Cirrus@Austlit

Lyre Bird Writers was founded in Sydney as a writers' publishing cooperative by Roland Robinson, Nancy Cato and Kevin Collopy. The first title published was Robinson's Language of the Sand: Poems (1949), followed by Cato's The Darkened Window: Poems (1950). Other writers who joined the cooperative to publish their own works were Nancy Keesing, Ray Mathew, John Blight, Vivian Smith and David Rowbotham. Between 1949 and 1956 eight titles were published, including Keesing's Imminent Summer (1951) with a frontispiece by Norman Lindsay. The first Lyre Bird Writers' books were designed, set and printed by Edwards and Shaw. The press was revived in 1969 by Roland Robinson, with the publication of Tim Thorne's Tense Mood and Voice.