A. Phillips

Born in 1900, A. A. Phillips was an Australian writer, critic, and teacher whose work became especially influential in discussions of Australian culture. He is most widely remembered for the 1950 essay The Cultural Cringe, where he gave a lasting name to the habit of undervaluing local art in favor of overseas approval.

Phillips studied at the University of Melbourne and later at Oxford, and he went on to teach while building a reputation as a thoughtful literary voice. His writing often explored what it meant for Australia to develop confidence in its own stories, traditions, and standards.

Alongside criticism, he also wrote memoir and reflective prose, bringing warmth and intelligence to personal as well as cultural subjects. He died in 1985, but his ideas still turn up whenever readers and writers talk about Australian identity and literary self-belief.