Bruce Grant (writer)

Bruce Grant (b.1925) is an Australian writer who has been a journalist, foreign correspondent, diplomat, and author of several books on Australian politics and foreign policy.

Life

Bruce Grant was born in 1925 in outback Western Australia. Grant's success in a state exam won him a place at Perth Modern School.

Journalist

Grant left in his final year of secondary schooling to join Perth afternoon newspaper, the Daily News as a reporter. After military service, he studied Arts at the University of Melbourne combined with a diploma course in journalism from which he launched his career writing film and theatre criticism and author of novels, short stories, essays and books.

He was employed by Melbourne's The Age newspaper, where he was the only graduate on staff, and in 1954 left the coutry to become the paper's London correspondent, covering subjcets as diverse as that city's premiere of the Australian play Summer of the Seventeenth Doll; Robert Menzies' 1956 attempt to negotiate with Egypt’s president Gamal Nasser during the Suez Crisis; and the Hungarian revolution. In 1964, Grant resigned as The Age’s Washington correspondent, having reported from there during the terms of two Presidents, Kennedy and Johnson.

Intellectual and administrative contributions to the arts

Grant spent periods researching and teaching within universities, including as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, and a member of the councils of Monash and Deakin universities and chair of the Australian Dance Theatre, and the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, and president of Melbourne’s International Film Festival, and the Spoleto Festival, which became the Melbourne International Arts Festival.

Foreign affairs

Grant was witness to, and an influence on, centres of power in Australia for several decades, as journalist and foreign correspondent, diplomat, public intellectual, and advisor to governments from Menzies, whose letter of reference to ambassadors facilitated his reporting as Asian correspondent, to Whitlam to Hawke and Keating.

He was chairman of the Australia-Indonesia Institute and his Indonesia (1964) remains a classic and insightful study of Australia's relations with its most powerful near neighbour. As Australian High Commissioner to India (1973-1976) he was an early advocate of the importance of Asia to Australia. Consultant to the federal Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Gareth Evans, 1988–91, they co-wrote Australia's Foreign Relations in the World of the 1990s (1991).

Most recently he initiated the Colloquium 'Australia as a Middle-Ranking Power' hosted in Canberra by Manning Clark House in Conjunction with the Australian Institute of International Affairs.

In 2017 Grant released his memoir Subtle moments : scenes on a life's journey, named from a phrase from Albert Camus who wrote of "that subtle moment when man glances backward over his life ... contemplat[ing] that series of unrelated actions which become his fate"

Books

• Grant, Bruce; Australian Institute of International Affairs (1969), Foreign affairs and the Australian press, Australian Institute of International Affairs
• Laking, G. R. (George Robert); Grant, Bruce, 1925-; Castle, L. V; New Zealand Institute of International Affairs (1970), New Zealand and Australia : foreign policy in the 1970s : papers read at the 1969 Conference of the Institute, Price Milburn for the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, ISBN 978-0-7055-0266-5{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Grant, Bruce; Australian Institute of International Affairs (1972), The crisis of loyalty : a study of Australian foreign policy (Rev. ed ed.), Angus and Robertson [for] the Australian Institute of International Affairs, ISBN 978-0-207-12472-3 {{citation}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
• Whitlam, Gough; Grant, Bruce, 1925- (1973), Labor in power, Victorian Fabian Society, retrieved 31 October 2019{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Hickman, Arthur Thomas Godfrey; Grant, Bruce, 1925-, (ed.) (1977), Arthur and Eric : an Anglo-Australian story from the journal of Arthur Hickman, Heinemann Australia, ISBN 978-0-85561-041-8 {{citation}}: |author2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Grant, Bruce (1978), The security of South-East Asia, International Institute for Strategic Studies, ISBN 978-0-86079-017-4
• Grant, Bruce; Flinders University (1978), Asia, war and peace, Flinders University of South Australia, retrieved 31 October 2019
• Grant, Bruce (1980), Cherry Bloom, Aurora Press ; [London] : [Distributed by H.F.L.], ISBN 978-0-86748-000-9
• Grant, Bruce; Grant, Bruce, 1925- (1982), Gods & politicians, Allen Lane ; Ringwood, Vic. : Penguin Australia, ISBN 978-0-7139-1426-9{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Grant, Bruce (1983), The Australian dilemma : a new kind of Western society, Macdonald Futura Australia, ISBN 978-0-86771-003-8
• Grant, Bruce (1985), Australia and the twenty-first century, Australian National University, ISBN 978-0-86784-751-2
• Grant, Bruce (1988), What kind of country? : Australia and the twenty-first century, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-010681-7
• Grant, Bruce, 1925-; H.V. Evatt Memorial Foundation (1989), Australia in a world economy : proceedings of a seminar Oct 15, 1988, H.V. Evatt Memorial Foundation{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Grant, Bruce (1995), The Budd family, Hyland House, ISBN 978-1-875657-53-7
• Evans, Gareth; Grant, Bruce, 1925-; Evans, Gareth, 1944- (1995), Australia's foreign relations : in the world of the 1990s (2nd ed ed.), Melbourne University Press, ISBN 978-0-522-84657-7 {{citation}}: |edition= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Grant, Bruce (1996), Indonesia (3rd ed ed.), Melbourne University Press, ISBN 978-0-522-84745-1 {{citation}}: |edition= has extra text (help)Grant, Bruce (1979), The boat people, Harmondsworth, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-005531-3
• Grant, Bruce (1999), A furious hunger : America in the 21st century, Melbourne University Press, ISBN 978-0-522-84792-5
• Grant, Bruce (2004), Fatal attraction : reflections on the alliance with the United States, Black Inc, ISBN 978-0-9750769-3-4
• Grant, Bruce; Masters, Diane; Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne (2006), The Governor's moment, Grant Pub, ISBN 978-0-646-46657-6
• Conley Tyler, Melissa H; Miller, Geoff, (Author.) (2008), Australia as a Middle Power : Report of a Colloquium on 'Australia as a Middle-Ranking Power' Proposed by Bruce Grant, Leading Writer on International Affairs, and Hosted in Canberra by Manning Clark House in Conjunction with the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Australian Institute of International Affairs, ISBN 978-0-909992-55-2 {{citation}}: |author2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Grant, Bruce (2014), A young woman from China, [South Yarra, Victoria] Bruce Grant, ISBN 978-0-9925514-0-7
• Grant, Bruce (2014), The last kiss, [Melbourne?, Victoria] [Bruce Grant], ISBN 978-0-9925514-2-1
• Boston, Melbourne, Oxford, Vancouver Conversazioni on Culture and Society (2014 : Melbourne); Pizzey, Dorothy, (writer of introduction.); Grant, Bruce, 1925-, (writer of introduction.); Blainey, Geoffrey, 1930-, (author.); Burnside, Julian, (author.); Kelly, Paul, 1947-, (author.); Kimball, Roger, 1953-, (author.); Lawriwsky, Michael L, (author.); Boston, Melbourne, Oxford, Vancouver Conversazioni on Culture and Society (issuing body.) (2014 : Melbourne); Conversazioni (2014), The Great War : causes, consequences, reconsiderations : 4 August 2014 Melbourne, Boston, Melbourne, Oxford, Vancouver Conversazioni on Culture and Society, retrieved 31 October 2019 {{citation}}: |author4= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Grant, Bruce (2015), Crossing the Arafura Sea, [Melbourne?, Victoria] [Bruce Grant], ISBN 978-0-9925514-4-5
• Grant, Bruce (2017), Subtle moments : scenes on a life's journey, Monash University Publishing, ISBN 978-1-925495-35-5