Ray Mathew

{{Infobox writer | name = Ray Mathew | image = Ray Mathew.jpg | imagesize = | alt = | caption = | birthname = Raymond Frank Mathew | birthdate = (1929-04-14)14 April 1929 | birthplace = Sydney, Australia | deathdate = (1990-04-00)April 1990 | deathplace = New York City | occupation = Novelist, playwright, poet, short-story writer, essayist | nationality = Australian | education = Teaching degree | influences = | alma_mater = Sydney Teaching College | period = 1947-49 | awards = Grace Levin Prize
1951 With Cypress Pine (poetry)

Ray (Raymond Frank) Mathew (14 April 1929 - April 2002), an Australian author, was born in Sydney, NSW. Mathew wrote poetry, drama, radio plays and filmscripts, short stories, novels, arts and literature criticism and other non-fiction. He left Australia in 1960 and never returned, dying in New York where he had lived from 1968.

Childhood and Education

Mathew lived in Leichardt and Bondi, Sydney during his childhood, attending Sydney Boys High School.

He attended Sydney Teachers College from 1947 to 1949.

Teaching and Work in Australia

Between 1949 and 1951 Mathew taught at small country schools in New South Wales where he was often the only teacher. His experience as a lone and lonely teacher is expressed in his most well-known play A Spring Song which was first performed in 1958.

During the 1950s Mathew also worked in shops, moved furniture, gave school broadcasts and adult education lectures, wrote literary reviews for the Sydney Morning Herald as a freelance journalist, worked for the CSIRO as an accounts officer 1952-1954 and was a tutor and lecturer at the University of Sydney 1955-1960.

Leaving Australia

Mathew left Australia for Italy in 1960. After some time there he moved to London where he lived until 1968 when he went to New York with an introduction to the inventor, Paul Kollsman and his wife Eva. The Kollsmans assisted Mathew through their literary connections. He worked as a freelance writer and art critic while working on his novels and poetry.

Matthew remained in New York for the rest of his life. He wrote in a letter to his Australian artist friend, Pixie O'Harris, 'I have probably not been happier in my life.'

List of Works

Plays: 'The Boomerang and the Bantam' (date unknown) 'We Find the Bunyip' First produced 1955; published in Khaki, Bush and Bigotry, 1968. 'The Life of the Party' First produced 1958; published in Plays of the '50s 2004. 'A Spring Song' First produced 1958; published in 1961 & 1985. 'The Bones of my Toe' First produced 1957; unpublished. 'The Medea of Euripides' Radio play broadcast 1961.

Short Story Collections: A Bohemian Affair: Short Stories (1961) The Time of the Peacock: Stories (1965)

Novel: The Joys of Possession (1967)

Poetry Collections: With Cypress Pine (1951) Highly Commended in Grace Levin Prize. Song and Dance (1956) South of the Equator (1961) Moonsong and Other Poems (1962)

Other: Tense Little Lives: Uncollected Prose of Ray Mathew (2007) Published posthumously.

External links

• [AustLit entry]