Barbara Hanrahan
Barbara Hanrahan was an Australian writer and artist known for her deeply personal and spiritual explorations of life through her literature. Born in Adelaide, South Australia, she faced significant challenges, including the early death of her father and her own battle with cancer, which she sustained throughout her prolific writing career. Educated in the arts, she garnered recognition not only for her literary work but also for her artistic exhibitions, showcasing her multifaceted talent. Hanrahan's writing often drew inspiration from her upbringing and the women in her family, reflected in her autobiographical novels like *The Scent of Eucalyptus*.
Her body of work includes not only autobiographical narratives but also Gothic novels that exhibit a more fantastical style, as well as spiritual treatises that celebrate ordinary lives. Critics have noted her writing as both visionary and contradictory, marked by a polished style yet often perplexing subject matter. Despite her struggles with health, Hanrahan's determination to write continued until her passing in 1991. Her work resonates particularly with female audiences for its spiritual and sensual qualities, making her a distinctive voice in the landscape of literature.
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Subject Terms
Barbara Hanrahan
Fiction Writer
- Born: September 6, 1939
- Birthplace: Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
- Died: December 1, 1991
- Place of death: Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Biography
Barbara Hanrahan was a heroic woman dedicated to her writing, which became her method of understanding the strangeness of the world and the spiritual nature behind observable reality. Although she battled sarcoma (cancer), she maintained her prolific career in the grips of extreme pain and debilitating disease. Born in Adelaide, South Australia, she utilized her birthplace as a telling backdrop to her stories and novels. Hanrahan was the daughter of Maurice William and Ronda Hanrahan; her father died prematurely when Hanrahan was one year old. Educated at the South Australian School of Art (1957-1960) and the Central School of Art in London (1964-1966), Hanrahan was equally recognized for her artistic and academic careers as well as her writing career.
During her life, she had numerous exhibitions of her prints, and lectured at Falmouth School of Art and at Portsmouth College of Art (both in England), among others. Hanrahan commenced her writing career in 1971 and was initially noticed for her first novel, The Scent of Eucalyptus, a sort of memoir detailing her childhood in suburban Adelaide and recording the mark left by her father’s death. One critic felt that this death left Hanharan with the burden of fulfilling her father’s truncated life with her own artistic pursuits. In any case, after her father’s death, Hanrahan was raised by her mother, maternal grandmother, and her great-aunt, each of whom became models for the inner-city working class women of her autobiographical novels ( Sea-Green and Kewpie Doll). Hanrahan also wrote Gothic novels ( The Albatross Muff, The Peach Grove, and The Frangipani Gardens), which constituted a marked departure from the autobiographical to the fantastically imaginary; these latter works are sometimes criticized as being melodramatic. During a creative ferment, Hanrahan met Jo Steele, an engineer, inventor, and kindred spirit. In 1966, they became partners, beginning a long and devoted relationship.
Hanrahan’s writings also include spiritual treatises that celebrate the lives of ordinary people ( A Chelsea Girl, Flawless Jade, Good Night, Mr. Moon). Although she possessed a highly polished writing style, critics were sometimes baffled by Hanrahan’s subject matter and her assertion of a spiritual world beyond everyday reality. In 1983, Hanrahan fell ill with a malignant back tumor. After its removal, she began a program of meditation to avoid recurrence. In 1988, however, her cancer resurfaced. Hanrahan, paralyzed and in intense pain, fought against her disease and continued her writing pursuits. She died in 1991 after a valiant battle with the disease and after completing Michael and Me and the Sun. Hanrahan’s writing was termed “visionary,” “contradictory,” and “unique,” and her female audience responded positively to the spiritual and sensual qualities of her work. Although she was criticized for her sometime focus on ugliness and obsession, she was also praised for her originality. Her personal search for truth, her infusion of spiritual depth into her works, and her examination of the grotesqueries of the world made Hanrahan a singular and complex voice in literature.