Cirrus@Austlit

'Fifty-two of Henry Lawson's stories and sketches that he had first published in newspapers and magazines from 1888 onwards were gathered in his collection While the Billy Boils (Angus & Robertson, 1896). Lawson was not responsible for their ordering and he had to give ground on their texts, especially on his idiosyncratic presentation of wordings that helped to breathe life into his characters and situations. The present edition dismantles the fait accompli of 1896 by presenting the individual items in the chronological order of their first publication and with their original newspaper texts. This will allow a new appreciation of Lawson's writing, one that is attentive to his developing powers.

'The edition also facilitates a close study of Lawson's collaboration with the producers of the collection in 1896, in particular with his copy-editor Arthur W. Jose and publisher George Robertson. Facsimile images (available online) of the printer's copy that they prepared for While the Billy Boils supplement the edition's listing of the alterations that each of them made, revealing the textual history of each story or sketch.' (Publisher's blurb)

'A selection of our finest writing about the mystery and majesty of the Australian bush.

'Since settlers and explorers first started recording their experiences of the Australian bush, is has loomed as large in our imaginations as in our landscapes. Sometimes dark and forbidding, sometimes lush and beautiful, this terrain and the people who venture into it fascinate us and draw us in. The exploration of our forests and outback is the source of some of our favourite stories.

'In The Penguin Book of Australian Bush Writing, prolific writer and editor John Ross has collected tales about the bush from all over our wide land. Richard Flanagan pays homage to the "golden wood" industry of Huon pine in Tasmania, Henry Lawson journeys by train from Sydney to Bourke, A.B. Facey works the land on Western Australian frontier, and Miles Franklin describes the menace of the fauna in the countryside of her childhood.' (From the publisher's website.)