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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'From the cliffs of Gallipoli, through the jungles of Vietnam, to the deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq, Australia's short history is a story of war.
'The battlefield has shaped the way we define ourselves - the Australian values of mateship, courage under fire, larrikinism - but few of us have witnessed these scenes firsthand. Soldiers writing from the front and journalists on the ground have formed the way we think about war and so formed the way we think about ourselves.
'In The Penguin Book of Australian War Writing, author and journalist Mark Dapin has gathered together the finest of these accounts. Starting with Watkin Tench's observations of an Aboriginal war party, we see the terror, confusion and occasional heroics of the front line through the eyes of some of our best writers, including AB Paterson, Martin Boyd, Patrick White, Alan Moorehead, Kenneth Slessor, Peter Cundall and Barry Heard.
'These remarkable letters, diaries, memoirs and reports remind us of our history, and of our responsibility in recording and remembering what happens in the wars we send our soldiers to fight. (From the publisher's website.)
Notes
-
Epigraph:
'As for warfare in general, I am infuriated by the knowledge that for no reason or motive of any kind, except at the command of blind authority, working to satisfy the glandular cravings of an invisible oligarch, a Keats or Beethoven or Pasteur can be dismissed from existence by the mere motion of a man pressing a piece of iron which releases two thousand volumes of gas, which drives another piece of iron three thousand yards, which perforates the abdominal cavity of an utter stranger between the fourth and fifth ribs.'
-Kenneth Slessor, official Australian war correspondent in the crossed-out and unused final paragraph of the handwritten draft of his speech on 'The Work of an Official War Correspondent', 1941
Contents
- The Settlement at Port Jackson, extract diary (p. 3-17)
- Encounter with the Natives in the Pinjarra District On the Banks of the Murray, extract column (p. 21-26)
- War Along the Waikato, extract column (p. 31-37)
-
Those Sudan Days,
single work
autobiography
(p. 41-45)
Note: Editor's note: Tom Gunning was one of 758 men who joined the New South Wales Sudan Contingent for the Sudan War to fight alongside the British in the closing stages of the Mahdi War 1885. Gunning also donated a memorial plaque to the 'Sudan Contingent' in East Circular Quay, Sydney.
- Suakin, extract column (p. 46-54)
- The Adventures of a Naval Chief Gunner, extract autobiography (p. 59-71)
- Pretoria, extract autobiography (p. 75-83)
- Diaries, 11 April - 5 May (1915), extract diary (p. 87-97)
- War Letters, extract correspondence (p. 98-103)
- From : A Fortunate Life, extract autobiography (p. 104-109)
- Mud & Trench Mythology, extract autobiography (p. 110-119)
- The Desert Column, extract autobiography (p. 120-131)
- Letters and Diary, extract autobiography (p. 132-139)
- Pill-Boxes and Carnage, extract autobiography war literature (p. 140-153)
- Black Sky at Noon, extract autobiography (p. 154-166)
- Saving the Channel Ports, extract autobiography (p. 167-179)
- Nearing the End - Home Again, extract autobiography war literature (p. 180-191)
- Flaws in the Glass, extract autobiography (p. 195-209)
- Wouldn't It, extract autobiography (p. 210-222)
- Mediterranean Front, extract prose war literature (p. 223-241)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Bellicose Oz
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , February no. 338 2012; (p. 40)
— Review of The Penguin Book of Australian War Writing 2011 anthology extract autobiography correspondence diary -
Let Slip the Logs of War
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 14-15 January 2012; (p. 40)
— Review of The Penguin Book of Australian War Writing 2011 anthology extract autobiography correspondence diary -
Non-Fiction
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 7 January 2012; (p. 27)
— Review of The Penguin Book of Australian War Writing 2011 anthology extract autobiography correspondence diary -
Fine Tradition of Reportage
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 24 December 2011; (p. 18)
— Review of The Penguin Book of Australian War Writing 2011 anthology extract autobiography correspondence diary -
After the Bullets Come the Words
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 26 - 27 November 2011; (p. 20)
— Review of The Penguin Book of Australian War Writing 2011 anthology extract autobiography correspondence diary
-
After the Bullets Come the Words
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 26 - 27 November 2011; (p. 20)
— Review of The Penguin Book of Australian War Writing 2011 anthology extract autobiography correspondence diary -
Fine Tradition of Reportage
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 24 December 2011; (p. 18)
— Review of The Penguin Book of Australian War Writing 2011 anthology extract autobiography correspondence diary -
Non-Fiction
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 7 January 2012; (p. 27)
— Review of The Penguin Book of Australian War Writing 2011 anthology extract autobiography correspondence diary -
Let Slip the Logs of War
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 14-15 January 2012; (p. 40)
— Review of The Penguin Book of Australian War Writing 2011 anthology extract autobiography correspondence diary -
Bellicose Oz
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , February no. 338 2012; (p. 40)
— Review of The Penguin Book of Australian War Writing 2011 anthology extract autobiography correspondence diary