AustLit

'Looking back over the 25 years of the Society since the early 1990s one sees a set of solid achievements, important changes of external circumstances, and a consequent need to change or at least refocus the Society's energies. Let me start in a slightly statistical way by summarising the tangible achievements of the Society since 1993. At our anniversary meeting we can celebrate: 24 volumes of Script and Print and its predecessor, the Bulletin; six Occasional Publications; three Essay Prizes awarded; 26 successful conferences staged; a dozen conference travel bursaries distributed; three speakers sponsored at the Melbourne Rare Book Week; a functioning webpage that draws around 700 hits per month; Facebook and Twitter presences; and governmentally speaking, ten bloodless changes of Executive; one act of incorporation; and zero fiscal scandals, bankruptcies or defalcations.' (Publication abstract)

This essay examines Rosa Praed's communication 'through letters, agreements, publisher's ledgers, and memoirs of her dealings with one of her early publishers, George Bentley of Richard Bentley & Son. These dealings were essentially professional and financial, but they were also educative and personal. George Bentley was one of several male mentors during Praed's first decade of publishing, but the only one who was both mentor and publisher....' (108)