Issue Details: First known date: 1975... 1975 Australia's Need for Better Writers Who Are Better Off : Address to The Australian Society of Authors, 4 March 1975
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'I am honoured that your Committee of Management has arranged this evening for me. The last time I spoke at the Opera House was in the election last May. I was in the company of Patrick White. So you will see that I have always had some success in getting writers on side. Now that authors are receiving public funds, now you are all on the government payroll, I expect an even bigger turnout at our next Opera House meeting, whenever that may be. In the meantime it is a pleasure to meet so many of you personally. Names familiar from innumerable dustjackets and title pages, from countless airport bookstalls and library shelves, are now fleshed out in living form. It is good to be among you.'  (Introduction)

Notes

  • Editor's note: 'From a speech delivered by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam at the Australian Society of Authors' PLR dinner at the Sydney Opera House on 4 March 1975. 

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Australian Author vol. 7 no. 2 April 1975 Z599351 1975 periodical issue 1975 pg. 23-27
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Australian Author vol. 50 no. 2 2018 15356073 2018 periodical issue

    'In October 1962, the inaugural meeting of the proposed Society of Authors was held, to end the present feudal state of the Australian writer' and address the issues of 'poor and variable anthology fees, the need for standard contracts and the position regarding copyright' (Dal Stivens. foundation president). Broadside, the first journal of the Australian Society of Authors, began in September 1963 as a 'medium of information and opinion', and fulfilled that role until the last edition was published in July 1968 to make way for the launch of The Australian Author in 1969. This magazine was never intended as a literary puma\ and, as a result, did not meet the funding criteria of the time. Rather, its purpose was to 'concentrate attention on the defence of literary property—the writer's business (Stephany Steggall, Status and Sugar, 2013), which is exactly what it did for the next 50 years. ' (Publication summary)
     

    2018
    pg. 24-28
Last amended 12 Dec 2018 12:30:38
23-27 Australia's Need for Better Writers Who Are Better Off : Address to The Australian Society of Authors, 4 March 1975small AustLit logo Australian Author
24-28 Australia's Need for Better Writers Who Are Better Off : Address to The Australian Society of Authors, 4 March 1975small AustLit logo Australian Author
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