The Devil and James McAuley

by Cassandra Pybus

University of Queensland Press, 1999 [First Edition], ISBN 0702231118, black and white photographic plates, hardback, dust-jacket

Near Fine Condition, minor edge and shelf wear, minor rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, minor spotting on top fore-edge, dust-jacket shows minor edge and shelf wear (see photographs)

"The controversial poet James McAuley was regarded as Australia's most prominent intellectual of the right during the cold war.  Historian and critic Cassandra Pybus argues that his zealous anticommunism was driven by a powerful apocalyptic world view.  As a Catholic convert McAuley displaced his own deep personal torment onto the Devil and communist agents in teh service of the Devil.
For those who know McAuley only as one of the poets behind the Ern Malley hoax and the editor of Quadrant, this book provides a rare insight into the making of a cold war warrior in Australia.  Pybus uncovers McAuley's connections with the CIA and with ASIO and exposes his engagement in clandestine political activities aimed at undermining the Labor Party."