Keneally, Thomas

Thomas Keneally (kənē´lē), 1935–, Australian novelist, b. Sydney. For a time a student of religion, and later of law, Keneally has ranged over a wide spectrum of subjects in his many novels, including the American Civil War, Nazi Germany, and rugby. Keneally insists that he must try to re-create the experience of his characters, thus the authentic flavor of works such as Schindler's Ark (1982, published in the United States as Schindler's List). This novelistic treatment of a German businessman's efforts to save more than a thousand Jews during the Holocaust was the source of Steven Spielberg's film. In 2008 Keneally published Searching for Schindler, a memoir of the writing and filming of the story.

His other novels include The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1972, film 1978), A Family Madness (1985), To Asmara (1989), Woman of the Inner Sea (1993), A River Town (1995), Office of Innocence (2003), and The Tyrant's Novel (2004). He has also written several nonfiction works; they include The Great Shame (1999), which explores the fates of the 19th-century Irish forced to immigrate to Australia; American Scoundrel (2002), a biography of Daniel Sickles; A Commonwealth of Thieves (2006), the story of Australia's beginnings as a colony for transported prisoners; and Three Famines (2011), a study of 19th- and 20th-century famines that finds their causes in failures by tyrannical powers to properly distribute food.

See studies by P. Quartermaine (1991) and P. Pierce (1995).

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Publication information: Article title: Keneally, Thomas. Encyclopedia title: The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. © 2012 The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. Used with the permission of Columbia University Press. All Rights Reserved. Publisher: The Columbia University Press. Place of publication: Not available. Publication year: 2013.

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