Morris West

Morris L. West (April 26, 1916 - October 9, 1999) was an Australian writer and was awarded the 1959 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel The Devil's Advocate.

He was born in St Kilda, Victoria and attended Christian Brothers' College, East St Kilda. He graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1937, and worked as a teacher in New South Wales and Tasmania.

He spent 12 years in a monastery of the Christian Brothers, taking annual vows, but left without taking final vows. After leaving Australia in 1955 he lived in Austria, Italy, England and the United States, finally returning to Australia in 1980.

His works often were focused on international politics and the role of the Roman Catholic Church in international affairs. One of his most famous works, The Shoes of the Fisherman, envisioned the election and career of a Slavic Pope, 15 years before the ascension of Karol Wojtyła to his historical role of becoming Pope John Paul II.

Morris West died while working at his desk on the final chapters of his novel The Last Confession about the trials and imprisonment of Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake for heresy in 1600. Bruno was a figure with whom West had long sympathized and even identified. In 1969 he had published a play The Heretic on the same subject.

A major theme in much of West's work was a question: when so many organizations use extreme violence towards evil ends, when and under what circumstances is it morally acceptable for their opponents to respond with violence?

Bibliography

Fiction

• Moon in My Pocket (1945) (using the pseudonym "Julian Morris")
• Gallows on the Sand (1956)
• Kundu (1956)
• The Big Story (1957)
• The Second Victory (1958)
• McCreary Moves In (1958, using the pseudonym "Michael Yorligt")
• Backlash (1958)
• The Devil’s Advocate (1959)
• The Naked Country (1960, using the pseudonym "Michael Yorligt")
• Daughter of Silence (1961)
• The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963)
• The Ambassador (1965)
• The Tower of Babel (1968)
• Sutnis (1969)
• Summer of the Red Wolf (1971)
• The Salamander (1973)
• Harlequin (1974)
• The Navigator (1976)
• Proteus (1979)
• The Clowns of God (1981)
• The World is Made of Glass (1983)
• Cassidy (1986)
• Masterclass (1988)
• Lazarus (1990)
• The Ringmaster (1991)
• The Lovers (1993)
• Vanishing Point (1996)
• Eminence (1998), ISBN 0-7322-6704-8
• The Last Confession (2000, posthumously published), ISBN 0-7322-6595-9

Drama

• The Mask of Marius Melville (1945)
• The Prince of Peace
• Trumpets in the Dawn
• Genesis in Juddsville
• The Illusionists (1955)
• The Devil’s Advocate (1961)
• Daughter of Silence (1962)
• The Heretic (1969)
• The World is Made of Glass (1982)

Non-fiction

• Children of the Sun (1957)
• West, Morris (1996). A View from the Ridge: The Testimony of a Twentieth-century Pilgrim. Sydney: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-7322-5757-3. 
• West, Morris (1997). Images & Inscriptions, selected and arranged by Beryl Barraclough, Sydney: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-7322-5827-8. 

Film adaptations

• The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968)
• The Devil's Advocate (1978)
• The Naked Country (1984)
• The Second Victory (1986)
• Cassidy (1989)

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Morris West

• Book Search for Top
• Fiction set in Italy
• 1983 and 1990 audio interview of Morris West by Don Swaim

Further reading

• Confoy, Maryanne (2005). Morris West: Literary Maverick. Milton, Queensland: John Wiley. ISBN 1-74031-119-1. 

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