Cirrus@Austlit

This thesis is an analysis of the influence of George Robertson of Angus & Robertson on Australian literary culture, identity and history. It argues that a major publishing house can shape national identity by crystalising a national ethos in its fiction and adding to a country's body of knowledge in its non-fiction. Through a detailed reading of edited texts and an exhaustive analysis of Angus & Robertson correspondence, this thesis shows how George Robertson played an enormous part in deciding how national myths were created and how key titles have isolated what it is to be Australian.