AustLit

'There can be no doubt about the centrality of C.E.W. Bean to Australia’s commemoration and understanding of the First World War experience. Bean, the official war correspondent, sent back numerous despatches from Gallipoli and France, often from very close to the front lines. He edited The Anzac Book published in 1916, was a driving force behind the creation of the Australian War Records Section and the Australian War Memorial, and oversaw and wrote much of the twelve-volume official history. Whether he “effectively created” the Anzac legend — as Peter Stanley suggests — is perhaps contestable, but he did give it much of its literary and monumental shape. ' (Introduction)

'Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean, generally known as CEW Bean, trained as a lawyer and practised as a journalist prior to the First World War. Appointed Official Correspondent in 1914, he subsequently became editor of the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, writing the key volumes about Anzac and the Western Front himself. Bean was the founding father of the Australian War Memorial, and if that was not enough, also played a role in establishing the National Archives. Largely unread now—he may never have been read much—Bean is widely regarded as the creator, or the most significant founder, of the Anzac legend.' (Introduction)