Friend, Donald ___ 1915-1989 ___ Australian ___ artist writer

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Friend was born in Sydney, and studied at the Royal Art Society of New South Wales as well as in London at the Westminster School of Art. After studying, he went to Nigeria, but then returned to Australia at the outbreak of the Second World War and joined the army as an artillery gunner. He also served as an official war artist towards the end of the conflict. He wrote and illustrated two diaries based on his wartime experiences. After the war he domiciled in Sri Lanka and then in Bali, living an exotically gay life, in touch with many other artists. Ill-health forced his return to Australia in 1980. He left over 40 diaries, some of which are being edited and published by the National Library of Australia.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Friend's diaries found

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1929-1989g ___ military love/sex self travel art creativity SriLanka Indonesia

WEB TEXT LINKS
about and a few extracts
about and several extracts
googlebooks

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
National Library of Australia - all but five

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Gunner's Diary
Painter's Diary
The Diaries of Donald Friend
 

October 2005, June 2008, April 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.