Except as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, copying this copyright material is prohibited without the permission of the copy- right owner or its exclusive licensee or agent or by way of a licence from Copyright Agency Umited REVIEW ESSAY MARTIN KRYGIER 200004804 The rnany-faceted McAuley The Devil and James McAuley, Cassandra Pybus, University of Queensland Press, 1999. ISBN 0 70223111 8, RR' $34.95 IMES McAuLEY was a multi-talented poet, writer and public figure. He was also a complex man, a compelling presence} not a bad pianist and a remarkable drinker. Through his life, and at anyone time, he played many public roles: member, with a team of unusually but disparately talented and later prominent Sydney University mates, of Alf Conlon's bizarre wartime Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs (in connection with which he went to New Guinea, source of several encounters which changed his life I; co·progenitor of Ern Malley; influential member of the Australian School of Pacific Administration which sought to develop policy and train officials for post- war Papua New Guinea; Roman Catholic convert and political activistj founding editor of Quadrant; Professor of English, poet and writerj political organiser; uneasy participant in modernity. He was notable and controversial in many of these roles. Cassandra Pybus didn't know McAuley, and acknowledges that there were many aspects to his protean person- ality, attested to by those who did, which she 'cannot find ... on the printed page'. Nevertheless her book, The Devil and lames McAuley, is the most detailed chronicle of the life so far. It is also an attempt to explain the course it took. As chronicle, it has several virtues. It contains a lot of information, usually delivered lightly, brightly and at times engagingly and wittily. Even cheekily. 32 EUREKA STREET • DECEMBER 1999