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Issue Details: First known date: 2006... 2006 Paper Empires : A History of the Book in Australia 1946-2005
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

The second of a series of studies of Australian book production and consumption. The work is organised into three sections: 'The Rise of Publishing ', 'Book Business' and 'Reaching Readers'. Within each grouping are chapters on related subjects, in some cases accompanied by illustrative case studies.

Contents

* Contents derived from the St Lucia, Indooroopilly - St Lucia area, Brisbane - North West, Brisbane, Queensland,:University of Queensland Press , 2006 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Introduction, single work criticism (p. xi-xiii)
After the War, Craig Munro , John Curtin , single work criticism (p. 3-7)
Case-Study : Anglo-Australian Relations in the Book Trade, Brigid Magner , single work criticism
'As Australia has been Britain's largest export market since 1889, it is not surprising that the local book market was dominated and defended by London publishers throughout most of the twentieth century. John McLaren has argued that 'no part of the society maintained the imperial pattern more consistently than the publishers and booksellers who exploited an Australian market held captive by its distance from the owners of capital'.' (Introduction 7)
(p. 7-10)
Case-study : Flagship Angus & Robertson, G. Ferguson , Neil James , single work criticism
'I started working for Angus & Robertson in my university days, around 1927. At that time they were booksellers, publishers and printers, but I worked part-time in the bookselling side. After I took my degree I became full-time, working for some years in various departments of the bookshop at 89 Castlereagh Street. I also worked at Halstead Press, the company's printing arm, where I learned typesetting on a linotype machine. Later on in the 1930s I joined the publishing side.' (Introduction, 10)
(p. 10-12)
Case-study : A&R's Takeover Crisis, Craig Munro , single work criticism
'The first battle for Angus & Robertson began quietly late 1959 and raged throughout 1960. A&R was then the most powerful force in Australian book-selling and publishing. Its nearest rival, Cheshire, produced only twenty new titles a year. Other smaller publishers included Ure Smith, Melbourne University Press, Georgian House and Oxford University Press, while Jacaranda in Brisbane and Rigby in Adelaide concentrated on educational publishing.' (Introduction 19)
(p. 13-19)
Case-study : Andrew Fabinyi and Cheshire, John McLaren , single work criticism
Andrew Fabinyi (1908-78) came to Australia from Hungary in 1939 as a refugee from Nazism. He had worked for a bookseller in Budapest, and first found employment in Melbourne with Frank Cheshire, owner and head of the FW Cheshire bookshop in Little Collins Street. After war service in the Australian army, where he became responsible for the Australian Army Education Service libraries, he returned to FW Cheshire, where he developed both the bookselling and the publishing activities of the business. When the separate company FW Cheshire Publishing Pty Ltd was established, he became general manager. (Introduction 19)
(p. 19-21)
Case-Study : Frank Eyre and Oxford University Press, David Cunningham , single work criticism

'Frank Eyre managed the Oxford University Press Australian branch from 1951 until his retirement at the end of 1975. Before he came to Australia, Eyre had been responsible for OUP's children's books, then published in London. He was an editor and designer, and his wife Muriel was a book designer also. Eyre had a forceful personality, strong opinions and a willingness to help and guide others. His arrival, as an experienced publisher at the height of his powers, coincided with the beginnings of professional publish- ing in Australia and his influence was to extend well beyond OUP.' (Introduction 21)

(p. 21-24)
Case-Study : They're a Weird Mob and Ure Smith, David Carter , single work criticism
'The publishing history of They're a Weird Mob and the manner in which this book and its fictional Italian narrator Nino Culotta shaped the life and career of John O'Grady (1907-81) are among the more extraordinary stories in the history of the book in Australia. Nino Culotta and They're a Weird Mob bear comparison with Steele Rudd and On Our Selection. Both comedies were unashamedly pitched at a local, popular market and both drew on vernacular language, Remarkable bestsellers, these books enjoyed an afterlife that extended way beyond their initial impact, in their print, radio, theatre and cinematic offspring. Both bound their authors to a series of returns to the original scene of their success.' (Introduction 24)
(p. 24-30)
Sixties Larrikins, Frank Thompson , single work criticism
' In 1960 the membership of the Australian Book Publishers Association (ABPA) was made up of thirty- seven publishing firms. Australia's population was then ten and a half million English-speaking people, and most of their books came from Britain and to a lesser extent the United States. Only twenty-five of the AB- PA's member firms actually published any books in Australia, and only nine could be said to have had a national profile. Of those, three were chiefly education- al publishers and two were academic presses, leaving just four - Angus & Robertson, FW Cheshire, Ure Smith and Horwitz - primarily interested in books for the general public. Compared with the others, Angus & Robertson and Horwitz were giants among pygmies, particularly since they both had substantial educational lists as well, Angus & Robertson under its own imprint and Horwitz under the Owen Martin imprint.' (Introduction 31)
(p. 31-34)
Case-study : Jacaranda Press and Brian Clouston, Gregory Blaxell , single work criticism
'Brian Clouston was born in 1925 in Brisbane and educated at The Southport School before joining the RAAF where he trained as a pilot. After the war he completed a commerce degree at the University of Queensland and began work at McLeod's Bookshop which had been established by his great-uncle, Alexander McLeod, and which his late father had owned. He saw the possibility of expanding the business by publishing locally written books for Queensland secondary schools to compete with the mainly British imports then widely in use.' (Introduction 34)
(p. 34-38)
Case-study : Lansdowne and Lloyd O'Neil, John Currey , single work criticism
'Nationalism was at the heart of Lloyd O'Neil's publishing, and he was a leading figure in the development of Australian publishing in the 1960s and 1970s. Born on 17 July 1928 in Melbourne, O'Neil was the son of a talented musician mother and a left-wing, former wool-classer father. When he was sixteen the family moved to Sydney and Lloyd began as a junior in Angus & Robertson's famous Castlereagh Street bookshop. He spent six years there, and had become a buyer and head of the art books department before 'going bush' in 1952 to travel round Australia as a casual labourer. On his return he became a country representative for the British publisher Cassell, spending ten months on the road in each of the next three years.' (Introduction 38)
(p. 38-41)
Case-study : Rigby Limited, Michael Page , single work criticism
'Rigby legend has it that in 1853 William Charles Rigby, the nineteen -year -old assistant to a London bookseller, joined his father-in-law in buying a small ship to sail to the Australian goldfields. They reached Melbourne safely but the story doesn't say what hap- pened to Rigby's family or how he managed to open an Adelaide bookshop in 1859. But for fifty years he was a successful retailer of books for all ages, schoolbooks, toys and games, stationery, British magazines and occasional books published under his own imprint, such as the first history of South Australia.' (Introduction 41)
(p. 41-43)
Case-study : Sun Books, John Arnold , single work criticism
'Sun Books was founded in 1965 by Brian Stonier, Geoffrey Dutton and Max Harris as an independent paperback publishing company. The three men had been responsible for the establishment of the Aus- tralian publishing arm of Penguin Books in 1961, but left to form their own company after conflict with London over the Australian list. Capital of £12 000 for the new venture was provided equally by Stonier and Dutton, and Stonier obtained a bank overdraft of £10 000. Harris's role was that of literary editor and adviser. He and Dutton, both Adelaide -based, had worked closely together on Australian Letters (1958-67) and Australian Book Review which they co-founded in 1962.' (Introduction 43-44)
(p. 43-47)
Case-study : Packer Publications, Bridget Griffen-Foley , single work criticism
'In the 1930s (Sir) Frank Packer and E.G. Theodore had launched the Australian Women's Weekly and the Sunday Telegraph and revived Sydney's moribund Daily Telegraph. Their company, Consolidated Press Ltd, moved into book publishing almost by default, serialising titles and offering encyclopaedias and books about health, cooking and animals at discounted rates to subscribers. A book publishing department was established, which in 1944 secured separate offices under the management of Dr E. Harden.' (Introduction 47)
(p. 47-49)
Case-study : Horwitz, Anthony May , single work criticism
'The mass-market publisher Horwitz started in 1920, but it underwent significant changes in its scope and product in the 1950s. In 1956 Stanley Howitz took over the publishing operations, and the company remained a family concern into the twenty-first century.' (Introduction 50)
(p. 50-52)
New Wave Seventies, Jim Hart , single work criticism
'If the 1960s was the infancy of modern Australian publishing, then the 1970s was surely its adolescence — a time of life that is characterised by rapid growth, increased maturity and an urge for independence, together with experimentation, recklessness, high ideals and overactive hormones. The Australian publishing industry had all of the the above and more.' (Introduction 53)
(p. 53-57)
Case-study: the New A&R, Richard Walsh , single work criticism
'By the time I became involved with Angus & Robertson, in mid -1972, The famous Old Firm was more of a beached whale. Still recognisable as a former leviathan, it was in fact close to death.' (Introduction 57)
(p. 57-63)
Case-study : Inner-urban and Outback, Morry Schwartz , single work criticism (p. 63-66)
Case-study : Currency Press, Katharine Brisbane , single work criticism
Currency Press one of the oldest surviving independent Australian publishers, is a unique institution: a publishing house that subsists principally on the work of Australia's playwrights, performers and composers in a market almost entirely local. That the company exists at all is a tribute to Australian nationalism. That it is almost alone in surviving even thirty years is evidence of the obstacles that beset the industry and the stubbornness required to overcome them. Currency's survival can be put down to three things: good timing, finding a niche, and building a team that believes in cultural worth.' (Introduction 66-67)
(p. 66-73)
Case-study : UQP, Frank Thompson , single work criticism
'The protests against the Vietnam War were reaching their peak in 1970, a turbulent year for Australian universities. Students were finding a new, more creative voice which was not always well received in the hitherto sleepy groves of academe. The University of Queensland had, perhaps, awakened a bit sooner than most with the appointment of a relatively young and dynamic vice-chancellor, Zelman Cowan, and it had the added zest of confronting a deeply conservative state government committed to censorship and the elimination of dissent.' (Introduction 73)
(p. 73-76)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

How to Sell a Book Craig Munro , 2016 single work
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , February 2016;
'There is at least a forty-year history of reports into the Australian book industry, starting with that of the Australian Book Trade Working Party in 1975. Has everything gone to pot since then? Not quite. New research from Macquarie University shows that local publishers are adapting to a rapidly changing marketplace for books, writes, Craig Munro'
Magazine Studies : Pedagogy and Practice in a Nascent Field Megan le Masurier , Rebecca Johinke , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue Website Series , April no. 25 2014;
Foreword : Sold by the Millions Amit Sarwal , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Sold by the Millions : Australia's Bestsellers 2012; (p. viii-xvi)
The University of Queensland Press : Poetry and Material Culture Deborah Jordan , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Fryer Folios , June vol. 6 no. 1 2011; (p. 14-17)
Deborah Jordan discusses the role of University of Queensland Press as a significant publisher of Australian poetry in the 1960s
A History of the Book in Australia Philip Mead , 2009 single work review (taught in 1 units)
— Appears in: JASAL , no. 9 2009;

— Review of A History of the Book in Australia, 1891-1945 : A National Culture in a Colonised Market 2001 anthology criticism ; Paper Empires : A History of the Book in Australia 1946-2005 2006 anthology criticism ; Making Books : Contemporary Australian Publishing 2007 anthology criticism
Untitled Nick Hudson , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , May/June vol. 85 no. 10 2006; (p. 48)

— Review of Paper Empires : A History of the Book in Australia 1946-2005 2006 anthology criticism
Nearly All About It Peter Ryan , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 8-9 July 2006; (p. 14)

— Review of Paper Empires : A History of the Book in Australia 1946-2005 2006 anthology criticism
The Stories Behind the Tales Michael Duffy , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 15-16 July 2006; (p. 36)

— Review of Paper Empires : A History of the Book in Australia 1946-2005 2006 anthology criticism
History by the Book Gerard Windsor , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Financial Review , 14 July 2006; (p. 4-5)

— Review of Paper Empires : A History of the Book in Australia 1946-2005 2006 anthology criticism
Leafing Through Our Times Margaret Harris , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 12 August 2006; (p. 21)

— Review of Paper Empires : A History of the Book in Australia 1946-2005 2006 anthology criticism
The Making of Paper Empires Craig Munro , Robyn Sheahan-Bright , 2006 single work column
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , May/June vol. 85 no. 10 2006; (p. 32)
Undercover Susan Wyndham , 2006 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 17-18 June 2006; (p. 30)
A New Chapter for Booksellers and Bookbuyers Colin Steele , 2006 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 16 September 2006; (p. 16)
The University of Queensland Press : Poetry and Material Culture Deborah Jordan , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Fryer Folios , June vol. 6 no. 1 2011; (p. 14-17)
Deborah Jordan discusses the role of University of Queensland Press as a significant publisher of Australian poetry in the 1960s
Foreword : Sold by the Millions Amit Sarwal , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Sold by the Millions : Australia's Bestsellers 2012; (p. viii-xvi)
Last amended 5 Jan 2017 13:47:02
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