AustLit

'In the 1870s in Melbourne, it so happened that on opposite sides of Collins Street, a fine street in 'one of the most successful cities on the face of the earth', there were two organisations: one, for writers, the other for readers. 1868 had seen the founding by a group of friends (including Marcus Clarke) of a 'bohemian' club for writers: the Yorick. About the same time, an already well-established organisation for readers, the Melbourne Mechanics' Institution, was re-born under a new name - the Melbourne Athenaeum. In 1873, as part of its new image as cultural hub and provider of books and papers for Melbourne's growing middleclass, the Athenaeum appointed a writer for the theatre, Garnet Walch, as its secretary. A 'bohemian' helping to run a bourgeois organisation invites interest. Did Walch's appointment signal a new direction for the Athenaeum, or was there in fact less difference between the two organisations, (and by extension, between the readers and writers of their day) than appears at first sight? Or did the street that ran between their clubs symbolise a divide between bohemia and the bourgeoisie?' (Introduction)