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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
The Leader continued the Melbourne Leader (1856-1862). In its early years, the Leader published some critical essays, but offered no book reviews or literary gossip. It is well-known, however, for the journalistic contributions of Marcus Clarke and other writers such as Henry Britton, Charles Pearson and James Smith. By 1895, the subtitle of the Leader had expanded to read, 'Weekly Journal of News, Politics, Agriculture, Sport, Mining, Science and Literature', indicating the variety of content offered to readers in three to four dozen pages.
Less than ten percent of the Leader was devoted to fiction and most of that was imported from English shilling monthlies. Foreign writers whose work appeared in the first fifty years include Charles Dickens, Edward Bulwer Lytton, M. E. Braddon, Wilkie Collins, Walter Besant, Thomas Hardy, H. Rider Haggard, Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson.
Very few colonial writers contributed fiction before 1900. Those that did included Mary Gaunt, David Falk, Ellerton Gay and Rosa Campbell Praed whose Miss Jacobsen's Chance (1886) was one of the few Australian serials that also appeared in book form.
While the literary content of the Leader has received scholarly attention with Toni Johnson-Woods' Index to Serials in Australian Periodicals and Newspapers, little research has been conducted on the last fifty years of weekly newspaper's history. In the early twentieth century many Australian writers looked to its pages for reviews of their work and advertising, but its literary reputation remained consistent. In 1923 John Shaw Neilson wrote to A. G. Stephens, 'The Leader was always very grubby but most weeklies are grubby. They have to be'. Despite Neilson's description, the literary pages of the Leader played a significant part in the development of Australia's literary culture.Notes
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For publication history, including details of mergers, etc, see: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/44196
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Henry Kendall's 'Aboriginal Man' : Autochthony and Extinction in the Settler Colony
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Modern Australian Criticism and Theory 2010; (p. 50-60) 'McCann shows how the poet Henry Kendall's dreams of establishing an Australian landscape are haunted at every turn by the indigenous presence...' Source: Modern Australian Criticism and Theory (2010) -
Landscape and Australian Fiction
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Modern Australian Criticism and Theory 2010; (p. 41-49) 'Susan Martin's essay... considers the central role played in Australian literature and its criticism by ideas about the land and environment, from colonial images of conquering or domesticating the land, to the heroic or anti-heroic ideas of nation-forming bush, to the increasing sense of an Aboriginal land, to new postcolonial forms of spatial history and contemporary eco-criticism.' Source: Modern Australian Criticism and Theory (2010) - y Index to Serials in Australian Periodicals and Newspapers : Nineteenth Century Canberra : Mulini Press , 2001 Z971477 2001 single work index Index to serials in 15 large circulation weekly publications published in Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales between 1860 and 1899. The index also gives an overview of the publishing history of these titles and includes an author/title index.
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How I Became a Writer
1986
single work
autobiography
— Appears in: The Peculiar Honeymoon and Other Writings 1986; The Penguin Anthology of Australian Women's Writing 1988; (p. 509-513) -
Literary Notes : Marcus Clarke's Contributions to "Under the Verandah"
1971
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 31 no. 3 1971; (p. 220-221)
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Landscape and Australian Fiction
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Modern Australian Criticism and Theory 2010; (p. 41-49) 'Susan Martin's essay... considers the central role played in Australian literature and its criticism by ideas about the land and environment, from colonial images of conquering or domesticating the land, to the heroic or anti-heroic ideas of nation-forming bush, to the increasing sense of an Aboriginal land, to new postcolonial forms of spatial history and contemporary eco-criticism.' Source: Modern Australian Criticism and Theory (2010) -
Henry Kendall's 'Aboriginal Man' : Autochthony and Extinction in the Settler Colony
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Modern Australian Criticism and Theory 2010; (p. 50-60) 'McCann shows how the poet Henry Kendall's dreams of establishing an Australian landscape are haunted at every turn by the indigenous presence...' Source: Modern Australian Criticism and Theory (2010) -
Literary Notes : Marcus Clarke's Contributions to "Under the Verandah"
1971
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 31 no. 3 1971; (p. 220-221) -
How I Became a Writer
1986
single work
autobiography
— Appears in: The Peculiar Honeymoon and Other Writings 1986; The Penguin Anthology of Australian Women's Writing 1988; (p. 509-513) - y Index to Serials in Australian Periodicals and Newspapers : Nineteenth Century Canberra : Mulini Press , 2001 Z971477 2001 single work index Index to serials in 15 large circulation weekly publications published in Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales between 1860 and 1899. The index also gives an overview of the publishing history of these titles and includes an author/title index.
PeriodicalNewspaper Details
Has serialised
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