Here is Hughes typing on an Olivetti Lettera 32 portable typewriter as he works on his script for Perspective : The Collection, a film on the Australian National Collection of Art in Canberra.
Hughes made sure he still had a manual typewriter nearby in his loft in Soho, New York, in 1998.
Robert Studley Forrest Hughes was born in Sydney on July 28, 1938. He had lived in New York since 1970.
At the University of Sydney, Hughes associated with the Sydney "Push" – a group of artists, writers, intellectuals and drinkers who included Germaine Greer and Clive James. Hughes was also briefly involved in the original Sydney version of Oz magazine.
He left Australia for Europe in 1964, settling in London, where he wrote for The Spectator, The Daily Telegraph, The Times and The Observer, among others, and contributed to the London version of Oz.
In 1970 he became art critic for TIME magazine and moved to New York.
Interesting.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to have a room that size and all that book shelf space!!
Such a shame. I'd read much of his stuff, and he was an excellent writer.
ReplyDeleteFarewell to another.
Ah, Robert, Robert!
ReplyDeleteAs I read The Fatal Shore, the words pass before my eyes, but in my head, I hear his voice.
I was in England when "Shock of the New" first played on TV, and watching in real time and capturing it on my fabulous Philips 2000 video cassette recorder, I was able to re-watch time and again, reveling in the delicious dichotomy of the blazing intellect and wicked wit bursting out from this big, bad, bluff and brawny Cosmopolitan Son of Australia.