Morris Langlo West AO (26 April 1916 – 9 October 1999) was an Australian novelist and playwright, best known for his novels The Devil's Advocate (1959), The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963), and The Clowns of God (1981). His books were published in 27 languages and sold more than 60 million copies worldwide. Each new book he wrote after he became an established writer sold more than 1 million copies.^[1]

His works often were focused on international politics and the role of the Roman Catholic Church in international affairs. One of his most famous works, The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963), described the election and career of a Slavic Pope, 15 years before the historic election of Karol Wojtyła as Pope John Paul II.

Background[link]

He was born in St Kilda, Victoria and attended Christian Brothers College, St Kilda. He graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1937, and worked as a teacher in New South Wales and Tasmania. He spent 12 years in a monastery of the Christian Brothers, taking annual vows, but left in 1941 without taking final vows. That same year, he married (this first marriage did not survive), and enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force. He was seconded from the RAAF to work for Billy Hughes, former Australian Prime Minister, for a time. After becoming well known for producing radio serials, he left Australia in 1955 to write, and lived in Austria, Italy, England and the United States, finally returning to Australia in 1980. During this time he had a stint as the Vatican correspondent for the Daily Mail.^[2] His son, C. Chris O’Hanlon, said that he spent his first 12 birthdays in 12 different countries.^[3]

Writing[link]

A major theme of much of West's work was a question: when so many organizations use extreme violence towards evil ends, when and under what circumstances is it morally acceptable for their opponents to respond with violence? He stated on different occasions that his novels all deal with the same aspect of life, that is, the dilemma when sooner or later you have a situation such that nobody can tell you what to do.^[4]

He wrote with little revision. His first, longhand version was usually not very different from the final, printed version.^[5] Despite winning many prizes, being awarded honorary doctorates,^[6] his commercial success, and his skills as a story teller, he never won the acceptance of Australia’s literary clique. In the 1998 Oxford Literary History of Australia, it was stated that: "Despite his international popularity, West has been surprisingly neglected by Australian literary critics". The previous edition, edited by Dame Leonie Kramer, did not mention him at all.^[1]

West was awarded the 1959 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Devil's Advocate. In the early 1960s, he helped found the Australian Society of Authors.^[1] He presented the 1986 Playford Lecture.^[4]

In 1993 he announced that he had written his last book and a formal valedictory dinner was held in his honour. However, he found he could not retire as he had planned, and wrote a further three novels and two non-fiction books.^[5]

The Last Confession[link]

Morris West died while working at his desk on the final chapters of his novel The Last Confession, about the trials and imprisonment of Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake for heresy in 1600. Bruno was a person with whom West had long sympathized and even identified. In 1969 he had published a blank-verse play The Heretic on the same subject. This was staged in London in 1970.^[7] Of all his writings, he said this play had "the most of me in it".^[8] In 1998 he converted it into a libretto for an opera, which was set to music by Colin Brumby, but it has not been staged.^[5] In early 1999 he also contemplated a film script based on the play.^[8] He wrote The Last Confession in the form of the diary that Bruno might have written knowing that execution was approaching. The diary was intended to cover the period 21 December 1599 to 17 February 1600, however it covers just 14 days; the entry West was writing when he died was dated 4 January 1600, and he had written only about half as much as he had intended. Nevertheless, the last paragraph he ever wrote was poignant: I can write no more today … who knows to what nightmares I might wake. West himself had had several severe heart attacks, and had undergone double-bypass surgery.^[8] Murray Waldren writes: "This is a book written by a man aware death is imminent about a man aware execution is near". West’s family decided to publish it in 2000, in an incomplete form and without any editing, leaving readers free to imagine how the story might have ended. It has a foreword by Thomas Keneally, an editor’s note by his publisher Angelo Loukakis, and an epilogue co-written by his assistant Beryl Barraclough and his widow Joy West.

Personal life[link]

West’s early first marriage did not survive. He and his second wife had four children together. One son, C. Chris O’Hanlon, born in 1954, changed his name at the age of 26 as a gesture of independence. After starting four books in an attempt to realize what he believed were his father’s expectations, and having to give back the advances he received from publishers when he could not finish them, he realised that he was not destined to be a writer. O’Hanlon, who suffers from a severe bipolar disorder, founded Spike Wireless, a successful internet design house.^[3]

Another of West's sons, Mike, is a moderately successful musician who fronted cult UK independent popular music band The Man From Delmonte during the late 1980s/early 1990s and has released several solo albums of New Orleans Country music in recent years, especially being well known with international touring act, Truckstop Honeymoon.

West had re-married while his first wife, whom he divorced, was living. He struggled for a church annulment of his first marriage. Although he was out of communion with the Roman Catholic Church for many years because of this marital situation, and while he had significant issues with the church’s teachings, he never considered himself as anything other than a committed Catholic.^[4] His wife said that he was a believer and attended Mass every Sunday.^[5]

Honours[link]

Morris West was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours of 1985.^[9]

He was upgraded to Officer of the Order in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1997.^[10]

Bibliography[link]

Fiction[link]

• Moon in My Pocket (1945, using the pseudonym "Julian Morris")
• Gallows on the Sand (1956)
• Kundu (1956)
• The Big Story. (1957; aka The Crooked Road)
• The Second Victory (1958; aka Backlash)
• McCreary Moves In (1958, using the pseudonym "Michael East"; aka The Concubine)
• The Devil's Advocate (1959)
• The Naked Country (1960, using the pseudonym "Michael East")
• Daughter of Silence (1961)
• The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963)
• The Ambassador (1965)
• The Tower of Babel (1968)
• Summer of the Red Wolf (1971)
• The Salamander (1973)
• Harlequin (1974)
• The Navigator (1976)
• Proteus (1979)
• The Clowns of God (1981)
• The World Is Made of Glass (1983)
• Cassidy (1986)
• Masterclass (1988)
• Lazarus (1990)
• The Ringmaster (1991)
• The Lovers (1993)
• Vanishing Point (1996)
• Eminence (1998), ISBN 0-7322-6704-8
• The Last Confession (2000, posthumously published), ISBN 0-7322-6595-9

Drama[link]

• The Mask of Marius Melville (1945; radio serial)^[11]
• The Prince of Peace (c1951; radio serial)^[12]
• Trumpets in the Dawn (radio serial)^[12]
• Genesis in Juddsville
• The Illusionists (1955)
• The Devil’s Advocate (1961)
• Daughter of Silence (1962)
• The Heretic (1969)
• The World Is Made of Glass (1982)

Non-fiction[link]

• Children of the Sun: The Slum Dwellers of Naples (1957) (US title: Children of the Shadows: The True Story of the Street Urchins of Naples)
• Scandal in the Assembly: A Bill of Complaints and a Proposal for Reform of the Matrimonial Laws and Tribunals of the Roman Catholic Church (1970, with Robert Francis)
• West, Morris (1996). A View from the Ridge: The Testimony of a Twentieth-century Pilgrim. Sydney: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-7322-5757-3. 
• West, Morris (1997). Images & Inscriptions. Selected and arranged by Beryl Barraclough. Sydney: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-7322-5827-8. 

Film adaptations[link]

• The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) starring Anthony Quinn, Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud
• The Devil's Advocate (1977) starring John Mills, Daniel Massey, Paola Pitagora and Stéphane Audran
• The Naked Country (1984)
• The Second Victory (1986)
• Cassidy (1989)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Morris West

• Fiction set in Italy
• Morris West Australian theatre credits at Ausstage

Further reading[link]

• Confoy, Maryanne (2005). Morris West: Literary Maverick. Milton, Queensland: John Wiley. ISBN 1-74031-119-1. 

Ben Morris is an American musician. He is also known as Stripes.

Nick Name and The Normals[link]

In 2000, Kent James began performing as "Nick Name", an out, proud, and sometimes confrontational punk rock singer with his back-up band "The Normals".^[1] "The Normals" were Ben ("Stripes"), Ralf Balzer ("Demon"), and Ralf's sister Sandra Balzer ("Demon Sister"). In 2001, Nick Name and The Normals recorded with music producer Michael Vail Blum and released the "Nick Name" album.^[2] All of the songs were written by Ben & Kent. The band performed their original songs "Head Rush" and "I Fucked Your Boyfriend"^[3] on the "Tolerance" episode of "Flipped" on MTV. In 2002, Sandra was replaced with Ben's long-time live-together girlfriend Rachel Rattner ("Sunshine") and Tony Jardine ("Clean"). The "POW!" album^[4] was released and the band toured the U.S. West Coast. In 2003, Willamette Week proclaimed "If Kurt Cobain had stayed around long enough to come out of the closet, he would have sounded just like Nick Name and The Normals".^[5] The band performed at the Sunset Junction Street Fair. In 2004, a documentary film titled "Nick Name and The Normals" premiered in London, England.^[6] The film also screened in New York City, Portugal, Brazil, Spain, Dallas, and Providence, Rhode Island. In 2005, the band's final performance was on the Q Television Network.

Ben resides in Los Angeles, California.

Discography[link]

Albums and EPs

• 2001: Nick Name
• 2002: Nick Name: POW!

Compilations

• "I Fucked Your Boyfriend" on "The Freak Show: Year One" (2001)
• "Nick Name and The Normals" ("Nick Name" & "Nick Name: POW!" re-mastered and combined) (2003)
• "Porno Di Giorno" and "Who's Your Daddy?" on the "Hellbent" movie soundtrack (2004)
• "Decade of Dirt (1997-2007)" (2007)

References[link]

1. ^ Angry Young Queer, CinemaQueer.com, http://www.cinemaqueer.com/review%20pages%202/nickname.html, retrieved 2009-06-25 
2. ^ Nick Name CD, stonewallsociety.com, http://www.stonewallsociety.com/GLBTArtists/nicknamecdrev.htm, retrieved 2011-12-29 
3. ^ Listen Up Punk! Is This the New Gay Anthem?, CarnalNation.com, http://sf.carnalnation.com/content/12677/4/listen-punk-it-new-gay-anthem, retrieved 2009-07-19 
4. ^ Nick Name: POW! CD, stonewallsociety, http://www.stonewallsociety.com/GLBTArtists/nicknamepowcdrev.htm, retrieved 2011-12-29 
5. ^ "Heavy-Metal Homos", Willamette Week, 2003-04-09, http://www.wweek.com/editorial/2923/3810/, retrieved 2009-06-25 .
6. ^ Nick Name & The Normals, imdb.com, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401684/, retrieved 2009-06-25 .

External links[link]

• Nick Name & The Normals at the Internet Movie Database

Jessica Cox
Born	(1983-02-02) February 2, 1983 (age 29)[1] Sierra Vista, Arizona, USA[1]
Residence	Tucson, Arizona
Other names	In Dodowa, Ghana: Ayerkie Dede
Ethnicity	Filipino American[1]
Citizenship	United States of America
Alma mater	University of Arizona[1]
Occupation	Motivational Speaking, Keynote Speaker
Years active	Since November 2005
Employer	Jessica Cox Motivational Services
Known for	Armless Surfing, Armless Scuba Diving, Armless Ercoupe Pilot[1]
Religion	Roman Catholic[1]
Awards	Guinness World Record: The Only Pilot to Fly With Their Feet[1]
Website
www.rightfooted.com

Jessica Cox (born 1983 in Arizona) is the world's first licensed armless pilot, as well as the first armless black-belt in the American Taekwondo Association (she now has two black belts in Taekwondo). ^[2][3][4] She was born without arms due to a rare birth defect. ^[5] She earned her pilot's license on October 10, 2008, after three years of training, and is qualified to fly a light-sport aircraft to altitudes of 10,000 feet; she received her training through an Able Flight scholarship. ^[2][5][6] Cox has not used prosthetic arms since she turned 14. ^[6]. Using her feet as most people use their hands, she is able, among other things, to drive a car (she has an unrestricted license and drives a car without modifications), to type on a keyboard (25 words per minute), to pump her own gas, and to put in and remove her contact lenses. ^[7][8] She is also a certified SCUBA diver. ^[7] Cox holds a Bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Arizona and works as a motivational speaker. ^[7][5]

See also[link]

• Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicist, cosmologist and survivor of ALS.
• Patrick Henry Hughes, musician born blind and unable to fully utilize his limbs.
• Hirotada Ototake, sports writer and survivor of Tetra-amelia syndrome.
• Mile Stojkoski, humanitarian and wheelchair ultramarathon runner.
• Nick Vujicic, motivational speaker and survivor of Tetra-amelia syndrome.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jessica Cox's website