Billy Skywonkie single work   short story  
Issue Details: First known date: 1902... 1902 Billy Skywonkie
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Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Bush Studies Barbara Baynton , London : Duckworth , 1902 Z820571 1902 selected work short story (taught in 12 units)

    'Bush Studies is famous for its stark realism—for not romanticising bush life, instead showing all its bleakness and harshness.

    'Economic of style, influenced by the great nineteenth-century Russian novelists, Barbara Baynton’s short-story collection presents the Australian bush as dangerous and isolating for the women who inhabit it.' (Publication summary : Text Classics)

    London : Duckworth , 1902
    pg. 79-105
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Cobbers Barbara Baynton , London : Duckworth , 1917 Z820761 1917 selected work short story London : Duckworth , 1917 pg. 117-152
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Twenty Great Australian Stories Judah Waten (editor), Victor George O'Connor (editor), Melbourne : Dolphin Publications , 1946 Z53392 1946 anthology short story Melbourne : Dolphin Publications , 1946 pg. 71-87
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Bush Studies Barbara Baynton , London : Duckworth , 1902 Z820571 1902 selected work short story (taught in 12 units)

    'Bush Studies is famous for its stark realism—for not romanticising bush life, instead showing all its bleakness and harshness.

    'Economic of style, influenced by the great nineteenth-century Russian novelists, Barbara Baynton’s short-story collection presents the Australian bush as dangerous and isolating for the women who inhabit it.' (Publication summary : Text Classics)

    Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1965
    pg. 93-109
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Short Stories of Australia : The Lawson Tradition Douglas Stewart (editor), Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1967 Z384834 1967 anthology short story Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1967 pg. 82-94
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Best Australian Short Stories Douglas Stewart (editor), Beatrice Davis (editor), Melbourne : Lloyd O'Neil , 1971 Z380931 1971 anthology short story Melbourne : Lloyd O'Neil , 1971 pg. 70-82
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Classic Australian Short Stories Judah Waten (editor), Stephen Murray-Smith (editor), Melbourne : Wren , 1974 Z51623 1974 anthology short story Melbourne : Wren , 1974 pg. 17-29
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Barbara Baynton Barbara Baynton , Sally Krimmer (editor), Alan Lawson (editor), St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1980 Z181654 1980 selected work novel poetry short story criticism correspondence biography St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1980 pg. 46-60
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Happy Endings : Stories by Australian and New Zealand Women Writers 1850s-1930s Elizabeth Webby (editor), Lydia Wevers (editor), Sydney : Allen and Unwin , 1987 Z401308 1987 anthology short story Sydney : Allen and Unwin , 1987 pg. 119-132
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Australian Short Stories Carmel Bird (editor), Wantirna South : Houghton Mifflin , 1991 Z195467 1991 anthology short story extract satire humour Wantirna South : Houghton Mifflin , 1991 pg. 203-215
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Penguin Best Australian Short Stories Mary Lord (editor), Ringwood : Penguin , 1991 Z307411 1991 anthology short story extract humour satire crime historical fiction (taught in 1 units) Ringwood : Penguin , 1991 pg. 161-174
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Bush Studies Barbara Baynton , London : Duckworth , 1902 Z820571 1902 selected work short story (taught in 12 units)

    'Bush Studies is famous for its stark realism—for not romanticising bush life, instead showing all its bleakness and harshness.

    'Economic of style, influenced by the great nineteenth-century Russian novelists, Barbara Baynton’s short-story collection presents the Australian bush as dangerous and isolating for the women who inhabit it.' (Publication summary : Text Classics)

    Sydney : University of Sydney Library, Scholarly Electronic Text and Image Service , 1997

Works about this Work

The Reflected Eye : Reading Race in Barbara Baynton's 'Billy Skywonkie' Julieanne Lamond , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Texas Studies in Literature and Language , Winter vol. 53 no. 4 2011; (p. 387-400)
'The stories in Bush Studies are deeply unsettling, not least because they are deliberately ambiguous. This ambiguity is one reason the stories have been subject to the process of continued critical re-evaluation and dispute noted by Leigh Dale. "Billy Skywonkie" is a story the ambiguity of which seems to have infected its critical reception. This essay seeks to make explicit what is often left unclear in discussions of the story: it is remarkable for presenting a narrative told in part from the point of view of a woman experiencing racism in its intersection with sexual and economic vulnerability in the early years of the twentieth century' (p. 387).
Structure against Place, Fate and Cruelty : Deplorable State of Bush Women from the Works of Barbara Baynton P. Bhubaneswari , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Women's Writing in English : India and Australia 2008; (p. 149-156)
The Teeth Father Naked at Last : The Short Stories of Barbara Baynton Thea Astley , 1979 single work criticism
— Appears in: Three Australian Writers : Essays On Bruce Dawe, Barbara Baynton and Patrick White 1979; (p. 12-22)
A Note On Barbara Baynton Peter Cowan , 1949 single work review
— Appears in: Arts Quarterly , Summer 1949; (p. 8-13)

— Review of The Chosen Vessel Barbara Baynton , 1896 single work short story ; Bush Studies Barbara Baynton , 1902 selected work short story ; Squeaker's Mate Barbara Baynton , 1902 single work short story ; Scrammy 'And Barbara Baynton , 1902 single work short story ; Billy Skywonkie Barbara Baynton , 1902 single work short story ; Bush Church Barbara Baynton , 1902 single work short story ; Human Toll Barbara Baynton , 1907 single work novel
Discusses Barbara Baynton's 'bare objectivity' and 'treatment of subject matter' which, in Peter Cowan's view, 'tends to exclude the writer's personality'.
A Note On Barbara Baynton Peter Cowan , 1949 single work review
— Appears in: Arts Quarterly , Summer 1949; (p. 8-13)

— Review of The Chosen Vessel Barbara Baynton , 1896 single work short story ; Bush Studies Barbara Baynton , 1902 selected work short story ; Squeaker's Mate Barbara Baynton , 1902 single work short story ; Scrammy 'And Barbara Baynton , 1902 single work short story ; Billy Skywonkie Barbara Baynton , 1902 single work short story ; Bush Church Barbara Baynton , 1902 single work short story ; Human Toll Barbara Baynton , 1907 single work novel
Discusses Barbara Baynton's 'bare objectivity' and 'treatment of subject matter' which, in Peter Cowan's view, 'tends to exclude the writer's personality'.
Structure against Place, Fate and Cruelty : Deplorable State of Bush Women from the Works of Barbara Baynton P. Bhubaneswari , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Women's Writing in English : India and Australia 2008; (p. 149-156)
The Reflected Eye : Reading Race in Barbara Baynton's 'Billy Skywonkie' Julieanne Lamond , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Texas Studies in Literature and Language , Winter vol. 53 no. 4 2011; (p. 387-400)
'The stories in Bush Studies are deeply unsettling, not least because they are deliberately ambiguous. This ambiguity is one reason the stories have been subject to the process of continued critical re-evaluation and dispute noted by Leigh Dale. "Billy Skywonkie" is a story the ambiguity of which seems to have infected its critical reception. This essay seeks to make explicit what is often left unclear in discussions of the story: it is remarkable for presenting a narrative told in part from the point of view of a woman experiencing racism in its intersection with sexual and economic vulnerability in the early years of the twentieth century' (p. 387).
The Teeth Father Naked at Last : The Short Stories of Barbara Baynton Thea Astley , 1979 single work criticism
— Appears in: Three Australian Writers : Essays On Bruce Dawe, Barbara Baynton and Patrick White 1979; (p. 12-22)
Last amended 5 Aug 2008 14:19:24
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