David Denholm

{{Short description|Australian author and historian}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}} {{Use Australian English|date=October 2016}} '''David Denholm''', Ph.D. (8 April 1924 – 19 June 1997) was an Australian author and historian who published fiction under the pseudonym '''David Forrest''', and history under his own name.<ref name=Arnold>{{cite book|last1=Arnold|first1=John|title=The Bibliography of Australian Literature: F-J|date=2001|publisher=Univ. of Queensland Press|isbn=0702235008|page=74|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yBpVHywjoVUC&dq=%22The+Colonial+Australians%22++%22david+denholm%22&pg=PA74}}</ref>

==Life and career== Denholm was born in Maryborough, Queensland,<ref>{{cite web |title=David Forrest |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A7406 |website=Austlit |access-date=14 May 2024}}</ref> and was a scholarship boy at the Brisbane Church of England Grammar School.<ref name=Boadle/> He fought in World War II with the 59th Battalion (Australia).<ref name=Boadle/>

Denholm was an adult learner who entered Queensland University in 1964, graduating in 1967. He went on to earn the PhD in history at the Australian National University in 1972. He taught at the University of New England, and then, after 1974, at the Riverina College of Advanced Education, which is now part of Charles Sturt University.<ref name=Boadle/> Denholm continued to research on Australian and family history until he died, after a short illness, in Wagga Wagga in 1997.<ref> https://library.csu.edu.au/archives/collection/regional/agencies/denholm> </ref>

==Writing== Denholm is perhaps best known for his book on Australian history, ''The Colonial Australians''. John Hirst, writing in The Monthly in 2006, placed it on his brief list of the best Australian history books of all-time.<ref name=Hirst>{{cite news|last1=Hirst|first1=John|title=The Best Australian History Books|url=http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2006/october/1193117278/john-hirst/first-xi|accessdate=16 March 2015|publisher=The Monthly}}</ref> Elsewhere, Hirst describes ''The Colonial Australians'' as an "underrated" work that "explores... the nature of colonial society by examining its physical remains," and Denholm as the historian who "best understands" the sense in which that the culture of a colony is as old as the culture of the mother country.<ref name=Sense>{{cite book|last1=Hirst|first1=John|title=Sense and Nonsense in Australian History|date=2009|isbn=978-1921825408|page=76}}</ref>

He first came to national and international attention with his debut novel, ''The Last Blue Sea'' (1959, written under the pen-name "David Forrest"), about the conflict between Australia and Japan during World War II. The novel, which emphasized the difficulty the Anzacs experienced in fighting in the heat and rain of New Guinea,<ref name=Mackay>{{cite book|last1=Mackay|first1=Marina|title=The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of World War II|url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00mack|url-access=limited|date=2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1139828451|page=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00mack/page/n170 153]}}</ref> has been called "the classic short novel of the New Guinea campaign."<ref name=Buckridge>{{cite book|last1=Buckridge|first1=Patrick|title=By the Book: A Literary History of Queensland|date=2007|publisher=University of Queensland Press|isbn=978-0702234682|page=67}}</ref> He also wrote ''The Hollow Woodheap'' (1962), and a notable short story ''The Barambah Mob'' (1963), a humorous (and often anthologised) cricketing tale. His book-length essay, ''The Colonial Australians'' (1975) was a bestseller.<ref name=Boadle/> ''The Last Blue Sea'' won the first Mary Gilmore Prize.<ref name=Boadle>{{cite web|last1=Boadle|first1=Don|title=David Denholm|url=http://www.csu.edu.au/research/archives/collection/regional/agencies/denholm|website=CSU.edu.au|publisher=Charles Sturt University|accessdate=16 March 2015|archive-date=2 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402103903/http://www.csu.edu.au/research/archives/collection/regional/agencies/denholm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Contest>{{cite news|title=Novel Contest Won by Bank Clerk|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19590101&id=63VWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5uQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5730,7065046|accessdate=16 March 2015|publisher=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=1 January 1959}}</ref>

==Bibliography==

===Novels===

All as by ''David Forrest''

* ''The Last Blue Sea'' (1959) * ''The Hollow Woodheap'' (1962)

===Criticism===

* ''Patrick White'' (1962) ===Published letters===

* ''Corresponding voices : the letters of Bill Scott and David Denholm, 1963-1997''. edited by Zita Denholm. 2000. [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/469349]

=== Oral History ===

* [https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/94160 David Denholm interviewed] by Hazel de Berg in 1979.<ref>{{Cite web |title=David Denholm interviewed by Hazel de Berg in the Hazel de Berg collection [sound recording] {{!}} Catalogue {{!}} National Library of Australia |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/94160 |access-date=2025-11-12 |website=catalogue.nla.gov.au |language=en}}</ref> In the interview, Denholm describes the process of writing "The Colonial Australians", his method of work and his sources.

==References==

{{DEFAULTSORT:Denholm, David}} Category:1924 births Category:1997 deaths Category:20th-century Australian novelists Category:20th-century Australian male writers Category:Australian male novelists Category:Australian male short story writers Category:Australian textbook writers Category:20th-century Australian short story writers