Farewell to the ‘Chronically Restless’ Peter Coleman

Peter Coleman in 2008, when he was honoured by Sydney University for services to Australian intellectual life.

The eulogy below was delivered yesterday in Sydney by Professor James Franklin at the funeral of former Quadrant editor Peter Coleman.

Peter Coleman himself was often asked to speak at funerals, and there was a good reason for that. He had a clarity of thought that could summarise what someone’s life had amounted to. At the same time he had a sympathetic emotional attunement that could appreciate what it was like to have someone else’s concerns.

He had a difficult family start, which left him with some permanent burden.  It was compensated for in later years by Verna and his children. On the other hand, the kind of things he did in his career lacked tenure, and the reversals of fortune usual in politics and journalism affected him. He wrote successful books, but not ones to bring in big money. It was a precarious life with no chance to rest on laurels even when…