Background
CLEARY, Jon was born on November 22, 1917 in Sydney, N.S.W. Son of Mathew Cleary and Ida F. Brown.
CLEARY, Jon was born on November 22, 1917 in Sydney, N.S.W. Son of Mathew Cleary and Ida F. Brown.
Cleary left school in 1932 at the age of fourteen to help his family with money, and spent the following eight years doing a variety of jobs, notably as a commercial artist for Austral Toon under Eric Porter.
Jon Cleary enlisted in the Australian army on 27 May 1940 and served in the Middle East before being transferred to the Military History Unit. He served for a time in New Guinea, where his clerk was Lee Robinson, and was discharged on 10 October 1945 with the rank of lieutenant. Cleary began writing regularly in the army, selling his first story in 1940. His first novel was the 1947 work, You Can't See 'Round Corners, which dwelt on the life of an army deserter wanted for the sensational murder of his girlfriend in wartime Sydney. He started writing this in the army and finished it on board a ship en route to London where Cleary had hoped to find work as a screenwriter.
Jon Cleary's works:
You Can't See 'Round Corners (1947), The Long Shadow (1949), Just Let Me Be (1950), The Sundowners (1952),The Climate of Courage (1954), Justin Bayard (1955) (aka Dust in the Sun), The Green Helmet (1957), Back of Sunset (1959), North From Thursday (1960), Strike Me Lucky (1961) - co-wrote (uncredited) with his wife Joy, The Country of Marriage (1962), Forests of the Night (1963), A Flight of Chariots (1963), The Fall of an Eagle (1964), The High Commissioner (1966) - the first Scobie Malone novel, The Pulse of Danger (1966), The Long Pursuit (1967), Season of Doubt (1968), Remember Jack Hoxie (1969), Helga's Web (1970) - Scobie Malone novel, Mask of the Andes (1971) (aka The Liberators), Man's Estate (1972) (aka The Ninth Marquess), Ransom (1973) - Scobie Malone novel, The Safe House (1975), Peter's Pence (1975), A Sound of Lightning (1976), High Road to China (1977), Vortex (1978), The Beaufort Sisters (1979), A Very Private War (1980), The Faraway Drums (1981), The Golden Sabre (1981), Spearfield's Daughter (1982), The Phoenix Tree (1984), The City of Fading Light (1985), Dragons at the Party (1987) - Scobie Malone novel,Now and Then, Amen (1988) - Scobie Malone novel,Babylon South (1989) - Scobie Malone novel,You, the Jury (1990) (reprint of 1950 Just Let Me Be), Murder Song (1990) - Scobie Malone novel, Pride's Harvest (1991) - Scobie Malone novel, Dark Summer (1992) - Scobie Malone novel, Bleak Spring (1993) - Scobie Malone novel, Autumn Maze (1994) - Scobie Malone novel, Winter Chill (1995) - Scobie Malone novel, Endpeace (1996) - Scobie Malone novel, A Different Turf (1997) - Scobie Malone novel, Five Ring Circus (1998) - Scobie Malone novel, Dilemma (1999) - Scobie Malone novel, Bear Pit (2000) - Scobie Malone novel, Yesterday's Shadow (2001) - Scobie Malone novel, The Easy Sin (2002) - Scobie Malone novel, Degrees of Connection (2003) - Scobie Malone novel, Miss Ambar Regrets (2004), Morning's Gone (2006), Four-Cornered Circle (2007).
39 novels and two books of short stories (1983), including You Can't See Round Comers 1948, The Sundowners 1952, The High Commissioner 1966, High Road to China 1977, Mask of the Andes 1971, Spearfield’s Daughter 1982, The Phoenix Tree 1984, The City of Fading Light 1985, Dragons at the Party 1987, Now and Then, Amen 1988, Babylon South 1989. Murder Song 1990. Pride’s Harvest 1991.
Tennis, watching cricket, filmgoing, reading.
Married Constantina E. Lucas in 1946.