Greer, Germaine

Description

Agent TypePersonPlace of BirthMelbourne, VictoriaActivities & OccupationsAuthorsFeministsAcademics - EnglishJournalistsProducerGenderFemaleHistoryGermaine Greer, author, journalist, broadcaster, feminist and conservationist was born in Melbourne, Australia on January 29, 1939. She was educated at Star of the Sea College, Gardenvale, studied English and French literature and language at the University of Melbourne, (BA Hons) and graduated MA (Hons I) from the University of Sydney with a thesis on Byron's satiric verse, and was a Senior Tutor in English (1963-1964). Greer earned a PhD from the University of Cambridge on Shakespeare's Early Comedies and was appointed Lecturer at the University of Warwick (1967-1972). Greer was one of the first women appointed full members of Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club and subsequently played roles in comedies for television, with regular appearances on radio and television continuing throughout her career. A contributor and editor for the underground press Oz and Suck magazines, Greer was also a gardening columnist 'Rose Blight' for Private Eye in the late 1960s and 1970s. Greer has written widely throughout her career for the mainstream press as a journalist, columnist and reviewer.
In 1970 Greer published The Female Eunuch, which explored the limitations on women's lives and selves in the wider context of the liberation movements of that time. It created a shock wave of recognition in women around the world, became an international bestseller and a landmark in the history of the women's movement and was reprinted and widely translated. This launched Greer's career as an author and was followed by a series of popular and academic books including: The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and their Work 1979 , Sex and Destiny: The Politics of Human Fertility 1984, Shakespeare 1986, The Madwoman's Underclothes selected journalism 1964-1985 1986, Kissing the Rod: An Anthology of Seventeenth Century Women's Verse (coedited with Susan Hastings, Jeslyn Medoff and Melinda Sansone) 1988, Daddy we hardly knew you 1989, The Uncollected Verse of Aphra Behn (Ed.) 1989, The Change: Women Ageing and the Menopause 1991, The Collected Works of Katherine Philips: The Matchless Orinda (vol. III The Translations) with Dr Ruth Little 1993, Slip-Shod Sibyls: Recognition Rejection and the Women Poet 1995, The Surviving Works of Anne Wharton (edited with Susan Hastings) 1997, The Whole Woman 1999, John Wilmot Earl of Rochester 1999, 101 Poems by 101 Women (ed.) 2001, The Boy (2003), Poems for Gardeners (ed.) 2003, Whitefella Jump Up: The Shortest Way to Nationhood (Quarterly Essay) 2003-2004, Shakespeare's Wife 2007, On Rage 2008, and White Beech 2013. Greer is in addition the publisher of several volumes of seventeenth century women's writing under the imprint Stump Cross Books.
Greer taught at the Universities of Tulsa (1979-1983) and Warwick (c. 1989-2003). She is the president of the invertebrate charity Buglife and the founder of Friends of Gondwana Rainforest charity which manages the Cave Creek Rainforest Rehabilitation Scheme in Southern Queensland. In 2013 Greer sold her archive to the University of Melbourne, with proceeds to benefit Friends of Gondwana. Greer is the recipient of numerous scholarships, honours and awards.

Source: Who's Who in Australia.Search records of this agent

Dates

Date29 January 1939-

Names

TitleProfessorGiven NameGermaineFamily NameGreer

University of Melbourne Archives

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Greer, Germaine