Eric Lambert Papers, ca. 1960s

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Summary

Creators:
Lambert, Eric, 1921-1966
Extent:
.4 linear feet (1 document box)
Language:
English.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection contains carbon typescript manuscript drafts of several of Lambert's works, many with extensive handwritten corrections and revisions.

Biographical / historical:

Eric Lambert (1918-1966) was born in London, England but raised in Sydney, Australia, He drew on his experiences in combat during World War II to become a successful novelist. He joined the Communist Party of Australia in the late 1940s, and his early works reflect both his Communist politics and his experiences fighting in the Middle East and Indonesia. He was active in the Melbourne literary scene in the early 1950s, and developed a reputation for being contentious and unpredictable. Following 1955, he moved to England and, disillusioned after the Soviet invasion of Hungary, changed his politics and his works took on a decidedly right-wing anti-Communist tone. However, as the 1960s arrived, Lambert's sympathies moved to the center and then again sided with the left. He continued to draw upon his wartime memories in his later novels. He died of heart failure at his home in England in the spring of 1966. Works include:

The Twenty Thousand Thieves (1951)
The Five Bright Stars (1954).
The Veterans (1954).
Watermen (1956).
The Dark Backward (1958).
Glory Thrown In (1959).
Ballarat (1962).
Kelly (1964).
A Short Walk to the Stars (1964).
The Long White Night (1965).
MacDougal's Farm (1965).
The Tender Conspiracy (1965).
Hiroshima Reef (1967).
Mad with Much Heart: A Life of the Parents of Oscar Wilde (1967).

Further biographical details may be found in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Acquisition information:
Multiple purchases, ca. 1967-1968.
Physical location:
Del Sur

Access and use

Location of this collection:
UC Santa Barbara Library
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US
Contact:
(805) 893-3062
special@library.ucsb.edu
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