image of person or book cover 3895702573556720336.jpg
1934 reprint cover
y separately published work icon Redheap single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1930... 1930 Redheap
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Australian authors who published in London were occasionally caught in the Customs’ censorship net when their books were sent to Australia. One such was Norman Lindsay, whose novel Redheap was published by the prestigious London firm of Faber. In 1930, acting on a tip-off from London, a Customs official discovered 2000 copies in Sydney, bound for bookshops throughout Australia.

'The novel was described as containing ‘serious reflections on the morality’ of a fictitious Australian country town that bore a striking resemblance to Creswick, where the author spent his childhood. In 1930, the minister announced that the novel was a prohibited import. It was the first time an Australian novel had been banned. There were protests about the ban and Lindsay was quoted in the press as saying that if such actions were allowed to continue, there ‘could be no hope of culture here’.

'Redheap remained on the prohibited list until 1958, though it was freely available in Britain, the USA and other countries. Ure Smith eventually republished it in 1959.' (Publication summary)

Exhibitions

18005785
18005672

Adaptations

form y separately published work icon Redheap Eleanor Witcombe , ( dir. Brian Bell ) Australia : ABC Television , 1972 Z869036 1972 series - publisher film/TV

Nineteen-year-old Robert Piper has spent all his life in the country. He now starts a new life at university in the city.

Banned in Australia

Censorship Agencies: Customs
Decision: 5 May 1930
NAA Source: C4129/1; Box R and A432; 1930/812
Censorship notes: Banned with advice from Sir Robert Garran as Solicitor-General.
Censorship notes: The prohibition was maintained after the book was sent to the Literature Censorship Board for review in 1955. The prohibition was maintained on 10.08.1955. It was released at the general review on 24.04.1958.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Faber ,
      1930 .
      image of person or book cover 3895702573556720336.jpg
      1934 reprint cover
      Extent: 317p.
      Reprinted: 1934
      Note/s:
      • Dedication: For Brian Penton.
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Ure Smith , 1959 .
      image of person or book cover 9027957785246094368.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 317p.
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Arkon Paperbacks , 1972 .
      image of person or book cover 4552499993624973472.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 317p.
      Description: illus.
      ISBN: 020712549X
      Series: Arkon Paperbacks Angus and Robertson (publisher), 1972 series - publisher Arkon is a paperback reprint imprint of the Australian publisher Angus and Robertson. The series was launched in 1972 to be merchandised in connection with T. V. series and involved the cartoonist Patrick Cook.
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Angus and Robertson , 1979 .
      image of person or book cover 2874105371009754711.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 317p.
      ISBN: 0207142416 (Paperback, 0207142491 )

Other Formats

  • Braille.
  • Sound recording.

Works about this Work

Lindsay Film Fell in a Redheap Tom Gilling , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 16-17 April 2016; (p. 19)
The Catcher in the Rye Gets Caught in the Net : Censorship and the Parliamentary Library Nicole Moore , 2013 single work correspondence
— Appears in: Telling Stories : Australian Life and Literature 1935–2012 2013; (p. 180-187)
The Joys of Irresponsible Sex Xavier Pons , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Messengers of Eros : Representations of Sex in Australian Writing 2009; (p. 139-155)

'...[Norman] Lindsay's novel Redheap, first published in Britain in 1930, was promptly banned in Australia for some three decades. This made Lindsay a hero in the eyes of some younger writers...

With the advantage of hindsight, some critics have wondered what the fuss had been all about, arguing that Lindsay's writings were little more than a kind of adolescent caper, and have now outlived whatever subversive quality they might once have possessed.' (p. 139)

Australian Masculinities Xavier Pons , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Messengers of Eros : Representations of Sex in Australian Writing 2009; (p. 97-117)
This criticism looks at the forms of maleness celebrated by Australian writers and how that 'maleness' is not just constructed by men. Women, Pons argues, contribute to this construction.
Transgressions Xavier Pons , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Messengers of Eros : Representations of Sex in Australian Writing 2009; (p. 39-59)

'All serious art breaks the rules-there can be no innovation without some form of transgression. Yet the breaking of rules is not enough to produce serious art, and while the very focus of erotic writing seems to invite transgressions, these are not necessarily liberating or creative. When transgressions lie for the most part in the subject-matter, their translation into literary break-throughs is problematic, and they can in fact be undermined by writing that is bland, conventional and predictable. Literature, it bears perhaps repeating, is not the thing itself but a representation and thus a re-creation of it. Modes of representations are always ideologically loaded and, while the contemporary period has invented very little in terms of sexual practices, it has been able to innovate significantly in terms of representational practices. It remains to be seen what kind of articulation can be found between the two.' (p 39)

Youth in Australia 1930 single work review
— Appears in: New York Times Book Review , 28 September 1930; (p. 10)

— Review of Redheap Norman Lindsay , 1930 single work novel
A Reader's Notebook Nettie Palmer , 1930 single work review
— Appears in: All About Books , 19 May vol. 2 no. 5 1930; (p. 118-119)

— Review of Knocking Round J. Le Gay Brereton , 1930 selected work criticism biography autobiography prose essay short story ; Redheap Norman Lindsay , 1930 single work novel
Australian Books of 1930 Nettie Palmer , 1930 single work review
— Appears in: All About Books , 5 December vol. 2 no. 12 1930; (p. 307-310)

— Review of The Gully and Other Verses Furnley Maurice , 1929 selected work poetry ; The Wild Swan : Poems Mary Gilmore , 1930 selected work poetry ; Queensland Poets Henry Arthur Kellow , 1930 single work criticism ; The Fortunes of Richard Mahony : Comprising Australia Felix, The Way Home, Ultima Thule Henry Handel Richardson , 1930 selected work novel ; Ten Creeks Run : A Tale of the Horse and Cattle Stations of the Murrumbidgee Brent of Bin Bin , 1930 single work novel ; Men Are Human Vance Palmer , 1930 single work novel ; Haxby's Circus : The Lightest, Brightest Little Show on Earth Katharine Susannah Prichard , 1930 single work novel ; Redheap Norman Lindsay , 1930 single work novel ; The Difficult Art Georgia Rivers , 1930 single work novel ; Negrohead Roy Bridges , 1929 single work novel ; Earth Battle Dorothy Cottrell , 1930 single work novel ; Huon Belle : A Novel Isabel Dick , 1930 single work novel ; Only the Morning John Dalley , 1930 single work novel ; An Outline of Australian Literature H. M. Green , 1930 single work criticism ; Souvenirs d'une Parisienne aux Antipodes Marie Rousselet Niau , 1930 single work autobiography ; Knocking Round J. Le Gay Brereton , 1930 selected work criticism biography autobiography prose essay short story ; The Kitchen Table : A Play in One Act Vida Lenox , 1930 single work drama
Untitled 1959 single work review
— Appears in: The Cairns Post , 26 December 1959; (p. 6)

— Review of Redheap Norman Lindsay , 1930 single work novel
Novel By Norman Lindsay 1930 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 18 April no. 28794 1930; (p. 3)

— Review of Redheap Norman Lindsay , 1930 single work novel
'It's Enough to Drive a Bloke Mad' : Norman Lindsay's Art and Literature Patricia Holt , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand Bulletin , vol. 27 no. 1-2 2003; (p. 62-81)
Ireland Bars Three Books 1930 single work column
— Appears in: New York Times , 14 August 1930; (p. 10)
A Reader's Notebook Nettie Palmer , 1930 single work review
— Appears in: All About Books , 19 April vol. 2 no. 4 1930; (p. 91-92)
In addition to her reviews Palmer comments at length on the re-issue of many war books and the success of London-based Queensland publishers Lindsay, Partridge and P.R. Stephenson.
A Bookseller Talks Shop 1930 single work prose humour
— Appears in: All About Books , 17 June vol. 2 no. 6 1930; (p. 151-152)
'Redheap' Banned from Ireland 1930 single work column
— Appears in: All About Books , 17 October vol. 2 no. 10 1930; (p. 261)
Last amended 9 Dec 2021 10:38:44
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