Issue Details: First known date: 2020... 2020 A Little Moment : Plagues Past and Present
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'My grandfather was born in a pestilential year. Surviving the influenza pandemic that struck Australia in 1919, pa's mother called him the luckiest baby in town. Great-grandma Frances's own father had died from influenza in an earlier regional outbreak in the foothills of Australia's Snowy Mountains, so she likely felt the threat to her baby especially acutely. But 1919 was something extraordinary, an experience that, much like the war it followed, marked those generations who survived it. Months of border closures, quarantines, hospitals, anxiety, sickness arid death understandably helped 1919 enter Australian popular memory as the year of the 'Spanish flu'. No wonder Frances made sure her son understood his good fortune.' (Introduction) 
 

Notes

  • Epigraph: Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doores about thee; hide thy self  as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. Isaiah 26:20 (as translated in the King James Bible of 1611) 
     

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Griffith Review The European Exchange no. 69 Ashley Hay (editor), Natasha Cica (editor), 2020 19735741 2020 periodical issue

    'As Europe is thrown into sharp relief by a devastating pandemic, Griffith Review 69: The European Exchange explores the deep and complex relationships between Europe and Australia, and discusses how Australians of many backgrounds have contributed to a longstanding dialogue that enriches both continents.' (Publication summary)

    2020
    pg. 70-76
Last amended 22 Jul 2020 13:30:50
70-76 A Little Moment : Plagues Past and Presentsmall AustLit logo Griffith Review
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