Horne, Donald 1921–2005

(Donald Richmond Horne)

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born December 26, 1921, in Muswellbrook, New South Wales, Australia; died of pulmonary fibrosis, September 8, 2005, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Journalist, educator, college administrator, and author. Horne was a noted voice for republicanism and racial equality in Australia and was famous for his debut book, The Lucky Country (1964; 4th edition, 1971). He attended the University of Sydney for several years before briefly serving in the army during World War II. He then went back to school, attending what is now Australian National University, but did not complete a degree. Instead, Horne began a journalism career with the Sydney Daily Telegraph during the late 1940s. After he moved to London, England, in 1950, he worked for the Associated Newspapers as a correspondent and joined the conservative Tory Party, for which he considered running for Parliament. After working as a London-based correspondent for the Australian Consolidated Press, he returned to Australia to become a managing editor. He left that job in 1962 to be creative director for the advertising agency Jackson Wain in Sydney. While working in advertising, Horne published The Lucky Country. The title was meant to be ironic in that Horne felt Australia was lucky to be a prosperous nation despite its poor political leadership. The book became a bestseller, and over time the phrase "lucky country" was misinterpreted to mean that Australia was a sunny, laid-back land of abundance and happy citizens, a connotation Horne abhorred. He followed his original book with two more related political commentaries: Death of the Lucky Country (1976) and The Lucky Country Revisited (1987). After serving as editor of the Sydney Bulletin from 1967 to 1972 (he had also been its editor from 1961 to 1962), and notably striking the subtitle "Australia for the White Man" from the paper's masthead, Horne joined the faculty at the University of New South Wales. He began as a research fellow at the school of political science in 1973, rising to full professor by 1984 and retiring as professor emeritus in 1987. Horne savored this accomplishment because he had never earned a college degree, and was even more thrilled when he was named chancellor at the University of Canberra from 1992 to 1994. Meanwhile, through the 1980s and 1990s, Horne was an active political voice in the media, pushing for Australia to break its ties with England once and for all, until a referendum to remove the British monarch as titular head of state was defeated in 1999. He was also vocal in criticizing right-wing politicians and Australia's treatment of the aborigines. Horne was, furthermore, chair of the Australia Council, an influential national arts board, from 1985 to 1990. Among his many other politically charged titles are God Is an Englishman (1969), Power from the People (1977), the history The Story of the Australian People (1985), and the autobiography Into the Open: Memoirs 1958–99 (2000). His last books include the edited Looking for Leadership: Australia in the Howard Years (2001), A Compact for Australia (2001), and Ten Steps to a More Tolerant Australia (2003). Horne also penned several fiction titles, such as The Permit (1965) and His Excellency's Pleasure (1977). At the time of his death, he was working on a book titled Aspects of Terminal Illness.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Horne, Donald, Into the Open: Memoirs 1958–99, Harper Collins (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 2000.

PERIODICALS

Independent (London, England), September 10, 2005, p. 43.

Los Angeles Times, September 10, 2005, p. B17.

Times (London, England), September 16, 2005, p. 75.