Issue Details: First known date: 1818... 1818 Michael Howe : The Last and the Worst of the Bushrangers of Van Diemans Land : Narrative of the Chief Atrocities Committed by This Great Murderer and His Associates, During a Period of Six Years in Van Diemen's Land
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Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Hobart, Southeast Tasmania, Tasmania,: Platypus Publications , 1966 .
      Extent: 36p.
      Edition info: facsim. ed.
      Limited edition info: Limited to ninety copies for sale, ten for presentation
      Note/s:
      • Introduction by George Mackaness.
      • Published 10 March 1945.
      Series: y separately published work icon Australian Historical Monographs Sydney : George Mackaness , 1937-1961 8527315 1937-1961 series - publisher

      A series of facsimile editions of early Australian works, republished by George Mackaness (printed by D.S. Ford, Sydney) over a period of thirty-six years.

      All works in this series were limited facsimile edition.

      The series was later republished in Dubbo as Australian Historical Monographs: New Series.

      Number in series: 11

Works about this Work

Spruiking Van Diemen's Land : The Long Reach of a Little Bushranger Book. Sally Bloomfield , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Script and Print , vol. 42 no. 1 2018; (p. 26-47)

'MICHAEL HOWE—On Monday next, the 15th Instant, will be published, price Five Shillings, and to be had at the Gazette Office only, the Narrative of the chief Atrocities and Death of this Murderer and Robber, and of his Companions, whilst in the Woods of Van Diemen’s Land. Payment will be expected on Delivery.

'Thus ran an advertisement in the Hobart Town Gazette on Saturday 13 March 1819. Hobart Town was then a small penal settlement just fifteen years in the making (see front cover). About half of its three thousand or so souls were convicts and many inhabitants were illiterate. It was thus a rather unlikely setting for the publication of what Ferguson describes as Australasia’s first work of general literature.' (Introduction)

Scott, India and Australia Graham Tulloch , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Yearbook of English Studies , vol. 47 no. 2017; (p. 263-278)

'From early in his life Walter Scott had strong personal relations with India but his contacts with Australia came much later in his life and were fewer in number. However, even though India was not, like New South Wales, a penal colony, and the British had been in India for centuries whereas they had colonized Australia within Scott's own life time, Scott's personal relations with India and Australia are remarkably similar in kind, though not in quantity. They take place in a well-defined context of imperial patronage which Scott used with skill and success to support a number of young Scots including, in the case of Australia, convicts. On the other hand Scott's imaginative involvement with the two countries differs considerably: India figures quite prominently in his fiction, but in all his published writing there is only one passage on Australia and it deals with quite different issues from those concerning India. This article considers a number of individual cases of Scott's patronage in India and Australia and examines the similar ways in which he was able to further the careers of his protégés. It also compares his writing about India and Australia and suggests that, though the themes in his writing about each country are quite different, in each case the dominant theme is one that was taken up by Scott in his early years.' (Publication abstract)

A Criminal Record: Women and Australian True Crime Stories Rachel Franks , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: The Conversation , 7 November 2017;

'Women have always been central to true crime stories: as victims, perpetrators, readers, and (increasingly) as tellers of these tales. Indeed, these tales, often dismissed as sensationalised violence, offer important opportunities to reflect on crime and crime control.

'Many true crime writers today – including numerous women, working in a once male-dominated market – have been biographers, coroners, detectives, historians, journalists, lawyers, and psychologists. These backgrounds bring a style of storytelling that educates us about, not just merely entertains us with, crime. Importantly, many privilege complex and nuanced storytelling over simplistic stereotypes of women as just 'bad' or just 'good'. (Introduction)

Collecting Old Tasmanian Books : Incorporating Some Notes on Book Collecting Theory and Practice Ian J. Wilson , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Biblionews and Australian Notes and Queries , March no. 369 2011; (p. 14-27)
Our First Bushranger Book Caroline Innett , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Margin , July - August no. 57 2002; (p. 15-18)
Untitled Barron Field , 1820 single work review
— Appears in: The Quarterly Review , May vol. 23 no. 45 1820; (p. 73-83)

— Review of Michael Howe : The Last and the Worst of the Bushrangers of Van Diemans Land : Narrative of the Chief Atrocities Committed by This Great Murderer and His Associates, During a Period of Six Years in Van Diemen's Land T. E. Wells , 1818 single work biography
Collecting Old Tasmanian Books : Incorporating Some Notes on Book Collecting Theory and Practice Ian J. Wilson , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Biblionews and Australian Notes and Queries , March no. 369 2011; (p. 14-27)
Howe's Tricks Tom Gilling , 2001-2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 18 December - 8 January vol. 119 no. 6306 2001-2002; (p. 36-37)
Our First Bushranger Book Caroline Innett , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Margin , July - August no. 57 2002; (p. 15-18)
Michael Howe, The Demon Bushranger Marcus Clarke , 1890 single work biography
— Appears in: The Austral Edition of the Selected Works of Marcus Clarke : Together with a Biography and Monograph of the Deceased Author 1890; (p. 102-111)
'In the year 1820, a writer in the Quarterly, speaking of a book given him to review, says : 'It is the greatest literary curiosity that has come before us - the first child of the press of a State only fifteen years old. It would, of course, be reprinted here, but our copy, pene-nos, is a genuine Caxton. This little book would assuredly be the Reynarde Foxe of Australian bibliomaniacs.' (102)
A Criminal Record: Women and Australian True Crime Stories Rachel Franks , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: The Conversation , 7 November 2017;

'Women have always been central to true crime stories: as victims, perpetrators, readers, and (increasingly) as tellers of these tales. Indeed, these tales, often dismissed as sensationalised violence, offer important opportunities to reflect on crime and crime control.

'Many true crime writers today – including numerous women, working in a once male-dominated market – have been biographers, coroners, detectives, historians, journalists, lawyers, and psychologists. These backgrounds bring a style of storytelling that educates us about, not just merely entertains us with, crime. Importantly, many privilege complex and nuanced storytelling over simplistic stereotypes of women as just 'bad' or just 'good'. (Introduction)

Last amended 4 May 2015 15:38:20
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