‘In the two decades following the Second World War, the promotion of books in Australia was at best spasmodic and uncertain. A few literary prizes became established, notably the annual Miles Franklin Award and the Grace Leven Poetry Prize. In the 1940s and 1950s the Sydney Morning Herald provided some well-publicised prizes for fiction and poetry, and the recipients (who included Ruth Park, Rosemary Dobson and, jointly, Charmian Clift and George Johnston) certainly benefited in terms of recognition.’(Introduction 159)