Malcolm Henry Ellis, CMG (21 August 1890 – 18 January 1969) was an Australian journalist, historian, critic, reviewer and staunch anti-communist.[1] His wife, Jean Ellis, founded the Penguin Club of Australia in 1937 and his younger brother Ulrich Ellis was also a journalist and historian

Life

Ellis won praise during World War II for his column, "The Service Man", which appeared under the pseudonym "Ek Dum". Using radio reports and his knowledge of terrain, he described military campaigns in a realistic manner so that it was assumed he was present.[1] His series of anti-communist tracts, the most famous of which was The Red Road (1932), was lurid and divisive.

Due to his staunch criticism of the writing of Manning Clark, who in Ellis's view was a Communist fellow traveller, he almost subverted the launching of the Australian Dictionary of Biography. "History without facts", his excoriating and now legendary review in the Sydney Bulletin of the first volume of Clark's A History of Australia, is for many the main legacy of his otherwise extensive works, which include biographies of key early Australian colonial figures, Francis Greenway, John Macarthur and Lachlan Macquarie.[2]

Private life

Ellis married Melicent Jane (Jean) Ellis in 1914. She had intended to be a nurse. Their first child was born in 1915. His wife was a excellent public speaker and in 1937 she and a friend founded the Penguin Club of Australia which taught women to have confidence when speaking in public. Ellis and his wife had a divorce in 1939.[3]

Awards

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Fletcher, B. H. "Ellis, Malcolm Henry (1890–1969),". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
  2. ↑ Andrew Moore (1999) History without facts: M. H. Ellis, Manning Clark and the origins of the Australian Dictionary of Biography. Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Dec 1999 also at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb4817/is_2_85/ai_n28745196/. Given the extent of Malcolm Ellis's contribution to historical scholarship, it is curious that sometimes he should be more widely remembered for a single book review. This was `History Without Facts', published in The Bulletin on 22 September 1962. Ellis's response to the first volume of Manning Clark's history of Australia shaped contemporary and subsequent responses to Clark's ambitious project. In less than subtle terms Malcolm Ellis introduced a new pastime to Australian public and intellectual life, that of Manning Clark 'bashing'
  3. ↑ Rutledge, Martha, "Ellis, Melicent Jane (Jean) (1887–1974)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 25 September 2023


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.