y separately published work icon Notebooks 1970-2003 selected work   diary   prose  
Issue Details: First known date: 2005... 2005 Notebooks 1970-2003
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

A rare and fascinating glimpse into a writer's life, taken from the working notebooks of Murray Bail when he was an unknown writer living in London from 1970-74 and Sydney 1988-2003 after the publication of Eucalyptus and other novels. Overheard conversations, aphorisms, dazzling observations of people and places, musings on art, literature and landscape, and fragments of books and stories, Notebooks is a stark and exhilarating offering from the heart and mind of a celebrated novelist. (Publisher's blurb)

Notes

  • Author's note: Six small notebooks, yellow with blue lettering 'SPIRAX No. 561', bought in Melbourne 1968 - the Indian and Afghanistan notebooks; one smaller with pink cover, bought in Bombay, now lost; eight shorthand notebooks, caramel covers, London 1970-74; one, used during the first American visit, 1972, lost. Entries here have been taken, with some corrections, mostly from seven 'London' books.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Remapping Australia : Murray Bail's New Topographies of the Self in the 'Notebooks' Marie Herbillon , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Commonwealth Essays and Studies , Spring vol. 40 no. 2 2018; (p. 9-22)

'The Australian writer Murray Bail's 'Notebooks' feature a change of stance that interrogates the self-place relationship: initially dominated by an ideal of placelessness, they then seek to forge new bonds with a reimagined homeland. This essay examines the political implications of this paradigmatic shift. Arguably, the sense of identity that finds expression in this unconventional autobiography depends, in part, on a radical reconceptualisation of the Australian space.' (Publication abstract)

 

Notebooks 1970-2003 Phyllida Coombes , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: Idiom 23 , November vol. 18 no. 2006; (p. 106-107)

— Review of Notebooks 1970-2003 Murray Bail , 2005 selected work diary prose
Untitled Gillian Dooley , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Adelaide Review , 5 - 18 May no. 291 2006; (p. 16)

— Review of Notebooks 1970-2003 Murray Bail , 2005 selected work diary prose
Trees for Life Deborah Bogle , 2006 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 3 June 2006; (p. 11)
In Brief : Non-Fiction Patrick Allington , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 281 2006; (p. 59)

— Review of Notebooks 1970-2003 Murray Bail , 2005 selected work diary prose
Untitled Mark Dawson , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Bookseller & Publisher , September vol. 85 no. 3 2005; (p. 70)

— Review of Notebooks 1970-2003 Murray Bail , 2005 selected work diary prose
Bail Out on His Own in Sweeping Views Melinda Harvey , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 19 November 2005; (p. 13)

— Review of Notebooks 1970-2003 Murray Bail , 2005 selected work diary prose
A Glimpse at the Inner Workings Gregory Day , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 23-24 December 2005; (p. 22)

— Review of Notebooks 1970-2003 Murray Bail , 2005 selected work diary prose
Beauty in the Smallest Glimpses A. P. Riemer , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 14-15 January 2006; (p. 19)

— Review of Notebooks 1970-2003 Murray Bail , 2005 selected work diary prose
Dribble in an Avalanche James Ley , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 3 March no. 5370 2006; (p. 24)

— Review of Notebooks 1970-2003 Murray Bail , 2005 selected work diary prose
Trees for Life Deborah Bogle , 2006 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 3 June 2006; (p. 11)
Remapping Australia : Murray Bail's New Topographies of the Self in the 'Notebooks' Marie Herbillon , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Commonwealth Essays and Studies , Spring vol. 40 no. 2 2018; (p. 9-22)

'The Australian writer Murray Bail's 'Notebooks' feature a change of stance that interrogates the self-place relationship: initially dominated by an ideal of placelessness, they then seek to forge new bonds with a reimagined homeland. This essay examines the political implications of this paradigmatic shift. Arguably, the sense of identity that finds expression in this unconventional autobiography depends, in part, on a radical reconceptualisation of the Australian space.' (Publication abstract)

 

Last amended 9 Mar 2006 11:26:15
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