Cirrus@Austlit

'There can be no doubt about the centrality of C.E.W. Bean to Australia’s commemoration and understanding of the First World War experience. Bean, the official war correspondent, sent back numerous despatches from Gallipoli and France, often from very close to the front lines. He edited The Anzac Book published in 1916, was a driving force behind the creation of the Australian War Records Section and the Australian War Memorial, and oversaw and wrote much of the twelve-volume official history. Whether he “effectively created” the Anzac legend — as Peter Stanley suggests — is perhaps contestable, but he did give it much of its literary and monumental shape. ' (Introduction)