Saddened to learn of David Ireland’s death last month.
He was awarded the Miles Franklin Award on three occasions, for his novels ‘The Unknown Industrial Prisoner’ (1971), ‘The Glass Canoe’ (1976), and ‘For a Woman of the Future’ (1979).
Professor Van Ikin penned a farewell to Ireland at ‘The Conversation’, including his recall of an early meeting with Ireland:
As a young Sydney Uni postgrad in 1976, I met Ireland in his tiny Sydney writing pad and inadvertently opened a door to an empty low-lit room. The floor was carpeted with card-sized slips of paper, some of which fluttered up and relocated upon my entry.
“Sorry, not that door,” said Ireland, and proceeded to explain that his novels evolved from scenes and images, each jotted onto a card. (The Unknown Industrial Prisoner is composed of 330 of these.) He would arrange and rearrange them on the floor, mosaic-style, in a process that was allowed to take however long was needed.
