The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 27

The Age, Saturday 16 Hay 1981 27 BOOKS 7 weekend reviewtC 1U LLM SIMON CORDCN Richest family in the I United States BLOOD RELATIONS: The Rise and Fall of the du Ponts of Delaware, by Leonard Mosley (Hutchinson; THELMA FORSHAW KIT DENTON shies' away from high-flown literary labels. "I'm a writer, a professional writer," he says. "I've never thought of myself as an author or a novelist. They are terms' which seem to isolate you, to put you in a cell of some kind." He is emphatic about it, not only from dislike of pretension but because he detects a danger today of downgrading the writer's craft. As a matter of principle he has not joined the Aust tralian Society of Authors.

He belongs instead to the Australian Writers' Guild, whose, members mainly write for film, stage, radio and television. He prefers to speak of writers as entertainers, using the word in the broadest sense of reaching and holding an audience. "I think it's too easy for a writer to follow a required marketing format and by doing it well (I don't doubt that) become known as an international best-selling author. It seems to me that if you're going to get anywhere in fairly crass, fairly mercenary terms, then you've got to be both-good at what you do and lucky. Perhaps it should be the other way round lucky and good at what you do.

"If you make a hit with a book then, understandably for marketing reasons, your publishers are going to want you to do another in the past 3000 years. A non-fiction companion to The Breaker, his best-seller, is in prospect, the. material painstakingly assembled from sources he prefers not to discuss. He keeps busy. "Tt struck me the other day that while there seem to have been long periods with no rk and no money, in retrospect the 15 years as a freelance have been a very varied and interesting time," he says.

"I'm hoping to spend the rest of my life writing the things I want to write." Whether he means by that a future devoted to writing books or radio, film and TV scripts is left open. He counts research for a book absorbing, the writing a chore. Research satisfies "all those childhood desires to be a provides the same delight as solving a difficult crossword puzzle, the reward of "chasing something down until you come to a logical But writing the book is a solitary undertaking performed in monastic seclusion. By contrast, the enjoyment of writing for film or television comes from working with people. The ideal therefore is to balance the two occupations, and by changing pace, keep the interest in both fresh.

does away with the need to think of one as work. Roughsey and Trezise have translated the story into a beautiful picture book called The Quin-kins'. It won the Picture Book of the Year Award for 1979 and is now available in inexpensive paperback format (Collins). A book of this quality, like The Rainbow Serpent' and "The Giant Devil Dingo' before it, ought to be in every home. They are also' ideal gifts for sending or taking overseas.

Percy Trezise has said: "We didn't have to invent anything. It was all there, the walls. We just had to take them down and animate them." Trezise and Roughsey have now collaborated to produce 'Banana Bird and the Snake Men' (Collins; a legend which explains the origin of the five rivers which flow from a low plateau called The Desert, in the Cape York Country, and why grass will not grow there. I assume this is another legend of the Yalanji tribe. "The Slant of the Pen' says that western children's literature is "saturated" with arrantly racist attitudes.

I don't believe that JUST AS some biologists believe the foetus developing in the womb undergoes all the phases of man's physical evolution from a single cell, so, it might be said, does the history of a rich and powerful family replicate the long haul of homo sapiens from brute to aristocrat. First the audacious and resourceful parvenu with a bright idea. In this case, Pierre Samuel du Pont, who was born in Paris in 1 739, and who narrowly escaped the guillotine for trying to help the king to decamp. Looking for a more secure berth, he chose America after a long-time correspondence with Thomas Jefferson. He and his -second wife, sons, and sundry cousins sailed aboard the American Eagle in I799.

Before leaving France, one of these Eleuthere Irenee du Pont, had studied the manufacture of gunpowder under Lavoisier, a. famous chemist. The 'family were to set up powder plant on Brandywine Creek, Delaware. Thenceforth, du Pont was set to become a recognised name whenever shots were fired in sport or in'-anger, and the company sold $4 1 million worth of gunpowder to the Union forces during the American Civil War alone. The early explosions at the plant had a grisly aftermath.

The bodies of workers -were blown to pieces which had to be picked off the branches of blasted trees, from rocks- and ffom ruined -buildings for days One du Pont was himself blown skyhigh. Given to cousinly weddings, the clan was Pharoahic in making sure that control and succes-. siorr stayed in the family. Ah unkind observer called the du Pont women "the brood mares of. the family The patriarch, old Pierre, had always.

counselled the du Ponts -not to waste their time (or their sperm, for that matter) outside the family; but to form a tightly knit group, taking no part in the life of the community beyond them, confining their working life to the mills and their, social life to each others' houses. "The marriages I should prefer for our he once wrote, "would be between cousins. In that way wefshould be sure of honesty of soul and purity of blood." It is from such as this the toughest, the most rutn-Iess, the most dominant that chieftains and kings have sprung; nor blue-blooded at' say rather, very redrblooded indeed. FICTION: Literature opposing racism's insidious impact i i the other as pleasure. The whole thing becomes pleasurable." Yet not an easy way to earn a living.

Because of the success of The Breaker. Kit Denton can be said to be making his living by writing books. it is the first time and this is my 16th year as a freelance. I wrote 'The Breaker in 1972. The first time I got liveable money out of it was last year.

It slept for six or seven years until the upsurge of interest came when it was broadcast as a serial on the ABC." The success of the film 'Breaker Morant' must also have helped and probably augurs well for the proposed companion volume to The Breaker, the life story of all the chief actors in the Morant adventure, "more exciting than a Nevertheless, the question remains: Why be a writer? Rather wryly, Kit Denton explains: Writing is a disease, a classifiable disease. If you're bitten oy an idea and it won't let you alone to the point where you must do something about it then you've got no choice. You eitner go mad or you write about it I think it's a combination of frustration and egotism, because you want somebody else to have that idea. It's also the basis of afi communication to move an idea into someone else's head." there is any conspiracy here; the mistakes are more likely a matter of thoughtlessness and ignorance on the part of characteristically well-meaning authors. In Australia as elsewhere these tend to De middle-class white people with little or no contact with the people they unthinkingly disparage.

(Even today our lesser children's writers, even when trying to be benign in introducing token Aboriginal Characters automatically describe them as people who always along with its corollary, "flashing white What is really heartening at present is the way in which more and more authors are collaborating with the Aboriginal people at first hand. The authenticity of the resulting work, and the dignity and nobility with which it is presented, will help to ensure that fewer members of this young generation turn out to be like Alf Garnett or those Queensland politicians who are afraid of any teaching which suggests to children that, even in the eyes of God, all people might be equal. WALTER McVITTY lectures on children's literature at the Melbourne State College. GOD'S POLITICIAN, by Garth Lean (Darton, Longman Todd; How Wilberforce and the Clapham sect largely achieved what he declared to be the two great objects of his life: "the abolition of the Slave Trade and the reformation of the manners of THE LUCK OF THE DRAW, by Trevor Wilson (Wilson Publishing; History of 100 years of Tattersall's sweeps. IF CHILDREN are born amoral, how do they become racist? Conditioning and indoctrination come from many sources, obviously.

One of the most' insidious is the literature written for them. The World Council of Churches conducted an international workshop in this topic in Germany in 1978 and its findings that western societies "saturate" their, children's books with racism are now available in an interesting paperback report called, pointedly. "The Slant of the Pen (Victorian Council of Churches, 100 Flinders St; $7). I have my own collection of horrors culled from school libraries. Here are some of the pronouncements on which a whole generation of us grew up, taken from these books, most of which were published in Britain in the 1930s and reprinted without alteration throughout the next 30 years: "Australian Aborigines are very degraded and ignorant, more like monkeys than men and women These 'as they are called, are not very-clever, for they do not know how to grow food, or look after animals, or how to build good houses They are rather ugly, have dark skins and wear few clothes IN HYDE PARK The prerequisites needed By WALTER McVITTY Patricia Wrightson, the most distinguished, of today's writers for children.

She feels that rather than clash, different cultures ideally flow in and out of each other when they meet. She has been assisting this flow by in-corporating Aboriginal spirit creatures and ideas, gleaned from her research, into her recent books. These grow in depth from the simple novels 'An Older Kind Of Magic' and The Nargun and the Stars' to- the more complex The Ice- Is Coming' and the quite demanding and powerful The Dark Bright Water'. Queensland writer Bill Scott in his acclaimed 'Boori' and now its sequel" 'Darkness Under the Hills'Jr (Oxford; $8.95) attempts, with much success, to bring the young reader an idea qF traditional Aboriginal life. He pre to influence shares the honors for spreading Christianity with Number Six, St "Paul).

There are 71 Europeans, 18 Asians and no Australians. Dr Hart estimates that only about half the top 100 have any living descendents. At least 19 never married and 26 appear to have had no children. But at least 10 an extraordinarily high proportion, apparently suffered from gout. Some of Dr Hart's decisions must have a few household names spinning in their graves.

Leonardo Da Vinci, characterised as a brilliant under-achiever who did not follow up his ideas, is a reject. So is Abraham Lincoln, though John F. Kennedy makes Number 80 on the strength of the Apollo space mission. Thtv baddies do quite well Ghengjs Khan is in at 21 and Adolf Hitler-at 35 but artistic genius is -not considered very in--' fhiential. weighs in just behind Hitler and Pablo Pi- 1 THE CONVENANT, by J.

Michener (Heineroann; 1 2 XPD, by L. Deighton (Hutchinson; $14.95) 3 THE EXILES, by V. Stuart (Troubador; $4.95) 4 THE FIFTH HORSEMAN, by L. Collins and D. Lapierra VVranaaa; 14 5 RAGE OF ANGELS, by S.

Sheldon (Collins; $12.95) 4 1 5 The refinement and delicacy are tacked on by later generations. If there is an elite in nature, it is surely that which is reddest in tooth -and claw. The early du Ponts fitted this archetype with their price-cuttings, buying up of rivals, and the mysterious explosions which were thought to be sabotage. Under-cutting and market stealing preceded the age of refinement which followed the reign of the relentless go-getters who founded the family fortune. By the 1920s, the du Ponts were fast, becoming the richest family in the United States and probably the world.

This they liked to keep well-hidden. Later, they were to switch from explosives to chemicals, and it was a chemist in the employ of the du Ponts who invented nylon, thus making their fortune all oyer again. There are mighty wheelings and dealings, family feuds and vendettas, much intermarrying, and the wiping out from the family tree of any- members whose origin might suggest that the du Ponts had not been the most distinguished emigrants ever to leave France. There grew up a du -Pont tradition of whitewashing the family chronicle. Perhaps it is this reticence in disclosing, human shenanigans that kept the black sheep of the family down to an unavoidable minimum in this history.

The emphasis is on business' acumen in what is a somewhat bloodless record. Color and vitality are lacking, and any sense of opulence and splendor. For instance, photographs of family mansions have been taken from the air, and family photographs are of past generations. At times, though, through the screen of sober documentation, one does catch a glimpse of characters that might belong in Lillian Hellman's celebrated play about savage go-getting, The Little Foxes'. In fact.

The Little Foxes' would be illuminating supplementary reading5-alongside all such decorous- because bowdlerised histories of the lust for' money and power. THELMA "FORSHAW is a Sydney short-story writer and 10. ARTID IMP rnm As if a great sadness longed in vou. Not the small hand or the desolate empire. Something is streaming like light through a column of trees into the brain's opening.

That fountain spills frozen in time, the people banging around, receding, smile, walk, hold regret That touch of a crowd you've embodied, that shaky argument now constructs like a wonderful building to prove a city there. His mouth contracts like a birthday. Gig Ryan By STUART SAYERS something like it. So you get a string of Wilbur Smith or Arthur Hailey novels and, in those terms, once the snowball starts it's comparatively simple to become quote an international best-selling author unquote. And I think this tends to degrade the currency to some degree." Kit.

Denton, English-born but an Australian since 1950, spent his first 15 years here in radio, mainly with the ABC, stationed variously in Perth, Port Moresby, Melbourne and Sydney. Since then he has been a freelance of marked versatility, writing film, radio and TV scripts, advertising commercials, political propaganda, short stories, verse, film song lyrics, two' novels, The Breaker' and The Thinkable and two non-fiction works, 'A Walk Around My Cluttered Mind', and Gallfpoli Illustrated', the last-named intended to coincide with Anzac Day. A third novel has been completed, a fourth is being written and he is half through a history of rank-and-file soldiers sents Aboriginal people simply as people with trials and problems and tries to show how they cope with these. He also attempts to show the very important part played by tribal law and beliefs in daily life. 'Darkness Under the Hills' is set in North Queensland, which is the home territory of artist Dick Roughsey, the founding chairman of the Aboriginal Arts Board and twice winner of the Children's Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year Award.

A full-blood tribal elder, be is also known as Goobalathaldin. Since 1962, he has been a close friend of Percy Trezise, who has had a powerful influence on his Nam-atjira-style paintings. The two have been engaged in mapping sacred sites on the Cape York Pen- insula and were successful in having the cave galleries around Laura declared a national park. One of the 1000 galleries they have found depicts the doings of the humorous Quinkin spirits. As a means of bringing this cave art and the culture it once represented to a new generation.

the world casso gets a cautious assessment at Number 98. Despite all those wives, mothers and mistresses behind influential men, women in their own right do woefully, with just two Queens Isabella of Spain and Elizabeth 1 on the list. The message should be clear. If you want to influence people, do not despair if no one has ever heard of you. As long as you are male, preferably of scientific or political or religious inclination, celibate and gouty, you are in with a fighting chance.

After all, look what happened to Ts'ai Lun. In case you are still wondering about him, he invented paper, thus revolutionising Chinese civilisation and saving the local scholars the trouble of carrying around their bamboo reference books on wagons. Without Ts'ai Lun we would not even be able to enjoy Dr Hart's book. JANE SULLIVAN is a staff contributor. FbrkerFurnitutB HUMtbiCKNtSS, by M.

Bail (Macmillan; $9.95) NON-FTCTION: I SHOCK OF THE NEW, by R. Hughes (BBCPitman; $39.95) 2 THIS FABULOUS CENTURY, by P. Luck (Lansdowne; $24.95) 3 NO ONE HERE GETS OUT ALIVE, by J. Hopkins and D. Sugarman (A $12.95) 4 SCARSDALE MEDICAL DIET, by H.

Tarnower (Bantam; $3.95) 1 5 ABSALOM'S OUTBACK, bv J. Mabey (ABC: $14.95) 6 THE DOUG WALTERS STORY, by D. Walters (Rigby; $9.95) 5 1 PAPERBACKS: 1 THE NINJA, by E. Van Lustbader (Granada; $5.95) 2 TURTLE BEACH, 'oy Blanche d'Alpuget (Penguin; $3.95) 3 THE DEVIL'S ALTERNATIVE, by F. Forsyth (Corgi; $4.99) 3 6 4 WOMEN, SEX AND PORNOGRAPHY, by B.

Faust (Penguin; $4.95) 5 TRUE HISTORY OF THE ELEPHANT MAN, by M. Howell P. Ford (Penguin; $4.50) 4 1 6 THE ELEPHANT MAN, by C. Sparks (Future; $3.95) 1 1 This monthly list 4s compiled in coltaiwraoron with "Ifce Australian Bookseller and Publisher" from information supplied by some 200 bookshops nationwide. The Fiction and Non-fiction categories are for new books, whettter published In tard cover or in paperback.

The Paperback category is tor books previously published in hard cover, and includes Action and non-notion. UP COUNTRY, by Anne Wilkinson (Cassell; Selection of the best of Anne Wilkinson's weekly columns in the 'Sydney Morning Herald. EVA PERON, by Nicholas Fras-er and Marysa Navarro (Deutsch; Cool account of the car-, eer of the illegitimate village girl who became Eva Duarte, actress, then mistress, later the wife of the President of Argentina and, after her death, a legend. They are very hideous, with dirty black skins, frizzy hair and very ugly There are still school libraries today in which these books could be found. Indeed, the Queensland Government has banned from its schools the MACOS programme, which attempted among other things to counteract such blatant racism.

A heartening development in recent years has been the publishing of books which allow the Australian child, of any color, to assimilate something of authentic Aboriginal culture and Some Aboriginal children have ac-. tually written their own history, mixing oral tradition with contemporary observations about their own way of life in The Aboriginal Children's History of Austrrlia' (Rigby). In the field of novels. Nan Chauncy started the current trend of writing with sympathy and understanding of the black experience of the white invasion, in her excellent books Tangara' and "Mathinna's People'. In a sense, her work has been taken over by THE 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential PersSns, in History, by Michael Hart (Vantage HouseThe Age; Age Privilege Offer; JANE SULLIVAN had the greatest effect on history and on the course of the world.

Dr Hart lays out his ground rules for assessing influence in his introduction, then plunges into his potted biographies. The facts are sometimes trite, but it is the arguments for each rating which provide the real fun. Muhammed, Isaac Newton and Jesus Christ, in that order; take the top three places in a field of 37 scientists and inventors, 30 political and military, leaders, 14 secular philosophers, 11 religious leaders, six artistic and literary figures and two explorers. (Jesus loses some points because he. Lowline.

Lowline. 4 4 i i It AH, HOW they glitter as you turn the pages, these illustrious names of history: Muhammed, Isaac Newton, Jesus Christ, Ts'ai. Lun. Ts'ai Who? The Chinese eunuch who got mixed up in some palace intrigue circa 105 AD, could not stand the disgrace, put on his finest robes, took a bath ajid drank poison? Surely you knew about him. If not.

Improve your store of bizarre information and discover why Michael Hart places Ts'ai Lun at Number Seven on his list of the 100 most influential persons in history, ahead of Gutenberg, Columbus and Einstein. That perverse inclusion of the totally obscure among the more conventional big guns of the en-cylopaedias is what gives Dr Hart's book all the fascination of a good parlor game. As he points out, influence is not the same as fame or talent or virtue. He is looking for the 100 persons who Thaosophlcal. Society Bookshop TfMMinr 1 Modern AncUnt WU4MI 12C-tM ItaiMll Mb.

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