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y separately published work icon The Grafter selected work   short story  
Issue Details: First known date: 1915... 1915 The Grafter
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Advertised as the 'latest Australian sporting novel (Sydney Sportsman 14 July 1915, p.2), The Grafter is in fact a collection of yarns set in and around the racing industry. The stories largely focus on two shady characters, The Grafter and his mate Jinker, who are described in the Mercury (Hobart) as having "very vague ideas of honesty, but [are nevertheless] amusing and quite human' ('Sundry Books' 3 December 1915, p.2). In its review of the collection, Sydney's Sun newspaper says of the book:

Con Drew and J. B. Evans are two local authors, with whose names Australian literature has not previously been acquainted. Which shows that Australian literature Is a short-sighted affair, seeing that some of the yarns contained in The Grafter, a volume of short but connected stories just published, had previously appeared In the Daily Telegraph. How they escaped notice is a mystery... The Grafter Is no mixture of coster-monger and Bowery boy. He Is as Australian as Pinchgut itself, and he never overdoes the part. His dialect is genuine; he Is just the same joyous, free and easy, happy sinner so many of us have known and suffered from. In no sense Is the book an echo or an imitation. It recalls the work of no other author, though it is filled with the same deep love of human nature which characterises Neil Lyons and the same depth of low-life observation which made the name of the late Frederick Greenwood ('Good Goods ; Bad Packing' 18 July 1915, p.22).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: C. T. Drew , 1915 .
      Note/s:
      • Printed by Shipping Newspapers Ltd (Sydney).
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: C. T. Drew , 1922 .
      image of person or book cover 9158975291116686802.gif
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 120p.

Works about this Work

Good Goods ; Bad Packing 1915 single work review
— Appears in: The Sun [Sydney] , 18 July 1915; (p. 22)

— Review of The Grafter I. B. Evans , Con Drew , 1915 selected work short story

'Con Drew and J. B. Evans are two local authors, with whose names Australian literature has not previously been acquainted. Which shows that Australian literature Is a short-sighted affair, seeing that some of the yarns contained in The Grafter, a volume of short but connected stories just published, had previously appeared In the Daily Telegraph. How they escaped notice is a mystery...'

Good Goods ; Bad Packing 1915 single work review
— Appears in: The Sun [Sydney] , 18 July 1915; (p. 22)

— Review of The Grafter I. B. Evans , Con Drew , 1915 selected work short story

'Con Drew and J. B. Evans are two local authors, with whose names Australian literature has not previously been acquainted. Which shows that Australian literature Is a short-sighted affair, seeing that some of the yarns contained in The Grafter, a volume of short but connected stories just published, had previously appeared In the Daily Telegraph. How they escaped notice is a mystery...'

Last amended 11 Nov 2016 12:17:57
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