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Peter Carey

Born

in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia

May 07, 1943

Website

http://petercareybooks.com/

Genre

Fiction

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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Peter Carey was born in Australia in 1943.

He was educated at the local state school until the age of eleven and then became a boarder at Geelong Grammar School. He was a student there between 1954 and 1960 — after Rupert Murdoch had graduated and before Prince Charles arrived.

In 1961 he studied science for a single unsuccessful year at Monash University. He was then employed by an advertising agency where he began to receive his literary education, meeting Faulkner, Joyce, Kerouac and other writers he had previously been unaware of. He was nineteen.

For the next thirteen years he wrote fiction at night and weekends, Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Peter Carey was born in Australia in 1943.

He was educated at the local state school until the age of eleven and then became a boarder at Geelong Grammar School. He was a student there between 1954 and 1960 — after Rupert Murdoch had graduated and before Prince Charles arrived.

In 1961 he studied science for a single unsuccessful year at Monash University. He was then employed by an advertising agency where he began to receive his literary education, meeting Faulkner, Joyce, Kerouac and other writers he had previously been unaware of. He was nineteen.

For the next thirteen years he wrote fiction at night and weekends, working in many advertising agencies in Melbourne, London and Sydney.

After four novels had been written and rejected The Fat Man in History — a short story collection — was published in 1974. This slim book made him an overnight success.

From 1976 Carey worked one week a month for Grey Advertising, then, in 1981 he established a small business where his generous partner required him to work only two afternoons a week. Thus between 1976 and 1990, he was able to pursue literature obsessively. It was during this period that he wrote War Crimes, Bliss, Illywhacker, Oscar and Lucinda. Illywhacker was short listed for the Booker Prize. Oscar and Lucinda won it. Uncomfortable with this success he began work on The Tax Inspector.

In 1990 he moved to New York where he completed The Tax Inspector. He taught at NYU one night a week. Later he would have similar jobs at Princeton, The New School and Barnard College. During these years he wrote The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith, Jack Maggs, and True History of the Kelly Gang for which he won his second Booker Prize.

He collaborated on the screenplay of the film Until the End of the World with Wim Wenders.

In 2003 he joined Hunter College as the Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing. In the years since he has written My Life as a Fake, Theft, His Illegal Self and Parrot and Oliver in America (shortlisted for 2010 Man Booker Prize).
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Peter Carey's Blog

Peter Carey isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.

Peter Carey on True History of the Kelly Gang: ‘At 56, I wrote what my younger self could not have managed’

Thirty years after discovering an inspirational letter by bushranger Ned Kelly, Carey found the voice for his Booker prize-winning novel

In 1961 I failed my first-year science exams at Monash University in Melbourne. In the aftermath I got a job in advertising and read Joyce’s Ulysses. I was surrounded by copywriters who would soon be novelists. One of them, Barry Oakley, took me to see Sidney Nola

Combine Editions
Peter Carey’s books

Average rating: 3.62 · 91,413 ratings · 7,957 reviews · 100 distinct works • Similar authors

	True History of the Kelly Gang 3.83 avg rating — 23,064 ratings — published 2000 — 57 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Oscar and Lucinda 3.73 avg rating — 21,298 ratings — published 1988 — 105 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Parrot and Olivier in America 3.44 avg rating — 7,524 ratings — published 2009 — 64 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jack Maggs 3.69 avg rating — 4,303 ratings — published 1997 — 71 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bliss 3.76 avg rating — 3,482 ratings — published 1981 — 44 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Long Way From Home 3.50 avg rating — 3,613 ratings — published 2017 — 38 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Chemistry of Tears 2.96 avg rating — 4,146 ratings — published 2012 — 70 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Theft: A Love Story 3.43 avg rating — 3,554 ratings — published 2006 — 64 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	My Life as a Fake 3.39 avg rating — 3,539 ratings — published 2003 — 69 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Illywhacker 3.78 avg rating — 3,019 ratings — published 1985 — 52 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Peter Carey…

Related News

Interview with Peter Carey

Journey into the storied Black Forest with Carey's latest work, The Chemistry of Tears, about a grieving museum expert and the 19th-century...

Polls

May 2021 New School Classic Poll

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, 1957, 239 pages

61 votes, 25.4%

Passing by Nella Larsen, 1929, 122 pages

51 votes, 21.3%

Maurice by E.M. Forster, 1971, 256 pages

39 votes, 16.3%

Possession by A.S. Byatt, 1990, 555 pages

36 votes, 15.0%

Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan, 1954, 113 pages

25 votes, 10.4%

Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, 1988, 515 pages

15 votes, 6.3%

The Way West by A.B. Guthrie Jr., 1949, 352 pages

13 votes, 5.4%

240 total votes

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