Surgical Ward at Greenslopes Military Hospital single work   poetry   war literature   "He came from war's last gasp;"
Issue Details: First known date: 1993... 1993 Surgical Ward at Greenslopes Military Hospital
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Notes

  • Written after visiting old battle grounds and war graves in New Guinea thirty years after the end of World War II. - 'Introduction', The Years Away (1993)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Years Away W. R. Olson , Sydney : Wordspec , 1993 Z1302176 1993 selected work correspondence short story poetry war literature

    An edited version of 329 letters written to Olson's wife, Ruth. His son, W. G. Olson, describes the purpose behind publishing the letters as 'to remind newer generations of Australians how the ordinary digger lived in those wartime years.' In his letters, Olson describes the sacrifices of the Australian infantry in New Guinea, the waste of war, and 'begins to question the purpose of the war, particularly that final year 1945.'

    An 'Introduction' to the letters includes Olson's short story The Gods Were Kind, first published in Meanjin in 1945, and three poems. These works and W. G. Olson's Foreward [sic] are indexed separately. The individual letters have not been indexed.

    Sydney : Wordspec , 1993
    pg. viii-ix
Last amended 24 Oct 2006 11:58:13
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