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".
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 clbutt 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 ceremony 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 --
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
