Close, Robert

▪ 1996

      Australian novelist (b. July 15, 1903, Camberwell, Victoria, Australia—d. July 17, 1995, Palma de Mallorca, Spain), in a sensational 1946 trial before the Victoria Supreme Court, was charged under an 18th-century law with having committed an obscene libel with his novel Love Me Sailor (1945). Although mild by later standards, the book, which dealt with the chaos wrought by a seductive woman passenger aboard a windjammer full of men, was banned as immoral, and copies were publicly burned. Close was sentenced to three months' imprisonment and fined £100, a sentence that was altered on appeal to time served (10 days) and £ 150. A few months later he left Australia for France, where he and his novel were enthusiastically received. Close set nearly all of his later novels in Australia, notably Eliza Callaghan (1957) and The Voyage Continues (1969). After a quarter of a century in Europe, he was welcomed back to Australia with his reputation restored, but he remained only two years before returning to Europe. Close also published two autobiographical works, Morn of Youth (1949?) and Of Salt and Earth (1977).

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