Still Shines: Vincent O’Sullivan (1937-2024)

Abstract

When Peter Whiteford asked me to write something about Vincent, he generously gave me ‘free reign as to length and style’. So this portrait of Vincent is a personal one, with an emphasis on certain of his works over others. For the thirty-four years I knew Vincent, he was always and everywhere a writer at work. But what made him so likeable was the fact that he never ‘acted the writer’. Vincent displayed insatiable curiosity for everything, but never resorted to ‘look at me’ affectations, and remained a resolutely private person while gregariously fulfilling his role as a public literary figure.