Editing Patrick White (section)

==Return to Australia==
[[File:(1)Patrick White house Castle Hill-2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|White's house in Castle Hill, Sydney]]
White arrived back in Australia in February 1948. He and Lascaris moved to a small farm purchased by White at [[Castle Hill, New South Wales|Castle Hill]], now a Sydney suburb but then semi-rural. He named the house "Dogwoods", after trees he planted there. He and Lascaris worked the farm and sold flowers, vegetables, milk and cream as well as pedigree [[schnauzer]] puppies.{{Sfnp|Marr|1991|pp=255-65, 272-73}} 

The reviews of ''The Aunt's Story'' in the British and Australian press were less enthusiastic than those in America, and White was unable to interest theatres in Australia or overseas in producing ''The Ham Funeral.'' He was making slow progress on the novel which was to become ''The Tree of Man'' and was discouraged at his prospects of success as a writer. He also questioned his decision to return to Australia.{{Sfnp|Marr|1991|pp=258, 272-80}}

In late 1951, White had a religious experience that gave him a belief in God and the inspiration to recommence work on ''The Tree of Man'' (published in 1955). He described the novel as an attempt to suggest "every possible aspect of life, through the lives of an ordinary man and woman."{{Sfnp|Marr|1991|pp=281-83, 285}} ''The Tree of Man'' and his following work ''Voss'' (1957) established White's favourable critical reputation in Britain and America. White, however, was embittered by what he considered a hostile critical response in Australia.{{Sfnp|Marr|1991|pp=305, 325-28}}{{Sfnp|Webby|2012}}

Following his international success, White continued to live and work on his farm in Castle Hill. He gave few interviews and usually declined requests for public appearances, promotion of his work, and invitations for his membership of literary and cultural organisations. He entertained a close circle of friends at his home but always felt himself to be an outsider: "first as a child with what kind of strange gift no one quite knew; then a despised colonial in an English public school; finally an artist in horrified Australia."{{Sfnp|Marr|1991|pp=346-47, 351-52, 361}}

In 1961, his novel ''Riders in the Chariot'' was published, and was his first to receive almost universal critical praise in Australia.{{Sfnp|Marr|1991|p=382}}{{Sfnp|Webby|2012}} Meanwhile, White's interest had returned to the theatre. The Drama Committee of the [[Adelaide Festival]] had recommended ''The Ham Funeral'' as the festival's main theatrical production for 1962. The festival governors, however, rejected the play citing concerns about "a piece of work which quite fails to reconcile poetry with social realism" and a scene involving an aborted foetus in a dustbin.{{Sfnp|Marr|1991|pp=388-91}} The controversy led to a successful amateur production of the play in Adelaide followed by a professional production in Sydney. White was inspired to write three further plays which were given professional productions: ''The Season at Sarsaparilla'' (1962), ''A Cheery Soul'' (1963) and ''[[Night on Bald Mountain (play)|Night on Bald Mountain]]'' (1964).{{Sfnp|Webby|2012}}

In 1963, White's mother died in London and his share of the estate allowed him to buy a house in Centennial Park, near the centre of Sydney, the following year. Before leaving Dogwoods, White had bought up every copy of his early published poems he could find and burnt them along with most of his manuscripts, papers, letters and journals.{{Sfnp|Marr|1991|pp=426-27, 440-42}}

White was working on ''The Solid Mandala'', a novel about twins, Waldo and Arthur Brown, who represent contrary aspects of his own character.{{Sfnp|Marr|1991|p=448}} He was becoming interested in Tarot, astrology, the ''[[I Ching]]'' and [[Analytical psychology|Jungian psychology]], and these interests are reflected in the novel. Following its publication in 1966, White declined the Britannica Award for Literature and [[Miles Franklin Award]] for the novel and stated he no longer wanted his works considered for awards.{{Sfnp|Marr|1991|pp=451-53, 463-64}}

White had long had an interest in art and music, describing himself as "something of a frustrated painter, and a composer manqué."{{Sfnp|Marr|1991|p=318}} The core of his art collection was works by his friends [[Sidney Nolan]] and de Maistre but he collected works by emerging Australian artists such as [[James Clifford (artist)|James Clifford]], [[Erica McGilchrist]], and [[Lawrence Daws]] and some established artists like [[Brett Whiteley]].{{Sfnp|Marr|1991|pp=466-67}}{{Sfnp|Hewitt|2002|pp=67, 86-87, 92-93}} In early 1967 he began work on ''The Vivisector'', a novel about a painter, Hurtle Duffield, who exploits human relationships for his art. After the novel was published in 1970, Nolan believed Duffield was based on him, but White denied this, stating that Duffield was a composite of his own character and the working life of the artists [[John Passmore (artist)|John Passmore]] and Godfrey Miller.{{Sfnp|Marr|1991|pp=472-76}}

White was becoming more politically engaged at this time. He was opposed to Australia's involvement in the [[Vietnam War|Vietnam war]], and in December 1969 he participated in his first political demonstration, breaking the law by publicly inciting young men not to register for military conscription. The following year, he campaigned against censorship and gave evidence in favour of the publication of [[Philip Roth]]'s novel ''[[Portnoy's Complaint]]'' at obscenity trials in Melbourne and Sydney. In 1972, the New South Wales government announced a plan to build an Olympic stadium near Centennial Park. White participated in the anti-development protests, giving speeches at a rally in June.{{sfnp|Marr|1991|pp=493–494, 501–504, 508–510}}{{sfnp|Webby|2012}}

White had been on the shortlist for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] since 1969. In 1971, after the prize was awarded to [[Pablo Neruda]],{{sfnp|Marr|1991|pp=532–534}} he wrote to a friend: "That Nobel Prize! I hope I never hear it mentioned again. I certainly don't want it; the machinery behind it seems a bit dirty, when we thought that only applied to Australian awards. In my case to win the prize would upset my life far too much, and it would embarrass me to be held up to the world as an Australian writer when, apart from the accident of blood, I feel I am temperamentally a cosmopolitan Londoner".{{sfnp|Marr|1994|p=389|ps=. White to Frederick Glover, 28 November 1971}}