Donald Horne

Donald Richmond Horne (26 December 1921 – 8 September 2005) was an Australian journalist, writer, social critic, and academic who became one of Australia's best known public intellectuals, from the 1960s until his death.

Horne was a prolific author who published four novels and more than twenty volumes of history, memoir and political and cultural analysis. He also edited The Bulletin, The Observer and Quadrant. His best known work was The Lucky Country (1964), an evaluation of Australian society that questioned many traditional attitudes: "Australia is a lucky country, run by second-rate people who share its luck."

Background and early years

Donald Horne's early life was recounted in the first volume of his memoirs The Education of Young Donald (1967). He was born in Kogarah, New South Wales and raised in Muswellbrook (where his father was a teacher at the local school) and Sydney.

Career Horne began his career in journalism and worked for a number of Frank Packer's publications, first as a journalist for The Telegraph, then editor of the magazine Weekend, and later the fortnightly intellectual periodical The Observer (1958–61). As editor of the flagship magazine The Bulletin (1961–62 and 1967–72), he removed the magazine's long standing motto "Australia for the White Man". He was co-editor of Quadrant magazine (1964–66).

He also worked on writing, arts and citizenship boards and was an executive member of the Australian Constitutional Commission.

Honours and legacy

In 1982, Professor Horne was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for service to literature; and in 2001 was presented with the Centenary Medal for service to the Centenary of Federation celebrations in New South Wales.

He was named as one of Australia's Living National Treasures in 1997, the year of the list's inauguration, by the National Trust.

Horne was conferred with degrees honoris causa by a number of Australian academic institutions, including Griffith University (Doctor of the University), University of New South Wales (Doctor of Letters), University of Canberra (Doctor of the University), the Australian Academy of the Humanities (Fellow), and the University of Sydney (Honorary Doctorate: 2005).

In 2008, the University of Canberra announced the establishment of the Donald Horne Institute for Cultural Heritage.

In 2017 La Trobe University Press published Donald Horne: Selected Writings, edited by his son Nick.

Selected bibliography

Social commentary

Political history

Autobiography

Fiction

Travel