Researching the writer
Christina Stead (1902–83) was a notable Australian writer. Growing up in Sydney with her half-siblings, she was the only child of her father’s first marriage. Stead was a sensitive and often lonely adolescent, much like Louisa Pollit in the novel. She was estranged from her father in adulthood and spent most of her adult life living abroad, leaving Australia in 1928 and returning after the death of her husband in 1968. Her most widely read novels, For Love Alone and The Man Who Loved Children, are based on events in her life. It is commonly accepted that the character of Sam Pollit, a domineering father, is based on Stead’s own father:
She blamed her father, a naturalist, for forming her, deforming her, giving her up to bad stepmothers who couldn’t love her, and she wrote David Stead no letters after she left. But The Man Who Loved Children, first published with little fanfare in 1940, enshrines her rage and love. Stead declared the book ‘terribly lifelike’, and too painful for her to ever reread.
Hilary Mc Phee, in The Australian, 2017
Stead was a committed Marxist. She worked in a bank in Paris for five years in the 1930s. The Man Who Loved Children was written in the late 1930s and published in 1940, although it was not initially successful. The novel was only read widely after being re-released in 1965 with an essay by the American poet Randall Jarrell praising the novel. Indeed, there were decades where Christina Stead’s work was largely forgotten. The Australian novelist Patrick White admired The Man Who Loved Children after reading the reissued text and was influential in promoting it. Indeed, a 2015 symposium at the University of New South Wales examined why Stead is still being ‘rediscovered’ and why her work is currently growing in popularity.
Students can discuss: Does a ‘classic’ text need to have been popular in its own time?
Stead was a screenwriter in Hollywood and taught at New York University in the 1940s. She wrote twelve novels and several short stories during her lifetime. Many were out of print until a new interest in Australian literature led to them being re-released. When The Man Who Loved Children was published again in 1965, all of Stead’s novels were out of print.
It is useful for students to complete some background reading about Stead’s life before they encounter the novel. The article ‘The Woman who Loved Words’ (first published in 1986) deals with her descent into literary obscurity before the republication of The Man Who Loved Children. This article also explores the characters of Sam and Henny in a detailed and refreshing manner.
Ways of reading the text
Franzen’s essay
Jonathan Franzen, a notable author, has written a memorable essay on the novel. It is perceptive, well worth a read, and also located at the beginning of the 2010 edition.
- What does Franzen mention that is significant from a feminist perspective (p. ix)? Do you agree with his reading?
- Franzen is clearly moved and intrigued by the character of Louisa Pollit (pp. xi–xiii). What does he feel is remarkable about Louie and the role she plays in the novel?
- The autobiographical nature of Sam Pollit is clearly addressed by Franzen towards the end of his essay.Do you think it is important for readers to know these details about David Stead? Does it change your reading of the novel?
The novel as a critique of America
Stead’s novels are notably autobiographical: like Louisa Pollit, she was the only child of a first marriage and was brought up by her stepmother alongside numerous younger half-siblings. As an adult, Stead was estranged from her father, wrote scathingly of him in the novel, and Louisa’s escape reads as an example of wish-fulfillment when one considers Stead’s adolescence. However, it is possible to read Sam’s character as an Australian’s critique of America:
Her claim that ‘I wrote what I saw’ is disingenuous; the transformation of her father into Sam Pollit, named for the American humorist Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) and a British Communist Party leader, is part of a narrative strategy that generates criticism of American paternalism and capitalism.
Margaret Harris in The Australian Dictionary of Biography
Seen within this reading, Stead’s novel becomes even more complex and interesting. The Australian Dictionary of Biography also mentions Stead’s ‘refusal to write for popular taste’, and how this meant that she was sometimes unable to financially support herself as a writer. How do you think The Man Who Loved Children reflects this refusal? What parts of the novel indicate that it was not written to be read as popular fiction?
In a 2011 article, Michael Ackland claims that The Man Who Loved Children is a socialist criticism of the ‘New Deal’ in America. This is a useful reading, as Christina Stead’s connections with Communism informed many of her works. It is important to note that, though the novel appears to be about the lives of a family, economic issues are frequently discussed in the novel, and a more obviously socialist novel would have had trouble finding a publisher. Two competing readings of the novel are of the characters and situations as being primarily autobiographical, or of the novel as being concerned with a socialist critique of America.
Ackland argues that:
Chronologically the book is set in the years 1936 to 1938, but its main protagonist, Samuel Clemens Pollit, draws inspiration from the first Roosevelt administration, which substituted central planning and government largesse for hallowed doctrines of economic laissez-faire and character-forming self-reliance. Pollit thus supports a controversial agenda labeled Communist by its detractors, yet officially presented in humanitarian, populist terms: a constellation of conflicting view-points subtly recalled by his own name, which links a local humorist and humanist, Mark Twain, with a patronym derived from the Secretary of the British Communist Party, Harry Pollitt…
in ‘”Socialists for a new socialism?” Christina Stead’s Critique of 1930s America in The Man Who Loved Children’
He sees each of the characters and locations as representing particular aspects of America: the deceased first wife from New England, the wealthy Southern second wife in a state of decline, Sam Pollit as a patriotic and pioneering version of Uncle Sam – America. Sam’s career as a bureaucrat in Washington DC is significant in terms of this reading of the novel, as is his tendency to quote or paraphrase past American presidents.
- Is The Man Who Loved Children an Australian’s view of America?
- If we are reading it as Australian literature, should we focus more on its links to Stead’s childhood than on references to American politics that we may not be able to relate to or understand?
Students may wish to read about Uncle Sam, considering if there are any noticeable parallels to Sam Pollit.
Evaluation of the text as Australian literature
An article in The Independent notes the irony of the novel: originally forgotten, it has been recently celebrated as its themes are inherently contemporary. Indeed, critics have viewed the novel as one of the great American novels of the twentieth century – until realising that its author was Australian. The article contains further commentary.
Another novel that superficially contains an American setting is Be Ready With Bells and Drums (1961) by Elizabeth Kata, also published as A Patch of Blue. The 1965 film of this novel was popular and won an Academy Award, but few viewers realised that the book it was based on had been written by an Australian who had never travelled to America. It is worthwhile for students to consider the reasons behind the obscuring of the authors’ nationality. The importance of an international readership and the lack of investment in the Australian publishing industry at the time led to Stead and Kata producing stories set in America in order to ensure that their work was published.
Christina Stead revealed in a 1979 interview published in the Journal of Poetics Research that her years as an expatriate living overseas did not result from a burning desire to leave Australia. Throughout the interview, she expressed her affection for Sydney and discussed the very rich and full life that she experienced. Interestingly, Stead did not consider herself a ‘professional writer’, despite her considerable publishing output. Her assertive tone and lively observations make the transcript of this interview an interesting one to read. Her comments about Henny (seen as a heroine by the women’s liberation movement of the 1970s) are also interesting, as are the autobiographical details that she shares.
Group discussion
When reading the novel – a significant work by an Australian author living abroad, and a work which is set in America – it is useful to consider what we mean by ‘Australian literature’. As a class, students can discuss and debate the following:
- What do you think makes ‘an Australian novel’?
- Is it enough that the author was born in Australia?
- Does the author need to have been living in Australia while writing the novel?
- Should the novel be set in Australia?
- Is it enough for the plot to have been inspired by events in Australia?
In small groups consider some points for and against the central question: Can The Man Who Loved Children be considered a work of ‘Australian’ literature?
Are the following grounds for the book to be regarded as Australian?
- The language used in the novel is neither distinctively American, nor recognisably Australian – the characters often speak in a unique and idiomatic way within their family.
- Stead deliberately obscures the setting to appeal to American readers, and the novel was written a year after Stead’s emigration to America.
- The plot is semi-autobiographical and is based on a childhood spent in Sydney. In particular, the character of Sam Pollit appears to be based on Stead’s father, and her position as the eldest half sibling is similar to that of Louisa Pollit.
- Stead spent most of her adult life outside of Australia after leaving when she was twenty-five, and was rejected for an Australian literary award in 1969 on the grounds that she was no longer an Australian.
- The novel was initially a failure in terms of sales, but critics have enjoyed it over the years and it has been compared to works by the great Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy.
Share your views with the class and, as a class, develop a list of criteria to determine the nature of what can be considered a work of Australian literature in a globalised world?
(ACELR053) (ACELR054) (ACELR055) (ACELR056) (ACELR057) (ACELR058) (ACELR061)
Synthesising tasks
Exploring genre: satire, tragedy or bildungsroman?
A Guardian review argues that the novel has tragic elements. It is commonly considered to be a work of realism with some elements of satire. The domestic drama is confronting and hard-hitting. The characters are at once multi-dimensional, alternately complex and seemingly simplistic.
However, there is a great deal of exaggeration in the novel, particularly in terms of its use of simple characterisation (one-dimensional characters who do not change or develop throughout the course of the novel – most notably Sam). Other reviewers have considered it to be a work of satire. It also has elements of realism and autobiography.
1. Class debate
As a class, divide into two groups based on your opinions and debate the following statement:
The genre of a novel determines the way we read it.
Spend 15 to 20 minutes brainstorming ideas in your group to present your side of the case.
The affirmative (for) side may want to consider the many genres that The Man Who Loved Children falls into. Do we see it as:
- a tragedy because of its horrific end (and the revelation about Henny’s finances that enables us to see her in a more sympathetic light),
- a satirical vision of family life, or
- as a coming-of-age novel about Louisa’s growth and development?
Each reading relies on a different understanding of the characters, ideas and events in the novel. However, the negative (against) side may want to consider the value of a close study of the novel – looking at all its themes, characters and events.
Do we have to consider genre at all to appreciate the text? Can this merely limit our understanding of the novel, or force us to ignore parts of the novel which don’t suit our beliefs about its genre? Is the idea of genre a limiting concept in the first place?
(Students might find that the English Textual Concepts can provide some useful pointers about genre to support them in their debate.)
After each side has presented their case, discuss what was learned from considering different ideas about the novel. Students may wish to take notes during the debate about a variety of ideas and opinions.
2. Infographics
An infographic contains words and images in a single layout to convey facts and ideas about a single topic. Students are to create an infographic that will encourage new readers to discover the novel.
- Students need to consider the intended audience: who do they think would gain from reading the novel, and who is unlikely to have already read the novel?
- Ensure that there is a wide selection of facts, quotes and ideas to appeal to this audience.
- Students may wish to focus on a particular reading or idea in the novel (for example, a feminist reading if you wish to appeal to women, or some of the ideas about independence and family dynamics if you want to appeal to a broader audience of adolescents).
(ACELR053) (ACELR055) (ACELR056) (ACELR064) (ACELR068)