born May 28, 1912, London, Eng.
died Sept. 30, 1990, Sydney, N.S.W., Austrl.
Australian writer.
As a youth White moved between Australia and England, where he attended Cambridge University. After serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II, he returned to Australia, which he saw as a country in a volatile process of growth and self-definition. His somewhat misanthropic novels often explore the possibilities of savagery in that context; they include The Tree of Man (1955), Voss (1957), Riders in the Chariot (1961), and The Twyborn Affair (1979). His other works include plays and short stories, the latter collected in The Burnt Ones (1964) and The Cockatoos (1974). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973.