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y separately published work icon The Lost Explorers : A Story of the Trackless Desert single work   children's fiction   children's  
Issue Details: First known date: 1907... 1907 The Lost Explorers : A Story of the Trackless Desert
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Bob Wentworth, 18, and Jack Armstrong, 16, leave their work at the Clyde Engineering Works and set off to Australia with Mr Mackay in search of gold. The story moves from the goldfields of WA across the centre of Australia. The character of Mackay is based on Macdonald himself. He is engimatic, an able fighter, and a sensitive flautist who has a broad general knowledge (which he is not averse to imparting freely) and is moved to tears by music.'

(Oxford Companion to Australian Children's Literature 271).

Exhibitions

Notes

  • Dedication: To B.B.
  • Users are warned that this work contains terminology that reflects attitudes or language used at the time of publication that are considered inappropriate today.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Blackie ,
      1923 .
      Extent: 379 p., [6] leaves of platesp.
      Description: illus.
      Note/s:
      • Illustrated by Arthur H. Buckland.
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Blackie ,
      1936 .
      Extent: 379p.
      Description: illus. by Arthur H. Buckland
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Blackie ,
      1948 .
      Extent: 379 p., [4] leaves of platesp.
      Description: illus.
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Lost Worlds Australia : Early Australian Science Fiction Lost Worlds Australia : 13 Classic Tales; Lost Worlds Australia : 16 Classic Tales London : Roh Press , 2018 15827253 2018 anthology short story science fiction

    'There has been a lot of speculative fiction written about Australia, even before colonization. The first ‘home-grown’ lost civilization story set in Australia was Oo-A-Deen, or, The Mysteries of the Interior Unveiled, published by an unknown author in the Corio Chronicle and Western Districts Advertiser, in 1847. It tells the story of an explorer who discovers a lost utopian society and falls in love with the daughter of the High Priest. With the rise in popularity of the genre thanks to such novels as Haggard’s She and King Solomon’s Mines many imitators soon followed. Thanks to the imagination of many a writer, the unexplored Australian Outback was soon populated by Atlantaeans, Lemurians, Toltecs, Classical Greeks, Ant Men, Bat People, and even the descendants of Alexander the Great’s mighty army.

    'This Early Australian Science Fiction anthology is a collection of 13 tales considered to be among the most influential Australian works in the lost world genre. They are the works most referred to by researchers and academics when they evaluate Australian colonial science fiction. Some have been made available for Kindle for the very first time and are exclusive to ROH Press.'

    Source: Publisher's blurb (2018 ed.)

    London : Roh Press , 2018
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Lost Worlds Australia : Early Australian Science Fiction Lost Worlds Australia : 13 Classic Tales; Lost Worlds Australia : 16 Classic Tales London : Roh Press , 2018 15827253 2018 anthology short story science fiction

    'There has been a lot of speculative fiction written about Australia, even before colonization. The first ‘home-grown’ lost civilization story set in Australia was Oo-A-Deen, or, The Mysteries of the Interior Unveiled, published by an unknown author in the Corio Chronicle and Western Districts Advertiser, in 1847. It tells the story of an explorer who discovers a lost utopian society and falls in love with the daughter of the High Priest. With the rise in popularity of the genre thanks to such novels as Haggard’s She and King Solomon’s Mines many imitators soon followed. Thanks to the imagination of many a writer, the unexplored Australian Outback was soon populated by Atlantaeans, Lemurians, Toltecs, Classical Greeks, Ant Men, Bat People, and even the descendants of Alexander the Great’s mighty army.

    'This Early Australian Science Fiction anthology is a collection of 13 tales considered to be among the most influential Australian works in the lost world genre. They are the works most referred to by researchers and academics when they evaluate Australian colonial science fiction. Some have been made available for Kindle for the very first time and are exclusive to ROH Press.'

    Source: Publisher's blurb (2018 ed.)

    London : Roh Press , 2019

Works about this Work

Britishness and Australian Popular Fiction : From the Mid-Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Centuries Hsu-Ming Teo , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Sold by the Millions : Australia's Bestsellers 2012; (p. 46-66)
'The analysis offered here is [...], a panoptic perspective of the tangled skeins of literary imagination and imitation, gender and genre requirements, editorial control, market considerations and the sheer economics of the international book trade that knotted Australian popular literature into the cultural and economic fabric of the British empire.' (47)
Fabulating the Australian Desert : Australia's Lost Race Romances, 1890-1908 Melissa Bellanta , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Philament , April no. 3 2004;
y separately published work icon Mobilising Fictions or, Romancing the Australian Desert, 1890-1908 Melissa Bellanta , St Lucia : AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource , 2009 Z1238252 2003 single work criticism 'This paper looks at Australia's "lost race romances", published between 1890 and 1908, so-called because they described the discovery of an unknown race in the middle of the Australian desert...' (Author's abstract)
y separately published work icon Writing the Colonial Adventure : Race, Gender and Nation in Anglo-Australian Popular Fiction, 1875-1914 Robert Dixon , Oakleigh : Cambridge University Press , 1995 Z480378 1995 single work criticism

'This book is an exploration of popular late nineteenth-century texts that show Australia - along with Africa, India and the Pacific Islands - to be a preferred site of imperial adventure. Focusing on the period from the advent of the new imperialism in the 1870s to the outbreak of World War I, Robert Dixon looks at a selection of British and Australian writers. Their books, he argues, offer insights into the construction of empire, masculinity, race, and Australian nationhood and identity. Writing the Colonial Adventure shows that the genre of adventure/romance was highly popular throughout this period. The book examines the variety of themes within their narrative form that captured many aspects of imperial ideology. In considering the broader ramifications of these works, Professor Dixon develops an original approach to popular fiction, both for its own sake and as a mode of cultural history.' (Introduction)

Ludwig Leichhardt : Australia's Missing Penis Simon Ryan , 1994 single work criticism
— Appears in: Coppertales : A Journal of Rural Arts , no. 1 1994; (p. 97-106)

— Appears in: The Body in the Library 1998; (p. 237-247)
Fabulating the Australian Desert : Australia's Lost Race Romances, 1890-1908 Melissa Bellanta , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Philament , April no. 3 2004;
y separately published work icon Mobilising Fictions or, Romancing the Australian Desert, 1890-1908 Melissa Bellanta , St Lucia : AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource , 2009 Z1238252 2003 single work criticism 'This paper looks at Australia's "lost race romances", published between 1890 and 1908, so-called because they described the discovery of an unknown race in the middle of the Australian desert...' (Author's abstract)
Britishness and Australian Popular Fiction : From the Mid-Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Centuries Hsu-Ming Teo , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Sold by the Millions : Australia's Bestsellers 2012; (p. 46-66)
'The analysis offered here is [...], a panoptic perspective of the tangled skeins of literary imagination and imitation, gender and genre requirements, editorial control, market considerations and the sheer economics of the international book trade that knotted Australian popular literature into the cultural and economic fabric of the British empire.' (47)
Ludwig Leichhardt : Australia's Missing Penis Simon Ryan , 1994 single work criticism
— Appears in: Coppertales : A Journal of Rural Arts , no. 1 1994; (p. 97-106)

— Appears in: The Body in the Library 1998; (p. 237-247)
y separately published work icon Writing the Colonial Adventure : Race, Gender and Nation in Anglo-Australian Popular Fiction, 1875-1914 Robert Dixon , Oakleigh : Cambridge University Press , 1995 Z480378 1995 single work criticism

'This book is an exploration of popular late nineteenth-century texts that show Australia - along with Africa, India and the Pacific Islands - to be a preferred site of imperial adventure. Focusing on the period from the advent of the new imperialism in the 1870s to the outbreak of World War I, Robert Dixon looks at a selection of British and Australian writers. Their books, he argues, offer insights into the construction of empire, masculinity, race, and Australian nationhood and identity. Writing the Colonial Adventure shows that the genre of adventure/romance was highly popular throughout this period. The book examines the variety of themes within their narrative form that captured many aspects of imperial ideology. In considering the broader ramifications of these works, Professor Dixon develops an original approach to popular fiction, both for its own sake and as a mode of cultural history.' (Introduction)

Last amended 8 Aug 2019 09:53:50
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  • Central desert areas, Western Australia,
  • 1890s
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