Australian writer whose best-known works include THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE (1959) and THE SHOES OF THE FISHERMAN (1963). Although primarily a novelist, West made his reputation with CHILDREN OF THE SHADOWS (1957), a nonfiction account of the slum children of Naples. West’s books have been called “religious thrillers” - they combined religion and political intrigue with an international setting and topical subjects. The author was a number of year a member of Christian Brothers before starting his career as a writer.
“As he drank the toast he understood with stark clarity the nature of damnation: that it was self-inflicted and irreversible. You ate the meal you had cooked through in turned to fire in your gullet. You drank the traitor’s cup to the dregs, but before you set it down it was filled again with gall and wormwood. The lies you told were graven on stone and you carried them at arm’s length above your head as a sign of infamy.” (from Masterclass, 1988)
Morris West was born in Melbourne as the oldest of six children. He studied at St. Mary’s College, St. Kilda, Victoria, and at the University of Melbourne, receiving his B.A. in 1937. West’s aim was to become a Christian Brother, and for several years he was a member of the Order. From 1933 he taught in New South Wales and Tasmania, but left before taking his final vows. During the World War II West served in the Australian Imperial Forces Corps of Signals, in the South Pacific, from 1939 to 1943. While stationed in Queensland, West wrote his first book, A MOON IN MY POCKET. It was based on his experiences in the religious order, and appeared in 1945 under the name of Julian Morris.
In 1943 West became a secretary to William Morris Hughes, former Prime Minister of Australia. “What I didn’t know was that I was one of a long line of his secretaries, which at that time numbered 72. The old man would in furious anger sweep his desk clear of papers and say pick them up. I survived three months.” After his discharge from the Army, West was a publicity manager at Radio Station 3 DB in Melbourne for two years, and founder, later a managing director of Australian Radio Productions Pry Ltd (1945-54). During this period West wrote and produced soap operas. He suffered a breakdown, sold his share of the business, and settled near Sydney as a writer. In 1955 he moved to Sorrento, Italy.
Prior to West’s marrage to Joyce Lawford in 1953, he was married to Elizabeth Harvey and fathered two children; Morris Julian West, the source of one of his pseudonyms, and Elizabeth West. With Joyce he had three sons and one daughter.
After 1954 he was a film and dramatic writer for the Shell Company and the Australian Broadcasting Network. From the 1950s West lived abroad. Between the years 1956 and 1968 he lived in England, and later in Italy, Austria, and the Unites States. In Vatican he worked six months as the Vatican correspondent of the London Daily Mail. West returned to Australia in 1980.
All of West’s books reflect his Catholic faith. In his religious thrillers he argued for a Church that will place forgiveness before punishment. West also wrote a number of political thrillers, such as THE SALAMANDER (1973), a story about new Fascism in Italy, and PROTEUS (1979). As a novelist West made his international breakthrough with The Devil’s Advocate (1959). It depicted the canonization process of Giacomo Nerone, a deserter, and the Catholic Church’s investigation made by a complex English priest, the “devil’s advocate.” West used in this novel his own experiences from the period when he was working in Vatican as a correspondent for the English newspaper Daily Mail.
The Shoes of the Fisherman started West’s “Vatican trilogy”. Jean Télémond, whose book is condemned in the story by the new Pope, was based on the theologian Teilhard de Chardin. The trilogy continued in THE CLOWNS OF GOD (1981) and LAZARUS (1999). It was a story about the election of a pope, and foretold the rise of a pope from the East Europe fifteen years before it occurred. The book was published just before Pope John XXIII died. In THE RINGMASTER (1991) West managed to predict the breakup of the Soviet Union. THE AMBASSADOR (1965) dealt with the Vietnam War, and TOWER OF BABEL (1968) was a suspense and espionage story about the Arab-Israeli conflict. The main characters are a hard-bitten Israeli general, a dedicated Arab leader, an amoral international financial wizard, a cynical Jewish double agent, a lovely Israeli sculptress, and a pleasure-seeking Frenchwoman. In THE NAVIGATOR (1976) and The Clowns of God. West used ideas from science fiction. The latter novel was set at the end of the 20th century.
“What is an agent? A spider who spins a web and waits quietly at the center of it, while unwary flies and mosquitoes are trapped in its sticky meshes. The center of the web is always in a shadowy corner. We do not come upon it quickly or easily. We see the threads first and the trapped insects, buzzing and struggling…” (from The Tower of Babel)
In THE WORLD IS MADE OF GLASS (1983) West drew a parallel between psychoanalysis and confession. The work explored a turbulent period in the life of the famous Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. Dr. Magda Kardos von Gramsfeld travels to Switzerland to meet Jung, whose break with Freud started his spiritual crisis, depicted in Erinnerungen, Träumen, Gedanken. Jung also has an affair with Antonia Wolff, his former pupil. West tells the story from Magda’s and Jung’s point of views. The novel was first adapted for the stage in New York in 1982. MASTERCLASS (1991) was a morality tale set in the world of art. West himself was a keen collector all his life and a patron of two major galleries in Australia. “West is adept at portraying the cognoscenti of the art world — the power brokers, poseurs, pirates, experts, fakers and collectors — and his narrative illustrates that wealth and a consistent Christian ethic are uneasy companions.” (Clifford Irving in The New York Times, June 9, 1991)
West’s autobiography, VIEW FROM A RIDGE, an account of his spiritual journey, appeared in 1996. Morris West died on October 9, 1999, in Sydney, while working at his desk with his new book, THE LAST CONFESSION. At the time of his death West was Australia’s most successful writer, whose books had sold some 70 million copies. Before the release of his 24th novel THE LOVERS (1993) West said that he has now finished as a novelist. However, he published in 1998 a new thriller, EMINENCE, in which the author continued his scrutiny of the papacy and the Vatican. The protagonist, Cardinal Luca Rossini, has been tortured in an Argentine prison in the 1970s. Later he becomes the confidante of the seriously ill pope, and a member of the electoral college. After the death of the reigning pope and during the intrigues of the papal election he must again face his own past and secret love. “So, he had made a choice: to stay within the system, use it as a fortress from which to wage his private wars. The choice was highly dangerous. It involved another rift within his damaged self. He was now both victim and vindicator. By all the beliefs which he professed, vengeance was itself a crime. It preempted the rights of divinity.” (from Eminence)
Among West’s several awards were National Conference of Christian and Jews Brotherhood award (1960), Royal Society of Literature Heineman award (1960), James Tait Black Memorial prize, and Dag Hammarskjöld prize (1978), Universe prize (1980). He was a fellow of Royal Society of Literature (1960) and World Academy of Arts and Sciences (1964). West was honoured by the Australian government with the Order of Australia (1985) for his services to literature and cultural life. West also received several honorary degrees from universities.
For further reading: Contemporary Popular Writers, ed. by David Mote (1997); A View from a Ridge by Morris L. West (1994) - For further information: Morris West (1916-1999) ; Morris West reflects on life, love and the Catholic Church ; Australian Authors
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