Robert Dessaix

Robert Dessaix (born 17 February 1944) is an Australian novelist, essayist and journalist.

Biography

Dessaix was born in Sydney and adopted at an early age. He was educated at North Sydney Boys High School. He studied in Moscow during the early 1970s, and taught Russian Studies at the Australian National University and the University of New South Wales from 1972 to 1984. During this time he translated a number of Russian books into English in collaboration with Michael Ulman, including "The Sheepskin Coat" and "An Absolutely Happy Village" by Boris Vakhtin.

From 1985 to 1995 he presented the ABC programme "Books and Writing". He is represented by Australian Literary Management.

His first book was his autobiography, "A Mother's Disgrace" which was published in 1994 by HarperCollins. ISBN 0-207-17934-4 Manuscripts concerning "A Mother's Disgrace" are in the Mitchell Library of New South Wales. The manuscript was written in French, and the book concerns his journey to an alternative sexuality after twelve years of marriage and his meeting with his birth mother Yvonne. It was made into a screenplay by Ross Wilson in 1999.

His first fictional work, "Night Letters", was published in 1996 and worked on as early as 1994. It was translated into German, French, Italian, Dutch, Finnish and Portuguese. ISBN 0-312-19939-2

His second novel was "Corfu" which was published in 2001. ISBN 0-330-36278-X

Dessaix' latest long work, "Twilight of Love: Travels with Turgenev" defies genre characterisation, interweaving a personal travelogue with a biography of Turgenev. It was published in 2004. It takes inspiration from his doctoral thesis on Turgenev and the Soviet Union, as well as Alain de Botton's works on travel, art and philosophy. ISBN 1-59376-063-9

He has also published other books.

External links

* [http://www.austlit.com/a-list-a-e.html Robert Dessaix's Australian Literary Management page]
* [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1243 Literary Encyclopedia entry on Robert Dessaix]
* [http://www.brisbanewritersfestival.com.au/2004/content/standard_c1.asp?name=DessaixR A profile and bibliography from the Brisbane Writers Festival 2004 including his sessions there]
* [http://libapp.sl.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/spydus/ENQ/PM/FULL1?411994 Mitchell Library Collection of the Papers of Robert Dessaix's "A Mother's Disgrace"]
* [http://libapp.sl.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/spydus/ENQ/PM/FULL1?421256 Mitchell Library Collection of the Papers of Robert Dessaix's "Night Letters]
* [http://www.thei.aust.com/sydney/interviews/dessaixint.html An Interview with Robert Dessaix by Jayne Margetts]
* [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/ling/stories/s693291.htm Lingua Franca interview with Dessaix] about his personal language K
* [http://www.totalcardboard.com/fiction_htmls/tc8/robert_dessaix_intrvu.htm Interview with Dessaix by Phil Lecks]
* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/travel/0,6121,1425438,00.html Guardian Review of Twilight of Love: Travels with Turgenev]
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml;sessionid=3HGYM3DDBT3RRQFIQMGCM54AVCBQUJVC?xml=/arts/2005/02/13/bodes13.xml&sSheet=/arts/2005/02/13/bomain.html His best second self - review from the Telegraph of Twilight of Love]
* [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/stories/2006/1796141.htm Robert Dessaix - public intellectuals in Australia':"interview with Phillip Adams, Late Night Live, ABC Radio National"]