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James Walker (1918 - 10 Nov 2003) was an Australian novelist and diarist. He has only recently been discovered owing to bizarre and unconventional methods of “publication” and an elusive, shifting persona that was unified only by his unambivalent disdain for personal or critical recognition. Among his achievements, Walker invented a movement called ‘pseudonyism’, apocryphally wrote 14 novels, and diarised more than 50 years of his life in extensive detail. Only four novels have been found in their entirety, though passages and various chapters of other novels have been recovered and are still in the process of being recovered. Others have been irrevocably lost. Walker retired from writing in 1988. He spent the last four years of his life mute, dedicated to painting. The works which have been unearthed reveal him to have been a large talent who is slowly becoming an enigma of the 20th century literary world.

Early life

Very little is known about Walker’s early life. He grew up in Northcote, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. His father was most likely a farrier but nothing is known about his mother. He is thought to have had no siblings. According to his long-time friend and biographer, Tom Malone, the difficulties with establishing facts regarding Walker’s early life are twofold. According to Malone, Walker left school suddenly one day and changed his name by deed poll the day after. He never referred to his original family name in his diaries or revealed it to his associates. He rarely mentioned his parents in life or in the diaries, and anecdotes from his boyhood are negligible for historical purposes as they contain no important traceable facts. His original family name remains unknown to this day. It is considered possible that future study of Walker’s work, including both the diaries and novels--both those found and those not yet found--may still expose his mysterious beginnings but so far no clue is forthcoming.