A Certain Style

by Jacqueline Kent

  1 B.D. to Rohan Rivett, 15 December 1950.

  2 Conversation Anthony Barker with J.K., 18 May 1997.

  3 Interview Leslie Rees with J.K., 18 August 1998.

  4 Colin Roderick later said (conversation with J.K., May 1999) that A.A. Ritchie, chairman of the A&R board, asked him in the early 1960s, ‘Why can’t we publish a bestseller like Weird Mob?’ Roderick lost no time in telling him the story, and Ritchie told him to extract his memo to Beatrice from the files, presumably so there would be no record of the mistake. The memo is now in the Colin Roderick papers, National Library of Australia. Beatrice’s letter of rejection and the two readers’ reports are in the Angus and Robertson collection, State Library of New South Wales.

  5 Elizabeth Wood-Ellem to J.K., 5 December 1999.

  6 Alec Bolton, ‘Publishing in an Age of Innocence: Angus and Robertson in the 1950s’, a talk given for the Canberra Book History group on 29 November 1994.

  7 Elizabeth Wood-Ellem, op cit.

  8 At this time editors trained at Melbourne University Press apparently used a glass rod and a bottle of bleach as correcting agents: bleach was carefully spread over the offending passage with a glass rod, the editor waited for it to dry and fade and then typed over it. But no A&R sources remember anything like that in Beatrice’s department.

  9 Interview Frank Thompson with J.K., 12 September 1996.

  10 Neil James, ‘Basically We Thought About Books: An Oral History with George Ferguson’, unpublished.

  11 Bruce Pratt, ‘The Australian Encyclopedia: A Summary of its Production and Publication’ in Fragment (A&R house journal), no. 11, June 1959, p. 3.

  12 Alec Chisholm to Professor Abbie, 6 February 1950.

  13 Fragment, no. 1, editorial, 1954.

  The Battles for Angus and Robertson

  1 Interview Alec Bolton with J.K., 30 September 1996.

  2 B.D. to Sadie Herbert, 11 October 1960.

  3 B.D. to Xavier Herbert, 15 July 1960.

  4 Walter V. Burns, ‘Books as merchandise’, Observer, 26 November 1960.

  5 Max Harris, Observer, 26 November 1960.

  6 See Craig Munro, Inky Stephensen: Wild Man of Letters, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1992, p. 262 et seq.

  7 According to one source, Halstead Press’s trading profit went down from £37 000 to £580 during the time Burns was managing director.

  8 Bolton moved to Ure Smith, where he remained until 1966, when he rejoined A&R to run their London office. He finally resigned from Angus and Robertson in 1970.

  9 Interview Judy Wallace, née Fisher, with J.K., 12 February 1996.

  10 Observer, 11 July 1960.

  11 Observer, 24 December 1960.

  12 Ibid.

  13 B.D. to Xavier Herbert, 13 October 1960.

  14 B.D. to Xavier Herbert, 30 December 1960.

  15 Peter Coleman, ‘The Architect of Victory’, Observer, 7 January 1961.

  16 During the meeting at which this was decided, telegrams of support from A&R authors were read out. There were so many of these that Packer lost patience and allegedly exploded, ‘Look, is this a shareholders’ meeting or a bloody wedding?’

  17 George Ferguson to Sir Stanley Unwin, 25 May 1962.

  18 Packer’s biographer Bridget Griffen-Foley doubts that Packer was seriously holding talks with US publishers; more than likely he was simply trying to push up the price of his shares. See Bridget Griffen-Foley, Sir Frank Packer: The Young Master, HarperCollins, Sydney, 2000, p. 250.

  19 Ken Wilder, The Company You Keep: A Publisher’s Memoir, State Library of NSW Press, Sydney, 1994, p. 68.

  20 Interview Colin Roderick with Neil James, November 1996.

  21 Ibid.

  22 The usual variant was ‘Anguish and Robbery’.

  The Backroom Girl Moves up Front

  1 The building containing Beatrice’s old bedsit was pulled down to make way for the Regent Hotel; the site of A&R’s offices was later occupied by a Harry Seidler-designed office building.

  2 Recalled by Frank Thompson in his address for B.D. memorial gathering at the State Library of New South Wales, 5 June 1992.

  3 John Yeomans, ‘An Introduction to the Shy First Lady of Publishing’, Sydney Sun, 23 October 1964.

  4 Douglas Stewart to Suzanne Lunney, oral history program, National Library of Australia, 1977.

  5 Conversation Anthony Barker with J.K., February 1996.

  6 John Yeomans, op. cit.

  7 Hal Porter to B.D., 12 September 1958.

  8 Frank Thompson, address to B.D. memorial gathering at the State Library of New South Wales, 5 June 1992.

  9 Hal Porter to B.D., 26 January 1961.

  10 B.D. to Hal Porter, 31 January 1961.

  11 Clive James, New Statesman, January 1967.

  12 Hal Porter to B.D., 18 December 1967.

  13 Charles Monteith to John Abernethy, 10 January 1968.

  14 Charles Monteith to John Abernethy, 9 February 1968.

  15 Conversation Ken Wilder with J.K., 29 May 1997.

  16 B.D. to Hal Porter, 12 May 1970.

  17 Mary Lord, Hal Porter: Man of Many Parts, Random House, Sydney, 1993, p. 221.

  18 B.D. to Hal Porter, 10 August 1972.

  19 When Dal Stivens and a group of Australian writers got together to form the Australian Society of Authors in 1961, these configurations changed slightly.

  20 Hazel Rowley, Christina Stead: A Biography, William Heinemann, Melbourne, 1993, p. 446.

  21 According to Geoffrey Dutton, among others.

  22 David Marr, Patrick White: A Life, Random House, Sydney, 1990, p. 464.

  23 Despite A&R’s pre-eminent position and the presence of Beatrice and Colin Roderick on the judging panel, Angus and Robertson books did not win the Miles Franklin Award any more often than those of other publishers.

  24 One wonders what Miles Franklin – or Beatrice herself, for that matter – would have thought of 1995’s winner, Helen Darville’s The Hand That Signed the Paper.

  25 These comments about Beatrice’s taste come from Professor Harry Heseltine, who was on the Miles Franklin judging committee with her from 1978 to 1991.

  26 Quoted in Ruth Starke, Writers, Readers and Rebels, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 1998, p. ix.

  27 Ibid. p. 47. Malouf described Beatrice as ‘tall’ – she was evidently being a particularly grande dame that day.

  28 Interview John Broadbent with J.K., 21 January 1999.

  Bartonry and Walshism

  1 Interview Douglas Stewart with National Library of Australia, 1977.

  2 Interview Geoffrey Dutton with J.K., 14 October 1997.

  3 The term ‘larrikin publishers’ was first used by Laurie Muller, then publishing director of Lansdowne Press and later of the University of Queensland Press.

  4 See Michael Zifcak, ‘The Evolution of Australian Publishing’, Logos 1/3, Whurr Publishers 1990. At about this time the publishing scene was beginning to metastasise, or at least to sound like the ‘begat’ bits of the Old Testament. O’Neil sold Lansdowne to Cheshire in 1962; Cheshire was sold to IPC of London and the Melbourne printers Wilkie & Co. in 1964 – they had already bought Jacaranda from Brian Clouston. In 1969 IPC, through their Hamlyn Books division, bought the Wilkie share and made Cheshire, Lansdowne and Jacaranda subsidiary companies.

  5 John Abernethy to George Ferguson, 7 October 1969.

  6 Interview Frank Thompson with J.K., 23 July 1997.

  7 Interview Ken Wilder with J.K., 29 May 1997.

  8 Although the deal between IPEC and AMP did not give Gordon Barton a majority shareholding in Angus and Robertson, he had now become the largest shareholder and was therefore in a position to make a takeover bid. Angus and Robertson, in response, could have adopted a share-splitting strategy using preference shares – similar to the one that defeated Frank Packer – but they did not. According to Colin Roderick (who was inteviewed by Neil James in November 1996), among others, the AMP put up the $9 million Barton needed to take over Angus and R
obertson on the condition that he would let them have the site. No formal record of the deal apparently survives.

  9 George Ferguson to Rohan Rivett, 30 July 1970.

  10 B.D. to Hal Porter, 14 December 1970.

  11 Interview Barbara Ker Wilson with J.K., 27 January 1998.

  12 B.D. to Hal Porter, 12 September 1972.

  13 Michael Wilding in Days of Wine and Rage, ed. Frank Moorhouse, Penguin, Melbourne, 1980, p. 149.

  14 Interview Richard Walsh with J.K., 12 May 1999.

  15 B.D. to Hal Porter, 13 September 1972.

  16 Interview Richard Walsh with J.K., 12 May 1999.

  17 Interview Marilyn Stacy with J.K., 18 April 1997.

  18 Interview Richard Walsh with J.K., 12 May 1999.

  19 Ibid. The common view that A&R didn’t give Beatrice any kind of payout is inaccurate.

  20 Ibid.

  21 Nan McDonald, who had been very ill for some time, died in 1974.

  22 Anthony Barker, One of the First and One of the Finest: Beatrice Davis, Book Editor, The Society of Editors (Vic.), Melbourne, 1991, p. 39.

  23 B.D. to Xavier Herbert, 22 January 1974.

  ‘I Thought You Needed Me Most’

  1 B.D. to Xavier Herbert, 22 January 1974.

  2 Ibid.

  3 Anthony Barker, diary note, May 1974.

  4 Communication Sue Ebury with J.K., August 2000.

  5 Communication Bob Sessions with J.K., 10 April 2000.

  6 Conversation Christopher Koch with J.K., 12 January 2000.

  7 B.D. to Hal Porter, 9 February 1981.

  8 According to Beatrice’s correspondence with the Literature Board, in 1984 her annual income was $19 641; in 1987 it was $22 817. During the 1980s it hovered around the $20 000 per annum mark, not lavish by any means but enough to live on, considering the Bridges estate paid expenses associated with the house.

  9 B.D. to Hal Porter, 13 October 1981.

  10 In 1982 the age limit was raised to thirty-five.

  11 In 1930 Katharine Susannah Prichard wrote a sardonic letter to a friend saying she wished her current work were her first novel so that people would make a fuss of her as a new young writer.

  12 B.D. to Paul Radley, 3 February 1981.

  13 Susan Wyndham, ‘They Said I Was Too Old: Vogel Hoaxer Explains’, Sydney Morning Herald, 29 May 1996.

  14 Interview Jack Radley with J.K., 12 July 1996.

  The Final Chapter

  1 It was republished in 1996 by the State Library of NSW Press, with a new introduction by Jamie Grant, who also chose some new work.

  2 B.D. to Richard Walsh, 14 July 1982.

  3 When I went to find it in about 1998, all that remained of the house in Tizzana Road, Sackville, was the ruined double chimney that used to be at one end of the living room.

  4 B.D. to Hal Porter, 22 June 1983.

  5 B.D. to Hal Porter, 14 June 1981.

  6 Quoted in Anthony Barker, One of the First and One of the Finest: Beatrice Davis, Book Editor, The Society of Editors (Vic.), Melbourne, 1991, pp. 41–2.

  7 Interview Meg Stewart with J.K., 14 January 1996.

  8 David Malouf, The Great World, Pan Macmillan, Sydney, 1990, p. 3.

  9 After her death there was some confusion about Beatrice’s intentions, and a certain amount of bad feeling about what she had intended to leave to whom.

  10 A.W. Barker, diary note, 16 July 1990.

  11 Her brother John died exactly a week later and Del, who had cancer, died a few months later.

  Writers and Their Works

  The following is a list of the major writers mentioned in the text, and their most important publications.

  Anderson, Ethel (1883–1958)

  Poetry: Squatter’s Luck and Other Poems (1942), Sunday at Yarralumla (1947), Essays: Adventures in Appleshire (1944), Timeless Garden (1945). Short fiction: Indian Tales (1948), At Parramatta (1956), The Little Ghosts (1959), The Best of Ethel Anderson (edited by J.D. Pringle 1973).

  Astley, Thea (1925–2004)

  Novels: Girl With a Monkey (1958), A Descant for Gossips (1960), The Well Dressed Explorer (1962), The Slow Natives (1965), A Boatload of Home Folk (1968), The Acolyte (1972), A Kindness Cup (1974), An Item from the Late News (1982), Beachmasters (1985), It’s Raining in Mango (1987), Reaching Tin River (1990), Vanishing Points (1992), Coda (1994), The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow (1996), Drylands (1999). Short fiction: Hunting the Wild Pineapple (1979), Collected Short Stories (1997).

  Bean, Charles Edwin Woodrow (1879–1968)

  Non-fiction: On the Wool Track (1910), The Dreadnought of the Darling (1911), Flagships Three (1913), The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918 in twelve volumes (editor, 1921–1942), Anzac to Amiens (1946).

  Casey, Gavin (1907–1964)

  Short fiction: It’s Harder for Girls (1942), republished as Short Shift Saturday and Other Stories (1973), Birds of a Feather (1943). Novels: Downhill is Easier (1945), The Wits Are Out (1947), City of Men (1950), Snowball (1958), Amid the Plenty (1962), The Man Whose Name Was Mud (1963).

  Chisholm, Alexander Hugh (1890–1977)

  Editor-in-chief of the Australian Encyclopedia (1958).

  Cleary, Jon (1917–2010)

  Author of more than fifty novels, including You Can’t See Round Corners (1947), The Sundowners (1952), The Green Helmet (1957), North from Thursday (1960), The High Commissioner (1966), High Road to China (1977), A Very Private War (1980).

  Clune, Frank (1893–1971)

  Author of more than sixty popular histories, travel books, autobiographical works, many in collaboration with P.R. Stephensen. Titles include Try Anything Once (1933), Dig (1937), Tobruk to Turkey (1943), Ben Hall the Bushranger (1947), High-ho to London (1948), The Kelly Hunters (1954), Bound for Botany Bay (1964), Journey to Pitcairn (1966).

  Cusack, Dymphna (1902–1981)

  Novels: Jungfrau (1936), Pioneers on Parade (with Miles Franklin 1939), Come in Spinner (with Florence James 1951), Say No to Death (1951), Southern Steel (1953), The Sun in Exile (1955), Heatwave in Berlin (1961), Picnic Races (1962), Black Lightning (1964), The Sun is Not Enough (1967), The Half Burnt Tree (1969), A Bough in Hell (1971). Non-fiction: Caddie, a Sydney Barmaid: An Autobiography Written by Herself (edited with introduction 1953), Chinese Women Speak (1958), Holiday Among the Russians (1964), Illyria Reborn (1966). Also plays and books for children.

  Davison, Frank Dalby (1893–1970)

  Fiction: Man-Shy (1931), Forever Morning (1931), Children of the Dark People (1935), The Woman at the Mill (1940), Dusty (1946), The White Thorn Tree (1968).

  Dennis, Clarence James (1876–1936)

  Poetry: Backblock Ballads and Other Verses (1913), The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke (1915), The Moods of Ginger Mick (1916), The Glugs of Gosh (1917), A Book for Kids (1921).

  Dobson, Rosemary (1920–2012)

  Poetry: In a Convex Mirror (1944), The Ship of Ice (1948), Child with a Cockatoo (1955), Selected Poems (1963), Cock Crow (1965), Selected Poems (1973), Greek Coins (1977), Over the Frontier (1978), The Three Fates and Other Poems (1984).

  Drake-Brockman, Henrietta (1901–1968)

  Novels: Blue North (1934), Sheba Lone (1936), Younger Sons (1937), The Fatal Days (1947), The Wicked and the Fair (1957). Short fiction: Sydney or the Bush (1948). Non-fiction: Voyage to Disaster: The Life of Francis Pelsaert (1963).

  Franklin, Stella Maria Sarah Miles (1879–1954)

  Novels: My Brilliant Career (1901), Some Everyday Folk and Dawn (1909), Old Blastus of Bandicoot (1931), Bring the Monkey (1933), All That Swagger (1936), Pioneers on Parade (with Dymphna Cusack 1939), My Career Goes Bung (1946), Childhood at Brindabella (1963), On Dearborn Street (1982). Non-fiction: Joseph Furphy: The Legend of a Man and His Book (with Kate Baker 1944). Essays: Laughter Not for a Cage (1956). As Brent of Bin Bin: Up the Country (1928), Ten Creeks Run (1930), Back to Bool Bool (1931), Prelude to Waking (1950), Cockatoos (1954), Gentlemen at Gyang Gyang (1956).

  Gibbs, May (1876–1969)
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  For children: Gumnut Babies (1916), Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (1918), Little Ragged Blossom (1920), Bib and Bub (1925), Mr and Mrs Bear and Friends (1943), The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (1940).

  Gilmore, Mary (1865–1962)

  Poetry: Marri’d and Other Verses (1910), The Passionate Heart (1918), The Tilted Cart (1925), The Wild Swan (1930), Under the Wilgas (1932), Battlefields (1939), Fourteen Men (1954). Non-fiction: Old Days, Old Ways (1934), More Recollections (1935).

  Glassop, Lawson (1913–1966)

  We Were the Rats (1944), Susan and the Bogeywomp (1947), Lucky Palmer (1949), The Rats in New Guinea (1963).

  Herbert, Xavier (1901–1984)

  Capricornia (1938), Seven Emus (1959), Soldiers’ Women (1961), Larger than Life (1963), Disturbing Element (1963), Poor Fellow My Country (1975).

  Hill, Ernestine (1899–1972)

  Non-fiction: The Great Australian Loneliness (1937), Water Into Gold (1937), The Passing of the Aborigines (with Daisy Bates 1938), Australia, Land of Contrasts (1943), Flying Doctor Calling (1947), The Territory (1951), Kabbarli: A Personal Memoir of Daisy Bates (1973). Fiction: My Love Must Wait (1941).

  Hungerford, Thomas Arthur Guy (1915–2011)

  Novels: The Ridge and the River (1951), Riverslake (1953), Sowers of the Wind (1954), Shake the Golden Bough (1963). Short fiction: Wong Chu and the Queen’s Letterbox (1977). Short Fiction (edited Peter Cowan 1989). Autobiography: Stories from Suburban Road (1984), A Knockabout with a Slouch Hat (1985), Red Rover All Over (1986).

  Idriess, Ion Llewellyn (1889–1979)

  More than forty books, mainly factual adventure stories, including Madman’s Island (1927), Prospecting for Gold (1931), Lasseter’s Last Ride (1931), Flynn of the Inland (1932), Gold-Dust and Ashes (1933), The Cattle King (1936), Headhunters of the Coral Sea (1940), six military handbooks in the Australian Guerrilla series (1942), The Red Chief (1953).

  Ireland, David (1927–)

  Novels: The Chantic Bird (1968), The Unknown Industrial Prisoner (1971), The Flesheaters (1972), Burn (1974), The Glass Canoe (1976), A Woman of the Future (1979), City of Women (1981), Archimedes and the Seagle (1984), Bloodfather (1987), The Chosen (1997).

  James, Florence (1902–1993)

  With Dymphna Cusack: Four Winds and a Family (1947), Come in, Spinner (1951).