
  • Title Bout (1945)The Australian Journal vol. 80 no. 949. 1 April 1945 (pp. 249–51, 254–55)
  • Brandy Martin and My Old Man (1945){{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17947510|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|title=The Sydney Morning Herald short story: Brandy Martin & My Old Man|date=18 July 1945|access-date=27 February 2012|page=7|via=National Library of Australia}}
  • My Heart is Dead and Gone{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17949078|title=The Sydney Morning Herald short story|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=8 August 1945|access-date=27 February 2012|page=7|via=National Library of Australia}}
  • Some Day I May Come Home Again (1945)The Australian Journal vol. 80 no. 946. 1 January 1945 (pp. 17–21)
  • These Small Glories (1946) – a collection of his short stories
  • Late Date (1946){{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17974409|title=Late Date|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=2 April 1946|access-date=27 February 2012|page= 4 (Supplement: The Sydney Morning Herald Magazine)|via=National Library of Australia}}
  • The Stranger (1946){{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17979320 |title=The Stranger.|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=4 June 1946|access-date=27 February 2012|page=7 Supplement: The Sydney Morning Herald Magazine|via=National Library of Australia}}
  • See You on the Bus (1946){{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55873083|title=See you [?] on the bus.|newspaper=The Mail|location=Adelaide|date=7 September 1946|access-date=27 February 2012|page=1 Supplement: Sunday Magazine|via=National Library of Australia}}
  • Sundowner on the Skylin (1946)The Australian Journal vol.81 no.961, 1 April 1946 (pp. 268–71, 285–88)
  • A Time TogetherThe Australian Journal vol.83 no.986 1 May 1948 (pp. 360–63)
  • Pillar of Salt (1951)Times Pictorial Dublin, Ireland; 3 November 1951, p. 14.
  • The Outsider (1951)Blue Book Magazine vol.93 no.2 June 1951 (pp.84–89)
  • No Taste for Trouble (1954)This story was serialised in the Sydney Morning Herald in 1954 on [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18409628 13 Feb], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18409914 15 Feb], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18410109 16 Feb], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18410281 17 Feb], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18410464 18 Feb], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18410928 19 Feb], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article57694818 20 Feb Pt 1], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18411127 20 Feb Pt 2], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18411203 22 Feb], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18411354 23 Feb], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18411900 25 Feb], [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18412071 26 Feb]
  • Man from Carolina (1958)
  • Friendly Enemies (1961){{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47253109|title=THE WEEKLY ROUND.|newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly|date=25 October 1961|access-date=10 March 2012|page=2|via=National Library of Australia}}
  • Pillar of Salt and other Stories (1963) – collection

{{colend}}

=Films=

=TV=

  • Just Let Me Be (1957) – Cleary did the adaptation of his novel
  • Bus Stop (1961) – two episodes
  • You Can't See 'Round Corners (1967), starring Ken Shorter, John Armstrong, Rowena Wallace and Carmen Duncan – based on his novel only
  • Spearfield's Daughter (1986) (mini series), starring Christopher Plummer, Nancy Marchand, Kim Braden and Steve Railsback – based on his novel

=Radio plays=

  • Debut (1943){{Citation

| title=Friday, October 8

| journal=ABC Weekly

|volume=5 |issue=40 |date=2 October 1943

| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1316075780

| id=nla.obj-1316075780

| access-date=28 December 2023

}}

  • Safe Horizon (1944)

=Plays=

  • Strike Me Lucky (1969) – from the novel{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51973856 |title="I'm disenchanted with Sydney...but it's home". |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly | date=30 July 1969 |access-date=28 February 2012 |page=13 |via=National Library of Australia}}
  • The Trumpets of Home

=Unpublished novels=

  • story of an AIF soldier who goes overseas (1947){{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43750009|title=Two Books Due From Jon Cleary.|newspaper=The Advertiser|location=Adelaide|date=27 December 1947|access-date=6 March 2012|page=9|via=National Library of Australia}}
  • the story of a father and son in Sydney 1927–47 with the background of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (circa 1947)
  • The Mayor's Nest (1956) – about Australian politics
  • The Vacant Mine (1979) – uncompleted novel

References

{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}