Thelma Forshaw

Thelma Honora Forshaw was born on 1 August 1923 at Glebe Point – a suburb of Sydney. Her father, Leslie Alfred Forshaw (1901–1935), was a labourer and part-time boxer, her mother was Mary Winifred Forshaw (née Burke, 1889–1949), and her two younger brothers Walter and Leslie junior.{{Cite web |url=http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/NameSearch/Interface/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=4954415 |title=A9301, Forshaw Thelma Honora |publisher=National Archives of Australia |accessdate=13 November 2012 |quote=Forshaw Thelma Honora: Service Number – 93720 : Date of birth – 1 Aug 1923 : Place of birth – Glebe Point NSW : Place of enlistment – Sydney: Next of Kin – Forshaw Mary }}.{{Cite news |url=http://www.bulletin.glebesociety.org.au/2011_07.pdf |title=Who Lived in Your Street? – Thelma Honora Forshaw (1923–95) |work=Glebe Society Bulletin |publisher=The Glebe Society Inc |page=8 |issn=1836-599X |date=July–August 2011 |accessdate=13 November 2012 }} From August 1935 after her father's death,{{Cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17196366 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=10 August 1935 |accessdate=13 November 2012 |page=13 |via=National Library of Australia }} the family lived with relatives in Annandale. Forshaw was educated at St Michael's Catholic Primary School in Stanmore and St Fiacre's Primary School in Leichardt. At the age of 14 years she wrote a poem, "Idyll of a Summer Noon", which was published in The Sydney Morning Herald in February 1938.{{Cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27980916 |title=Idyll of a Summer Noon |last=Forshaw |first=Thelma |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=8 February 1938 |accessdate=13 November 2012 |page=23 Supplement: Women's Supplement |via=National Library of Australia }} Forshaw undertook tertiary studies at Sydney Teachers' College.

During World War II, Forshaw enlisted on 15 April 1942 in the WAAAF and was honourably discharged as an Aircraftwoman on 1 March 1943.{{Cite web |url=http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/Veteran.aspx?serviceId=R&veteranId=936176 |title=Forshaw, Thelma Honora |publisher=World War Two Nominal Roll. Commonwealth of Australia |year=2002 |accessdate=13 November 2012}}Adelaide (1988) p. 66. She worked as a secretary and an advertising writer before marrying George Korting, an Austrian refugee, in 1948. In January 1951, using her married name, Thelma Korting, she wrote "This Veil Wore Me!" in The Argus.{{Cite news |url =http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23053951 |title=This Veil Wore Me! Says Thelma Korting |newspaper=The Argus |location=Melbourne |date=26 January 1951 |accessdate=13 November 2012 |page=29 Supplement: The Argus Week-End Magazine |via=National Library of Australia}} Subsequently, she worked as a freelancer and book reviewer for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian, The Bulletin, Meanjin, Nation, Quadrant and other publications.

Her short stories appeared in a number of journals and anthologies. In 1967, a collection of them, An Affair of Clowns, was published by Angus & Robertson. Stephen Torre, in The Cambridge History of Australian Literature (2009), described the book's first section, "Some Customs of My Clan" as "stories about a working-class Irish Catholic family narrated by a daughter, an aspiring writer. The manners of the Sydney 'clan' include hard drinking, gambling, ferocious gossiping and scandal-mongering, fighting and loving."{{Cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fmLWrSgeOUgC&q=%22Thelma+Forshaw%22&pg=PA430 |title=The Cambridge History of Australian Literature |chapter=The Short Story Since 1950 |page=430 |last=Torre |first=Stephen |date=17 September 2009 |editor=Peter Pierce |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn = 978-0-52188-165-4 |accessdate=13 November 2012}} These stories were notable for their realistic characters set within gritty, penetrating and humorous depictions of Australian city life in the first half of the 20th century, with a focus on outsiders, working-class lifestyles and the migrant experience.

In January 1972 Forshaw wrote a review of Germaine Greer's book, The Female Eunuch (1970) for The Age which "has stirred up a considerable controversy".{{Cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19720120&id=neFUAAAAIBAJ&pg=5321,3108293 |title=Letters to the Editor |page=8 |work=The Age |date=20 January 1972 |accessdate=13 November 2012}} According to Keith Dunstan in The Best Australian Profiles (2004), this review was "[t]he most famous.... [Forshaw] described [The Female Eunuch] as 'the orchestrated over-the-back-fence grizzle... based on the curious fancy... we were all men, and then some fiend castrated half of us.'"{{Cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ShkiqPn_tToC&q=Thelma+Forshaw&pg=PA53 |title=The Best Australian Profiles |chapter=Germaine Greer |last=Dunstan |first=Keith |authorlink=Keith Dunstan |editor=Matthew Ricketson |page=53 |location=Melbourne, Vic |publisher=Black Inc |year=2004 |isbn=9781863952934}} Forshaw compared herself to Greer: "I'm not a middle-class lady defending her domain. My parents were working class.... I'm a housewife because I want to, I write because I want to, I love my husband who is a male, chauvinist pig and I love my two children."{{Cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=nuFUAAAAIBAJ&pg=4028,3254271&dq=thelma-forshaw&hl=en |title=Thelma is so Funny, Bawdy |last=Lewis |first=John |work=The Age |page=4 |date=21 January 1972 |accessdate=13 November 2012 }}

Thelma Forshaw died on 8 October 1995 of a stroke in her sleep, aged 72, and was survived by her husband George and their children Helene and Grea.in Thorpe, et al. (1995).

;Short story collection

• {{Cite book |last=Forshaw |first=Thelma |title=An Affair of Clowns : Short Stories and Sketches |date=1967 |publisher=Angus & Robertson |location=Sydney}}{{Cite web |url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/27441463?versionId=33080417 |title=An Affair of Clowns: Short Stories and Sketches / by Thelma Forshaw |publisher=National Library of Australia |accessdate=13 November 2012 }}

;Selected anthologised short stories

Thelma Forshaw's short stories have appeared in numerous publications and have been widely anthologised.

• "Love-Life of a Boozer", Modern Australian Humour, Bill Wannan (ed), Lansdowne Press Pty Ltd, 1962
• "Better than Australia, No?", Two Ways Meet: Stories of Migrants in Australia, Louise Elizabeth Rorabacher (ed), FW Cheshire, 1963
• "The Widow", "The One That Got Away", Australian Pavements: An Urban Anthology, Bill Wannan (ed), Lansdowne Press Pty Ltd, 1964
• "Love-Life of a Boozer", An Overland Muster: Selections from Overland, 1954–1964, Stephen Murray-Smith (ed), Jacaranda Press, 1965
• {{cite book |last = Forshaw |first = Thelma |title = Short Stories of Australia: The Moderns |chapter = The Wowser |date=1967 |others = Compiled, introduction by Beatrice Davis |publisher = Angus & Robertson |location = Sydney, NSW }}{{cite web |url = http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/8482970?versionId=46483690 |title = Short Stories of Australia: The Moderns / Chosen with an Introduction by Beatrice Davis |publisher = National Library of Australia |accessdate = 13 November 2012 }}
• "The Widow", Australian Writing Today, Charles Higham (ed), Penguin Books, 1968
• "Love-Life of a Boozer", The Pick of Modern Australian Humour: A sparkling collection from the work of Australia's foremost humorists, Bill Wannan (ed), Lansdowne Press Pty Ltd, 1968
• "The Mateship Syndrome", Modern Australian Short Stories, Mary Lord (ed), Edward Arnold, 1971
• {{cite book |last = Forshaw |first = Thelma |title = It Could Be You |chapter = The Widow |date=1972 |editor = Hal Porter |publisher = Rigby |location = Adelaide, SA |isbn = 0-851-79406-8 }}{{cite web |url = http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/8511532?q&sort=holdings+desc&_=1352801936873&versionId=45752136 |title = It Could Be You / edited by Hal Porter |publisher = National Library of Australia |accessdate = 13 November 2012 }}
• "The Wowser", Best Australian Short Stories, Douglas Stewart and Beatrice Davis (ed), Lloyd O'Neil, 1973
• "The Ace (Mateship Syndrome) ", Stories from Down Under, AG Ayre (ed), Longman, 1976
• "The Demo", The Penguin Book of Australian Short Stories, Harry Heseltine (ed), Penguin Books, 1976
• "The Lampoonist", The White Chrysanthemum: Changing Images of Australian Motherhood, Nancy Keesing (ed), Angus & Robertson, 1977
• "On Our Safari", Australian Short Stories, Kerryn Goldsworthy (ed), JM Dent Pty Ltd, 1983
• "A tuntetes (The Demo) ", Vilagirodalmi Folyoirat (World Literary Magazine) 1985/8, Kardos Laszlo (ed), World, 1985
• "The Demo", Impressions of Australia, Eva Laegdsgaard, Inger Marie Dahl (ed), Systime, 1986
• {{cite book | last1= Forshaw |first = Thelma |editor = Lawerence Thomas Hergenhan |title = The Australian Short Story : A Collection 1890s to 1990s |chapter = The Mateship Syndrome |publication-date = 1992 |publisher = University of Queensland Press |location = St Lucia, Queensland |edition=2nd |year = 1992 |isbn=978-0-7022-2348-8 }}{{cite web |url = http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/11486207?q&sort=holdings+desc&_=1352868875462&versionId=45782818 |title = The Australian Short Story : A Collection 1890s to 1990s / edited and introduced by Laurie Hergenhan |publisher = National Library of Australia |accessdate = 14 November 2012 }}
• "Better than Australia, No?", Living Here: Short Stories from Australasia 1938–1988, Edmund Campion (ed), Allen & Unwin, 1988
• "The Demo", Ourselves Among Others: Cross Cultural Readings for Writers, Carl J Verberg (ed), Bedford Books, 1988
• "The Procurer", Feeling Restless: Australian Women's Short Stories 1940–1969, Connie Burns and Marygai McNamara (ed), Imprint, 1989
• "The Grand Passion", Goodbye to Romance: Stories by New Zealand and Australian Women Writers, Elizabeth Webby and Lydia Wevers (ed), Allen & Unwin, 1989
• "Underdogging", Stop Me if You've Heard It: Anthology of Humorous Short Stories, Jane Arms (ed), ABC Enterprises, 1989
• "The Mateship Syndrome", Under Southern Skies, Eva Laegdsgaard and Inger Marie Dahl (ed), Systime, 1989
• "The Widow", The Oxford Book of Australian Short Stories, Michael Wilding (ed), Oxford University Press, 1994

{{reflist}}

• {{Cite book |last=Adelaide |first=Debra |title=Australian Women Writers: A Bibliographic Guide |date=1988 |publisher=Pandora |location=London |isbn=0-863-58148-X }}
• {{Cite book |editor1-first=D W |editor1-last=Thorpe |editor2-first=Kirsten |editor2-last=Alexander |editor3-first=Clare |editor3-last=Kilgannon |editor4-first=Meredith |editor4-last=Rose |editor5-first=Raylee |editor5-last=Singh |title=Who's Who of Australian Writers |publisher=National Centre for Australian Studies, University of Michigan |location=Ann Arbor, Michigan |edition=2 |page=228 |year=1995 |isbn=978-1-8755-8920-3}}

• [http://nla.gov.au/nla.oh-vn509823 Thelma Forshaw] interviewed by Hazel de Berg on 15 August 1969 for the Hazel de Berg collection held at National Library of Australia.
• The University of Queensland Fryer Library holds two boxes of Forshaw's papers.{{Cite web |url=https://www.library.uq.edu.au/fryer-library/ms/uqfl77.pdf |title=UQFL77 Thelma Forshaw Collection Fryer Library Manuscript Finding Aid |website=www.library.uq.edu.au|archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=10 October 2017}}
• The University of Queensland Fryer Library holds several unpublished poems by Forshaw in the Dorothy Hill collection.{{Cite web |url=https://www.library.uq.edu.au/fryer-library/ms/uqfl25.pdf |title=UQFL25 Dorothy Hill Collection Fryer Library Manuscript Finding Aid |website=www.library.uq.edu.au |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=10 October 2017}}

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Category:1923 births

Category:1995 deaths

Category:Australian women short story writers

Category:20th-century Australian women writers

Category:20th-century Australian short story writers