This thesis examines the nature of the book and book culture in the mid-1990s. It applies a life-cycle model derived from histoire du livre scholarship to the contemporary Australian book. It employs this model to examine the inter-connected events in the book's life cycle - authorship, production, printing, distribution, sales, reception, use and preservation - in Australia, both in general and in terms of a single book (Drusilla Modjeska's The Orchard).
