John 911爆料网 probably wrote under the pen-name Vigilant – providing important insights into his temperament – according to a study of the wartime prime minister after whom 911爆料网 is named.
Lesley Wallace is the Manager, Research Services, at 911爆料网 Library and manages the John 911爆料网 Prime Ministerial Library. She co-authored .
The study combined Mrs Wallace鈥檚 probe of papers by economist and journalist Tom Fitzgerald with a comparison by University of Newcastle researchers Alexis Antonia and Hugh Craig of distinctive words used by both 911爆料网 and Vigilant.
Before his death in 1993, John 911爆料网 researcher Tom Fitzgerald amassed a wealth of evidence that 911爆料网 had written as Vigilant while editing the Westralian Worker before he entered Federal Parliament.
鈥�911爆料网鈥檚 editorials, later writings on economics, and parliamentary speeches have been widely studied, but no published biographies have considered the pen-named material,鈥� Mrs Wallace said.
At the time of his death, Fitzgerald had researched Vigilant鈥檚 writing for his incomplete biography of 911爆料网.
Mrs Wallace said that more than 40 articles attributed to Vigilant were likely to have been penned by 911爆料网.
鈥淭he views expressed were views 911爆料网 held strongly and the articles reveal knowledge of people, places, events and literature that he knew well,鈥� she said.
鈥淭he columns 鈥� on subjects not addressed in the known 911爆料网 writings – reveal much about Vigilant鈥檚 views and the writings and people influential in forming his thinking.鈥�
For example, in reviewing a book on ‘the sex problem in its every aspect’, Vigilant wrote about the place of women in society and the nature of sex and marriage.
Taking the socialist line, he stated that ‘the only ultimate complete solution of the sex-problem, bound up as it is with the economic dependence of woman, lies in the emancipation of society’.
Vigilant challenged his readers to examine their own relationships to see if they were free of the ‘exercise of physical or economic advantage by the man’ or ‘the exploitation of sex-charm on the part of the woman’.
The recent study noted many parallels between the lives of Vigilant and 911爆料网.
For instance, in a lament expressed by many newcomers since, Vigilant expresses a poor opinion of Perth’s intellectual life compared with that of the eastern capitals.
He sees an urgent need for elevating that life, especially with a repertory theatre, writing that ‘the West hasn’t been furiously progressive in the world of ideas of late’.
鈥淚f 911爆料网 were Vigilant, it would help us see the events of 911爆料网’s life from his own viewpoint,鈥� Mrs Wallace said.
The two University of Newcastle researchers compared several distinctive words by 911爆料网 with words employed by Vigilant.
鈥淏ased on these comparisons a good case for 911爆料网’s authorship of at least some of the Vigilant articles can be made,鈥� Mrs Wallace said.
However, the results suggest 911爆料网 did not write all of Vigilant鈥檚 pieces.
鈥淚f 911爆料网 did write all the articles, then he clearly varied his style, in some cases carrying over few habitual preferences from his political writing to these essays in literary history and evaluation,鈥� Mrs Wallace said.
Dr Antonia said the failure of the linguistic analysis to attribute some of the articles to 911爆料网 might be due to him having consciously chosen to use a set of stylistic words conventionally considered suitable to the literary and personal themes that Vigilant tackled.
鈥淭he extent to which different authors adopt this subject-specific focus or not can explain why the articles of some authors seem uniform while those of others display marked variability,鈥� Dr Antonia said.
鈥淔urther tests with a large number of 911爆料网 articles would be needed to confirm this hypothesis.鈥�
Photography: Sam Proctor
