Representing the best of international life writing scholarship, this collection reveals extraordinary stories of remarkable lives. These wide-ranging accounts span the Americas, Britain, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Pacific over a period of more than two centuries. Showing fascinating connections between people, places and historical eras, they unfold against the backdrop of events and social movements of global significance that have influenced the world in which we live today. Many of the authors document and celebrate lives that have been lost, hidden or neglected. They are reconstituted from the archives, restored through testimony and reimagined through art. The effects of colonialism, war and conflict on individual lives can be seen throughout the book alongside themes of transnational connection, displacement and exile, migration of individuals, families and peoples, and recovery and recuperation through memory and writing, creativity and performance.

This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Life Writing.

Contents

Introduction Paul Longley Arthur 1. Tense and Tender Ties: Reflections on Lives Recovered from the Intimate Frontier of Empire and Slavery Cassandra Pybus 2. The Politics of Writing Convict Lives: Academic Research, State Archives and Family History Lucy Frost 3. The Murderer and His Victim: Tracing a Lost Convict of the Botany Bay Decision Emma Christopher 4. Narratives of Natural History: Recovering Lost Lineages in Margaret Levyns' Life-Writing Brett M. Bennett 5. The Theology of Materialism: Redeeming the Natural Religion of Robert Chambers and "Vestiges" Angela Smith 6. Fiction and Testimony in Don DeLillo’s "Falling Man" Jen Webb 7. Recovering Lives Through Art: Hidden Histories and Commemoration in the Works of Katsushige Nakahashi and Dadang Christanto Caroline Turner and Glen St John Barclay 8. Recovering Ocean Island Katerina Martina Teaiwa 9. Unearthing the Past: Dwikozy Revisited Paul Lrthur

Author Bio

Paul Longley Arthur studied at the University of Western Australia and held research fellowships in Europe, North America and Australia before taking up the position of Deputy Director of the National Centre of Biography and Deputy General Editor of the Australian Dictionary of Biography at the Australian National University.