AustLit

'The blurb to Gerald Murnane’s A History of Books (2012) states that the main body of work: “is accompanied by three shorter works, ‘As It Were a Letter’, ‘The Boy’s Name Was David’ and ‘Last Letter to a Niece’, in which a writer searches for an ideal world, an ideal sentence, and an ideal reader”.¹ Presuming that the three texts correspond in order to the three aims, “Last Letter to a Niece” presents an important insight into who Murnane writes for and, perhaps, some indications as to why he writes at all. In this essay, I posit that Murnane’s quest for an ideal reader is no less than a quest for his own ideal existence. To validate these claims, I will draw on Murnane’s 2017 address at the Goroke Golf Club, “The Still-Breathing Author”, as well as conduct a reading of “Last Letter to a Niece”, and sections of his wider oeuvre.' (Introduction)