A classic of Australian literature, The Education of Young Donald Trilogy combines Donald Horne’s three autobiographies — The Education of Young Donald (1967), Confessions of a New Boy (1985) and Portrait of an Optimist (1988) — in one volume. Describing his formative years as he strays far from home, it tells how Donald moved among the social classes, strolled from one milieu to another, visited foreign lands, flirted between intellectual perspectives, had successes that were failures and failures that were successes and ends up, with an increasing sense of exile, playing courtier to a powerful man in a way quite different from anything intended.
With a keen intellect and a sharp wit, Horne portrays the rough and tumble world of journalism.
‘Donald Horne was an eager participant in 20th century public conversations that made Australia what it is today. His searching autobiographical trilogy introduces him to a new generation of readers.’ — Edmund Campion
‘His three-volume autobiography is one of the major literary achievements of twentieth century Australia…’ — Meaghan Morris, Gleebooks Gleaner
‘… a superb book.’ — Peter Coleman, The Australian
‘Horne’s trilogy of autobiography is his most substantial legacy, for its clarity of observation on the formation of Australia and on the strands of the Australian personality.’ — Frank Moorhouse, quoted in The Australian
‘I commend it to you quite fiercely.’ — Max Harris, The Australian
'…an exhilarating inquiry into the sources and quality of the facts and ideas that made him…’ — H.G. Kippax, Sydney Morning Herald
‘…a master of the autobiography-as-an-art form.’ — Denis O’Brien, The Australian
‘Horne … makes complex ideas and feelings, particularly about Australian life, accessible in chiselled, wry prose that remains fresh and deeply Australian…’ — Fiona Capp, Sydney Morning Herald
‘In some ways, his personality embodied the Australia into which he was born in 1921: hard edged, wry-humoured, industrious and pragmatic. In a country with a deeply ingrained anti-intellectual tradition … Horne was a feisty advocate for the virtues of intellectual life.’ — Mark McKenna, The Australian
‘Australia had made him and he was concerned to remake Australia … it was his country and as such it had no right to be boring or provincial or mediocre.’ — Owen Harries, Speech at Horne Memorial
‘Like Henry Lawson and Patrick White, his work will live on as a faithful record of our time.’ — Manning Clark
‘Donald Horne is Australia’s special gift to the world…’ — Kenneth Hudson, Art Monthly
