Barr Smith to exhibit Joyce Cary's work

Tristram Cary with some of his father's books and personal items, now on display at the Barr Smith Library.
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Friday, 23 March 2007

An exhibition of novelist Joyce Cary's work will be held at the Barr Smith Library until May 11 to honour the 50th anniversary of the writer's death.

Cary's son, Tristram - an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow in Music - has loaned a collection of his father's books and personal items, including photographs and artworks, to the University of Adelaide library for the two-month exhibition.

They include Cary's celebrated trilogy of novels devoted to the raffish artist Gulley Jimson: Herself Surprised (1941), To Be A Pilgrim (1942) and The Horse's Mouth (1944). Another trilogy, dealing with politics, led to the publication of Prisoner of Grace, Except the Lord and Not Honour More (1952-55).

The Irish-born writer's early novels drew on his years in Africa, where he initially served with a Nigerian regiment in the First World War and then as a colonial officer and magistrate. His experiences there provided literary fodder for Aissa Saved (1932), An American Visitor (1933), The African Witch (1936) and Mister Johnson (1939).

Ireland inspired Castle Corner (1938) and A House of Children (1941), an evocation of summers in Inishowen which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for best novel.

English-born Tristram Cary is a pioneer of electronic music and composed the score for Doctor Who's arch enemies, the Daleks, in the first series of the 1960s TV show. He designed and built some of the world's first electronic synthesisers and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1991 for his services to Australian music.

Tristram Cary, now aged 82, retired from the University's Elder Conservatorium in 1986 but remains an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow.

He will deliver a free public talk about his father's life as an adventurer, writer and artist on Thursday 29 March, the 50th anniversary of Joyce Cary's death. The talk will be delivered at 1.05pm in the Ira Raymond Exhibition Room in the Barr Smith Library.

The talk is part of the Friends of the Libraries' Adelaide Discovery Series.

The Barr Smith Library has a large collection of books by Joyce Cary, including a number of rare items that are kept in Special Collections, as well as critical works on the author's novels.

Seating for the March 29 public talk is limited. To book, email karen.hickman@adelaide.edu.au or phone 8303 4064.

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