Charles Manning Hope Clark was born in Burwood, Sydney, on 3 March 1915, the second son of the Reverend Charles Clark. When he was six his family moved to Phillip Island, Western Port, Victoria, and then in 1924 they settled in Belgrave, near Melbourne. From 1934 to 1938 he read History and Political Science at the University of Melbourne, graduating with first class honours. In 1949 he was appointed professor of history at Canberra University College, later part of the Australian National University.

From the 1960s Clark was the most famous historian in Australia and one of our best-known public intellectuals. The first volume of his most ambitious literary undertaking, A History of Australia, was published in 1962 and the sixth volume just before his death in 1991. It was extraordinarily influential. According to The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature, it 'is informed by Clark's idealism and by a pessimism about Australian society influenced in part by the extended years of conservative political rule since the Second World War and by the dismissal of the Whitlam government in 1975".

Manning Clark accepted numerous invitations to write for newspapers, give lectures and broadcasts, and address academic, literary, cultural and political organisations and societies throughout Australia. He also travelled widely overseas. He spoke about Australian and world history, and also on a great range of political, social and literary themes. His political statements were at times highly provocative and his broad generalisations, dire prophecies and oracular style often infuriated conservatives and made him a controversial figure.

Controversy swirled around him right through his career; in his last years he was dogged by the absurd rumour that he had been a recipient of the Lenin Medal.

Some of his books and lectures provoked intense public debate. He had a huge legion of admirers and in his last years received many honours: honorary doctorates, literary prizes, a Companion of the Order of Australia (1975) and the title Australian of the Year (1981). Geoffrey Serle wrote that 'as no one else Clark greatly increased public consciousness of Australian history and widened the imaginative horizons of innumerable compatriots'.

This is his authorised biography.