AustLit logo
person or book cover
Image courtesy of Penguin Books Australia
y separately published work icon The Penguin Book of Australian War Writing anthology   extract   autobiography   correspondence   diary   war literature  
Issue Details: First known date: 2011... 2011 The Penguin Book of Australian War Writing
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

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

* Contents derived from the Camberwell, Camberwell - Kew area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,:Viking , 2011 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
The Settlement at Port Jackson, Watkin Tench , 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, Robert Laver , extract column (p. 31-37)
Those Sudan Days, Tom Gunning , 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, W.J. Lambie , extract column (p. 46-54)
The Adventures of a Naval Chief Gunner, W. H. Blake , extract autobiography (p. 59-71)
Pretoria, A. B. Paterson , extract autobiography (p. 75-83)
Diaries, 11 April - 5 May (1915), C. E. W. Bean , extract diary (p. 87-97)
War Letters, John Monash , extract correspondence (p. 98-103)
From : A Fortunate Life, A. B. Facey , extract autobiography (p. 104-109)
Mud & Trench Mythology, W. H. Downing , extract autobiography (p. 110-119)
The Desert Column, Ion L. Idriess , extract autobiography (p. 120-131)
Letters and Diary, Adrian Consett Stephen , extract autobiography (p. 132-139)
Pill-Boxes and Carnage, Joseph Maxwell , extract autobiography war literature (p. 140-153)
Black Sky at Noon, Martin Boyd , extract autobiography (p. 154-166)
Saving the Channel Ports, W.D. Joynt , extract autobiography (p. 167-179)
Nearing the End - Home Again, Edgar Morrow , extract autobiography war literature (p. 180-191)
Flaws in the Glass, Patrick White , extract autobiography (p. 195-209)
Wouldn't It, Chester Wilmot , extract autobiography (p. 210-222)
Mediterranean Front, Alan Moorehead , extract prose war literature (p. 223-241)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Camberwell, Camberwell - Kew area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Viking , 2011 .
      person or book cover
      Image courtesy of Penguin Books Australia
      Extent: xxiii, 448p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Includes bibliographical references.
      • Publication date: 31 October 2010.
      ISBN: 9781742534190 (ebk.), 9780670075522 (hbk.)

Works about this Work

Bellicose Oz David Day , 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 Michael Sexton , 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 Steven Carroll , 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 Michael McKernan , 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 Peter Pierce , 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 Peter Pierce , 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 Michael McKernan , 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 Steven Carroll , 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 Michael Sexton , 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 David Day , 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
Last amended 24 Oct 2013 15:06:38
X