Frederick Joseph Thwaites (1908-1979) Australian author

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Steve Hayes

Frederick Joseph Thwaites (1908-1979) Australian author

Legg inn av Steve Hayes » 25 des 2005 19:59:02

I'm looking for genealogical and biographical information on Frderick Joseph
Thwaites (1908-1979), an Australian author.

All I have been able to find with Google is the titles of a few second-hand
books for sale.

I'm looking for genealogical and biographical information, such as exact date
and place of birth and death, whether and when he married, and information
about children, if any.

If anyone has any of his books, I'd be grateful if they could say something
about what kind of books they are, if there is any biographical information in
the blurbs, introductions, prefaces etc.


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

Paul Blair

Re: Frederick Joseph Thwaites (1908-1979) Australian author

Legg inn av Paul Blair » 25 des 2005 22:10:59

Steve Hayes wrote:
I'm looking for genealogical and biographical information on Frderick Joseph
Thwaites (1908-1979), an Australian author.

All I have been able to find with Google is the titles of a few second-hand
books for sale.

I'm looking for genealogical and biographical information, such as exact date
and place of birth and death, whether and when he married, and information
about children, if any.

If anyone has any of his books, I'd be grateful if they could say something
about what kind of books they are, if there is any biographical information in
the blurbs, introductions, prefaces etc.


Jog along to http://www.nla.gov.au and opt for the catalogue. Then enter

"Thwaites Frederick" for an author. There are many books listed.

The library is closed for a few days, but it would be possible for me to
visit, draw out some books, and see what they say. I'd bet there won't
be much bio info, but you can only try.

Paul

Steve Hayes

Re: Frederick Joseph Thwaites (1908-1979) Australian author

Legg inn av Steve Hayes » 26 des 2005 04:32:03

On Mon, 26 Dec 2005 08:10:59 +1100, Paul Blair <pblair@pcug.org.au> wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:
I'm looking for genealogical and biographical information on Frderick Joseph
Thwaites (1908-1979), an Australian author.

Jog along to http://www.nla.gov.au and opt for the catalogue. Then enter
"Thwaites Frederick" for an author. There are many books listed.

Thanks very much - he seems to have been a fairly prolific novelist. Novels
sometimes say things in the blurb like "He lives in X with his wife, two
children and a cat". Actually I've now discovered that he was born and died in
Sydney.

The library is closed for a few days, but it would be possible for me to
visit, draw out some books, and see what they say. I'd bet there won't
be much bio info, but you can only try.

Thanks very much, that would be good if it's not too much hassle. Maybe you
could ask the librarian if there's any biographical information available --
they sometimes have compilations of things like "Great Australian authors".


--
Steve Hayes
E-mail: hayesmstw@hotmail.com (see web page if it doesn't work)
Web: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7783/

Paul Blair

Re: Frederick Joseph Thwaites (1908-1979) Australian author

Legg inn av Paul Blair » 27 des 2005 02:44:07

Steve Hayes wrote:
On Mon, 26 Dec 2005 08:10:59 +1100, Paul Blair <pblair@pcug.org.au> wrote:


Steve Hayes wrote:

I'm looking for genealogical and biographical information on Frderick Joseph
Thwaites (1908-1979), an Australian author.


Jog along to http://www.nla.gov.au and opt for the catalogue. Then enter
"Thwaites Frederick" for an author. There are many books listed.


Thanks very much - he seems to have been a fairly prolific novelist. Novels
sometimes say things in the blurb like "He lives in X with his wife, two
children and a cat". Actually I've now discovered that he was born and died in
Sydney.


The library is closed for a few days, but it would be possible for me to
visit, draw out some books, and see what they say. I'd bet there won't
be much bio info, but you can only try.


Thanks very much, that would be good if it's not too much hassle. Maybe you
could ask the librarian if there's any biographical information available --
they sometimes have compilations of things like "Great Australian authors".



The National Library of Australia has some bio clippings - have
photographed and forwarded to Steve.

For such a prolific author, there is a quite surprising lack of info
available about him.

Paul

Steve Hayes

Re: Frederick Joseph Thwaites (1908-1979) Australian author

Legg inn av Steve Hayes » 27 des 2005 05:14:48

On Tue, 27 Dec 2005 12:44:07 +1100, Paul Blair <pblair@pcug.org.au> wrote:

The National Library of Australia has some bio clippings - have
photographed and forwarded to Steve.

Thanks very much, Paul.

I received a number of responses by e-mail. One cited an article that referred
to Thwaites as a counter-example to an an alleged Australian literary
phenomenon called "the cultural cringe".

http://www.the-rathouse.com/Another_loo ... Cringe.htm

I post it here in case anyone in rec.arts.books is interested.

Paul's cuttings were very useful, and I reproduce one here, in case anyone is
curious:

-- begin quote --
THWAITES, AUTHOR OF 32 NOVELS

The Australian author F.J. Thwaites died in a Sydney hospital on Monday. He
was 71.

Mr Thwaites, who wrote 32 novels and two travel books had been suffering from
cancer for some time.

His first book, The Broken Melody, which he wrote at the age of 17, was
produced by Ken Hall as one of the earliest Australian films.

Mr Thwaites was born of a working class family in the country town of
Narrandera, where he worked on a milk run while at school.

When the family moved to Gladesville, he was forced to leave school to support
the family. He was then 13. During this time he studied at night at a
technical college.

After writing The Broken Melody, he toured the countryside trying to sell it.
The first copy was exchanged for a new tyre for his car.

His books, including Hell's Doorways, Shall Come A Time, and The Melody
Lingers, have sold millions of copies. Some have been translated into several
languages.

While in South Africa about five years ago Mr Thwaites went almost blind from
an infection. He was then driving from England to Australia. One of his last
books, Press On Regardless, details this experience.

Mr Thwaites is survived by his wife, Jessica, and his sons Peter and Roger.
Mrs Thwaites appeared in several early Australian fims under her maiden name
Jessica Harcourt.

The funeral will be held at Northern Suburbs Crematorium at 10:30 am tomorrow.

The urn containing his ashes will be taken to a cemetery at a later date.

-- end quote --

For such a prolific author, there is a quite surprising lack of info
available about him.

Certainly there seems to be little on the web; this indicates that one cannot
do genealogy using sources found on the Internet alone, though of course
without Usenet newsgroups I would not have been able to find kind people like
Paul who could go to the library and consult other sources.

I would have expected something to be available in sources like the following:

The Penguin New Literary History of Australia (Bennett et al., 1988)
The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (Wilde, Wh 1985)

Anyway, this is just to say thanks to everyone who helped, and especially Paul
who made a special trip to the library!

--
Steve Hayes
E-mail: hayesmstw@hotmail.com (see web page if it doesn't work)
Web: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7783/

Huntersglenn

Re: Frederick Joseph Thwaites (1908-1979) Australian author

Legg inn av Huntersglenn » 27 des 2005 06:15:40

Not sure if this will complicate things, since you already have on
clipping about where Thwaites was born, but http://www.imdb.com has that he
wrote the screenplay for "Broken Melody" as F. W. Thwaites, and was born
on 23 May, 1908 in Balmain, Sydney, New South Wales, and died 13, August
1979 in Manly, Sydney, New South Wales. Most of the time, the bio
information on the site has the name or e-mail of who provided it, but
not in this case, so it could be that the location of his birth is a
fabrication, or best guess.

Cathy

Steve Hayes wrote:
On Tue, 27 Dec 2005 12:44:07 +1100, Paul Blair <pblair@pcug.org.au> wrote:


The National Library of Australia has some bio clippings - have
photographed and forwarded to Steve.


Thanks very much, Paul.

I received a number of responses by e-mail. One cited an article that referred
to Thwaites as a counter-example to an an alleged Australian literary
phenomenon called "the cultural cringe".

http://www.the-rathouse.com/Another_loo ... Cringe.htm

I post it here in case anyone in rec.arts.books is interested.

Paul's cuttings were very useful, and I reproduce one here, in case anyone is
curious:

-- begin quote --
THWAITES, AUTHOR OF 32 NOVELS

The Australian author F.J. Thwaites died in a Sydney hospital on Monday. He
was 71.

Mr Thwaites, who wrote 32 novels and two travel books had been suffering from
cancer for some time.

His first book, The Broken Melody, which he wrote at the age of 17, was
produced by Ken Hall as one of the earliest Australian films.

Mr Thwaites was born of a working class family in the country town of
Narrandera, where he worked on a milk run while at school.

When the family moved to Gladesville, he was forced to leave school to support
the family. He was then 13. During this time he studied at night at a
technical college.

After writing The Broken Melody, he toured the countryside trying to sell it.
The first copy was exchanged for a new tyre for his car.

His books, including Hell's Doorways, Shall Come A Time, and The Melody
Lingers, have sold millions of copies. Some have been translated into several
languages.

While in South Africa about five years ago Mr Thwaites went almost blind from
an infection. He was then driving from England to Australia. One of his last
books, Press On Regardless, details this experience.

Mr Thwaites is survived by his wife, Jessica, and his sons Peter and Roger.
Mrs Thwaites appeared in several early Australian fims under her maiden name
Jessica Harcourt.

The funeral will be held at Northern Suburbs Crematorium at 10:30 am tomorrow.

The urn containing his ashes will be taken to a cemetery at a later date.

-- end quote --


For such a prolific author, there is a quite surprising lack of info
available about him.


Certainly there seems to be little on the web; this indicates that one cannot
do genealogy using sources found on the Internet alone, though of course
without Usenet newsgroups I would not have been able to find kind people like
Paul who could go to the library and consult other sources.

I would have expected something to be available in sources like the following:

The Penguin New Literary History of Australia (Bennett et al., 1988)
The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (Wilde, Wh 1985)

Anyway, this is just to say thanks to everyone who helped, and especially Paul
who made a special trip to the library!

Paul Blair

Re: Frederick Joseph Thwaites (1908-1979) Australian author

Legg inn av Paul Blair » 27 des 2005 06:20:49

Huntersglenn wrote:
Not sure if this will complicate things, since you already have on
clipping about where Thwaites was born, but http://www.imdb.com has that he
wrote the screenplay for "Broken Melody" as F. W. Thwaites, and was born
on 23 May, 1908 in Balmain, Sydney, New South Wales, and died 13, August
1979 in Manly, Sydney, New South Wales. Most of the time, the bio
information on the site has the name or e-mail of who provided it, but
not in this case, so it could be that the location of his birth is a
fabrication, or best guess.

Cathy

Steve Hayes wrote:

On Tue, 27 Dec 2005 12:44:07 +1100, Paul Blair <pblair@pcug.org.au
wrote:


The National Library of Australia has some bio clippings - have
photographed and forwarded to Steve.



Thanks very much, Paul.
I received a number of responses by e-mail. One cited an article that
referred
to Thwaites as a counter-example to an an alleged Australian literary
phenomenon called "the cultural cringe".

http://www.the-rathouse.com/Another_loo ... Cringe.htm

I post it here in case anyone in rec.arts.books is interested.
Paul's cuttings were very useful, and I reproduce one here, in case
anyone is
curious:

-- begin quote --
THWAITES, AUTHOR OF 32 NOVELS

The Australian author F.J. Thwaites died in a Sydney hospital on
Monday. He
was 71.
Mr Thwaites, who wrote 32 novels and two travel books had been
suffering from
cancer for some time.

His first book, The Broken Melody, which he wrote at the age of 17, was
produced by Ken Hall as one of the earliest Australian films.
Mr Thwaites was born of a working class family in the country town of
Narrandera, where he worked on a milk run while at school.

When the family moved to Gladesville, he was forced to leave school to
support
the family. He was then 13. During this time he studied at night at a
technical college.
After writing The Broken Melody, he toured the countryside trying to
sell it.
The first copy was exchanged for a new tyre for his car.
His books, including Hell's Doorways, Shall Come A Time, and The Melody
Lingers, have sold millions of copies. Some have been translated into
several
languages.
While in South Africa about five years ago Mr Thwaites went almost
blind from
an infection. He was then driving from England to Australia. One of
his last
books, Press On Regardless, details this experience.
Mr Thwaites is survived by his wife, Jessica, and his sons Peter and
Roger.
Mrs Thwaites appeared in several early Australian fims under her
maiden name
Jessica Harcourt.

The funeral will be held at Northern Suburbs Crematorium at 10:30 am
tomorrow.

The urn containing his ashes will be taken to a cemetery at a later date.
-- end quote --


For such a prolific author, there is a quite surprising lack of info
available about him.



Certainly there seems to be little on the web; this indicates that one
cannot
do genealogy using sources found on the Internet alone, though of course
without Usenet newsgroups I would not have been able to find kind
people like
Paul who could go to the library and consult other sources.
I would have expected something to be available in sources like the
following:

The Penguin New Literary History of Australia (Bennett et al., 1988)
The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (Wilde, Wh 1985)

Anyway, this is just to say thanks to everyone who helped, and
especially Paul
who made a special trip to the library!


The other bio I'm getting for Steve also says that he was born in
Balmain (a suburb of Sydney).

Paul

Farm1

Re: Frederick Joseph Thwaites (1908-1979) Australian author

Legg inn av Farm1 » 30 des 2005 02:49:56

"Steve Hayes" <hayesmstw@hotmail.com> wrote in message

Thanks very much - he seems to have been a fairly prolific novelist.
Novels
sometimes say things in the blurb like "He lives in X with his wife, two
children and a cat". Actually I've now discovered that he was born and
died in
Sydney.

He lived at Moss Vale in the Southern Highlands of NSW for many years - near
Bong Bong Church. There is a street named after him there.

Steve Hayes

Re: Frederick Joseph Thwaites (1908-1979) Australian author

Legg inn av Steve Hayes » 30 des 2005 05:27:59

On Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:49:56 +1100, "Farm1" <please@askifyouwannaknow> wrote:

"Steve Hayes" <hayesmstw@hotmail.com> wrote in message

Thanks very much - he seems to have been a fairly prolific novelist.
Novels
sometimes say things in the blurb like "He lives in X with his wife, two
children and a cat". Actually I've now discovered that he was born and
died in
Sydney.

He lived at Moss Vale in the Southern Highlands of NSW for many years - near
Bong Bong Church. There is a street named after him there.

Thanks for that too.

I've also discovered in the last couple of days that his son Roger was a folk
singer in the 1960s and 1970s, and wrote a history of Araluen with his first
wife, which is still sold by the Braidwood Historical Society. So now I'm
anxious to get contact info for Roger Thwaites, as if he is both related and
clued up about local history he might be the best person to discuss some of
the queries with.

I learnt of Roger's existence and name from someone who read my original query
here, and found the info in the intro to one of FJ Thwaites's books -- he had
dedicated the book to his new-born granddaughter, and so named her, and gave
her date of birth.

But that's one of the interesting things about family history. We knew that
there was some relation who had married a Thwaites, because there was a record
of the Bank of Montreal sending a sum of money to a Mrs Thwaites in Australia,
granddaughter of its founder and first President, John Gray.

We had a letter from a granddaughter of this Mrs Thwaites, about 18 years ago,
telling us who she was and how she fitted in to the family (we knew of her
first two husbands, not of Thwaites, who was her 3rd and 4th). We corresponded
for a while, asking about Thwaites descendants, but this cousin wrote a couple
of times, seemed clearly interested in the family history, and then stopped
writing. So for 18 years we've been trying on and off to find out about the
children of F.J. Thwaites and those of his siblings. It turns out that the
cousin we had written to know him, had copies of all his books, and could have
told us all this 18 years ago, but didn't.

As a friend of mine said, when he introduced us to ancestor hunting, and came
with me to see an aunt, "They always know more than they think they do."

So sometimes it is necessary to pester relatives for the information that they
either think they don't know, or think you must already know and don't bother
to tell you.


--
Steve Hayes
E-mail: hayesmstw@hotmail.com (see web page if it doesn't work)
Web: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7783/

Huntersglenn

Re: Frederick Joseph Thwaites (1908-1979) Australian author

Legg inn av Huntersglenn » 31 des 2005 01:21:47

Steve Hayes wrote:

As a friend of mine said, when he introduced us to ancestor hunting, and came
with me to see an aunt, "They always know more than they think they do."

So sometimes it is necessary to pester relatives for the information that they
either think they don't know, or think you must already know and don't bother
to tell you.

Or, they could be like my grandmother, who was confused as to why anyone
would care where her grandparents and great-grandparents came from and
what they did and all of that. The 'old days' were times that nobody
cared about, or bothered with, not when getting by day-by-day was nearly
all consuming.

I've noticed with my aunts and uncles that if I rephrase questions, I'll
get better and more thorough answers, and sometimes reminding them of a
particular incident will trigger other memories about their older relatives.

When I was google searching for you, I saw Roger Thwaites and wondered
if he was a relation. I didn't realize that Roger Thwaites the writer
was the same as the singer -- very interesting <g>.

Cathy

Steve Hayes

Re: Frederick Joseph Thwaites (1908-1979) Australian author

Legg inn av Steve Hayes » 31 des 2005 05:09:08

On Fri, 30 Dec 2005 19:21:47 -0500, Huntersglenn <huntersglenn@cox.net> wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:


As a friend of mine said, when he introduced us to ancestor hunting, and came
with me to see an aunt, "They always know more than they think they do."

So sometimes it is necessary to pester relatives for the information that they
either think they don't know, or think you must already know and don't bother
to tell you.

Or, they could be like my grandmother, who was confused as to why anyone
would care where her grandparents and great-grandparents came from and
what they did and all of that. The 'old days' were times that nobody
cared about, or bothered with, not when getting by day-by-day was nearly
all consuming.

I've noticed with my aunts and uncles that if I rephrase questions, I'll
get better and more thorough answers, and sometimes reminding them of a
particular incident will trigger other memories about their older relatives.

But even the ones who ARE interested can reveal, when you present a new
genealogical discovery that has taken you years of effort to find out, that
they knew that all along.

In one case I wrote to a second cousin in England. Or rather, I wrote to
people of fouind in British telephone directories, and one worked in a bank of
which my second cousin was a customer, and passed the letter on. We've been
corrsponding for 25 years now, and I met her this year for the first time.

But in the first letter I mentioned that when my father went to England for a
scout jamboree at the age of 14, he met a cousin with the rather unusual name
of Herrick Hayes. And so I asked this newly found second cousin several times
if she knew anything about this Herrick Hayes, and she never replied.
Eventually I traced him by another route, and when I told her she said "I
thought you knew that". She could have tyold me when i asked her the first
time, or the second time, or the third time, and eventuallu I have up asking
because I thought it was some dark family secret that she didn't want to
reveal.

When I was google searching for you, I saw Roger Thwaites and wondered
if he was a relation. I didn't realize that Roger Thwaites the writer
was the same as the singer -- very interesting <g>.

Has he written other things then -- other than the history of Araluen?


--
Steve Hayes
Web: http://www.geocities.com/hayesstw/stevesig.htm
http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Methodius

Steve Hayes

Re: Frederick Joseph Thwaites (1908-1979) Australian author

Legg inn av Steve Hayes » 31 des 2005 05:09:50

On Fri, 30 Dec 2005 19:21:47 -0500, Huntersglenn <huntersglenn@cox.net> wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:


As a friend of mine said, when he introduced us to ancestor hunting, and came
with me to see an aunt, "They always know more than they think they do."

So sometimes it is necessary to pester relatives for the information that they
either think they don't know, or think you must already know and don't bother
to tell you.

Or, they could be like my grandmother, who was confused as to why anyone
would care where her grandparents and great-grandparents came from and
what they did and all of that. The 'old days' were times that nobody
cared about, or bothered with, not when getting by day-by-day was nearly
all consuming.

I've noticed with my aunts and uncles that if I rephrase questions, I'll
get better and more thorough answers, and sometimes reminding them of a
particular incident will trigger other memories about their older relatives.

But even the ones who ARE interested can reveal, when you present a new
genealogical discovery that has taken you years of effort to find out, that
they knew that all along.

In one case I wrote to a second cousin in England. Or rather, I wrote to
people of fouind in British telephone directories, and one worked in a bank of
which my second cousin was a customer, and passed the letter on. We've been
corrsponding for 25 years now, and I met her this year for the first time.

But in the first letter I mentioned that when my father went to England for a
scout jamboree at the age of 14, he met a cousin with the rather unusual name
of Herrick Hayes. And so I asked this newly found second cousin several times
if she knew anything about this Herrick Hayes, and she never replied.
Eventually I traced him by another route, and when I told her she said "I
thought you knew that". She could have tyold me when i asked her the first
time, or the second time, or the third time, and eventuallu I have up asking
because I thought it was some dark family secret that she didn't want to
reveal.

When I was google searching for you, I saw Roger Thwaites and wondered
if he was a relation. I didn't realize that Roger Thwaites the writer
was the same as the singer -- very interesting <g>.

Has he written other things then -- other than the history of Araluen?


--
Steve Hayes
Web: http://www.geocities.com/hayesstw/stevesig.htm
http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Methodius

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