J. M. Harcourt

John Mewton Harcourt (2 March 1902 – 1971), commonly known as J. M. Harcourt, was an Australian writer, known for his 1934 novel Upsurge, which was banned soon after publication.

Life John Mewton Harcourt was born on 2 March 1902 in Melbourne, Victoria, and grew up in Western Australia. eventually becoming captain of a pearling lugger. Leaving Perth in 1934 to move to Melbourne after being offered a at Truth, he joined the Communist Party of Australia. which had been established in 1933 by Prime Minister Joseph Lyon's United Australia Party (later renamed the Literature Censorship Board). It was initially banned as seditious, later reviewed and the ban confirmed, ostensibly on grounds of indecency and explicit depictions of sex under the Indecent Publications Act, after the recently established Book Censorship Board had suggested the ban. It was the first Australian novel to employ the socialist realist style, the manner promoted by the Soviet Union at that time. However the main cause of its ban was its socialist tone and subversive agenda which criticised capitalism, featuring Communist characters in its portrayal of life in the relief camps of the Depression.

Selected works Novels The Pearlers 1933 Upsurge 1934 It Never Fails 1937

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