Tennant, Kylie (1912-1988), was an Australian author who became known for her realistic novels and plays about migrants, the unemployed, and other underprivileged people in Australia. Her style is characterized by its vigor, humor, and intelligent reflection.
Tennant’s first novel, Tiburon (1935), explores the lives of the unemployed during the Great Depression of the 1930’s. She wrote about the slums of Sydney in the novels Foveaux (1939), Ride On, Stranger (1943), and The Joyful Condemned (1953). The Battlers (1941) deals with migrant workers. Lost Haven (1946) is a story about shipbuilding during World War II (1939-1945). Her play Tether a Dragon won the Commonwealth Jubilee Stage Play Competition in 1952. It deals with the early Australian Prime Minister Alfred Deakin. In 1960, Tennant won the Children’s Book Award for her collection of stories All the Proud Tribesmen (1959). She wrote the book after spending time with Aboriginal peoples of Australia and the native peoples of Papua New Guinea.
Kathleen Tennant was born on March 12, 1912, in Sydney. She died on Feb. 28, 1988.
