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Issue Details: First known date: 1930... 1930 Haxby's Circus : The Lightest, Brightest Little Show on Earth
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

A world of wandering mushroom tents, spawning on bare paddocks beside some small town and then off again ... places that smelt of milk and wheat, where the farmer people gave you milk and apples, or melons; you got fresh water to drink and a bath sometimes. A dirty, strenuous world. Cruel, courageous, a hard, hungry world for all the glitter and flare of its laughter; but a good world, her world.' Welcome to Haxby's Circus - the lightest, brightest little show on earth. From Bendigo to Narrabri, travelling the long and dusty roads between harvest fields, the Haxby family and their troupe - acrobats, contortionists, wirewalkers, clowns and wild beasts - perform under the glaring lights of the big top. But away from the spotlight and superficial glamour of the circus the real, and sometimes tragic, lives of the performers are exposed: their hopes and dreams, successes and failures, the drudgery of life on the road. Proprietor Dan Haxby lives by the maxim 'the show must go on', even when his daughter Gina, the bareback rider, has a dreadful accident. Gina may never ride again, but, with some advice from circus dwarf Rocca, who shows her how to transform her liability into art, she flourishes and discovers a courageous spirit within. 'Katharine Susannah Prichard takes the raw material of our lives and transmutes it into the gold of literature' - Mary Durack

(Source: Harper Collins)

Adaptations

Haxby's Circus Carolyn Burns , 1995 single work drama

Notes

  • This novel was finished before the end of 1929 and was entered, with the title 'Fay's Circus' in the one thousand pound Prize Novel Competition organised by British publisher Jonathan Cape. The novel was 'a very close runner-up' in the competition. An account of the publication of the novel in America by W.W. Norton, and the proposal to re-instate some chapters dropped from the English edition, can be found in Ric Throsssell's Wild Weeds and Windflowers , pp.58-61 and in Carol Hetherington's 'Authors, Editors, Publishers: Katharine Susannah Prichard and W. W. Norton.'
  • Dedication: To my good friends at Wirth's Circus in memory of our time together and their 'assistant lion tamer'.
  • An unpublished screenplay of Haxby's Circus by Cliff Green, dated 1982, is held in the Throssell papers, National Library of Australia (NLA MS 8071).

Affiliation Notes

  • Writing Disability in Australia:

    Type of disability Dwarfism, spinal cord injuries.
    Type of character Primary and secondary.
    Point of view Third person.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Alternative title: Fay's Circus
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      W. W. Norton ,
      1931 .
      Extent: 314p.

Other Formats

  • Also sound recording.

Works about this Work

Losing Sight of Billy : Moving Beyond the Specular in Haxby’s Circus Jessica White , 2022 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 37 no. 1 2022;
Transpacific or Transatlantic Traffic? Australian Books and American Publishers David Carter , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Reading Across the Pacific : Australia-United States Intellectual Histories 2010; (p. 339-359)
'This paper will attempt to describe the determining factors and structural patterns of relations between Australian books and American publishers from the 19th century to the present. Its central question will be: how did 'Australian books' find their way to American publishers? Can we discern any distinctive patterns over time or for particular genres, or simply an accumulation of one-off cases? To what extent, if at all, did the traffic in Australian books depend on cultural symmetries? Did Australian books travel as Australian or British books? In what ways were they dependent upon relations between Australian (or British) publishers or literary agents and their American counterparts? What role did international copyright regimes or trade agreements play? And how might the American connection change our understanding of 'Australian literature'?' (Author's abstract)
Authors, Editors, Publishers : Katharine Susannah Prichard and W. W. Norton Carol Hetherington , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , October vol. 22 no. 4 2006; (p. 417-431)

P.R. Stephensen observed that: 'Americans are interested in us' and instances of this interest on the part of writers, readers and publishers abound, stretching as far back as the nineteenth century, but little attention has been paid to it and a London-centric view of Australian literary production has prevailed. Laurie Hergenhan, in 1995, referred to 'an area that has been little studied - American editions of Australian works' which he noted 'were more extensive than has been realised.'

A particular example of Stephensen's 'real kinship' is to be found in W.W. Norton's relationship with Australian authors - Henry Handel Richardson, the Palmers, and Katharine Susannah Prichard. Norton visited Australia and later established personal relationships with the Palmers and, through them, with Prichard. His edition of Haxby's Circus restored the novel's original title Fay's Circus and re-instated some of the material reluctantly cut by Prichard from the 1930 English edition. This paper explores the relationship between Norton and Prichard and dicusses the American edition of one of Prichard's most highly regarded novels.

Interrupting Maternal Citizenship : Birth Control and Mid-Wave Women's Writing Nicole Moore , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Feminist Studies , July vol. 17 no. 38 2002; (p. 151-164)
Dramatist Picks Up Prichard's Fallen Star Joyce Morgan , 1995 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 1 December 1995; (p. 10)

— Review of Haxby's Circus Carolyn Burns , 1995 single work drama
Untitled 1930 single work review
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 26 June 1930;

— Review of Haxby's Circus : The Lightest, Brightest Little Show on Earth Katharine Susannah Prichard , 1930 single work novel
A Novel of Australian Circus Life Nettie Palmer , 1930 single work review
— Appears in: Illustrated Tasmanian Mail , 20 August 1930; (p. 4-5)

— Review of Haxby's Circus : The Lightest, Brightest Little Show on Earth Katharine Susannah Prichard , 1930 single work novel
Novels of Human Nature Frank Swinnerton , 1930 single work review
— Appears in: Harper's Bazaar , August 1930; (p. 70, 78,80)

— Review of Haxby's Circus : The Lightest, Brightest Little Show on Earth Katharine Susannah Prichard , 1930 single work novel
A Reader's Notebook Nettie Palmer , 1930 single work review
— Appears in: All About Books , 18 August vol. 2 no. 8 1930; (p. 204-205)

— Review of Haxby's Circus : The Lightest, Brightest Little Show on Earth Katharine Susannah Prichard , 1930 single work novel ; Book List Australia : A Selection of Books Concerning Australia Kathleen Ussher , 1930 single work bibliography
Australian Books of 1930 Nettie Palmer , 1930 single work review
— Appears in: All About Books , 5 December vol. 2 no. 12 1930; (p. 307-310)

— Review of The Gully and Other Verses Furnley Maurice , 1929 selected work poetry ; The Wild Swan : Poems Mary Gilmore , 1930 selected work poetry ; Queensland Poets Henry Arthur Kellow , 1930 single work criticism ; The Fortunes of Richard Mahony : Comprising Australia Felix, The Way Home, Ultima Thule Henry Handel Richardson , 1930 selected work novel ; Ten Creeks Run : A Tale of the Horse and Cattle Stations of the Murrumbidgee Brent of Bin Bin , 1930 single work novel ; Men Are Human Vance Palmer , 1930 single work novel ; Haxby's Circus : The Lightest, Brightest Little Show on Earth Katharine Susannah Prichard , 1930 single work novel ; Redheap Norman Lindsay , 1930 single work novel ; The Difficult Art Georgia Rivers , 1930 single work novel ; Negrohead Roy Bridges , 1929 single work novel ; Earth Battle Dorothy Cottrell , 1930 single work novel ; Huon Belle : A Novel Isabel Dick , 1930 single work novel ; Only the Morning John Dalley , 1930 single work novel ; An Outline of Australian Literature H. M. Green , 1930 single work criticism ; Souvenirs d'une Parisienne aux Antipodes Marie Rousselet Niau , 1930 single work autobiography ; Knocking Round J. Le Gay Brereton , 1930 selected work criticism biography autobiography prose essay short story ; The Kitchen Table : A Play in One Act Vida Lenox , 1930 single work drama
A Bookseller Talks Shop 1930 single work prose humour
— Appears in: All About Books , 15 September vol. 2 no. 9 1930; (p. 232)
What the World is Reading 1930 single work column
— Appears in: All About Books , 15 September vol. 2 no. 9 1930; (p. 244)
This column accompanies, and attempts to interpret the data from, the best seller lists from England and the United States of America and the list compiled by a committee nominated by the Associated Booksellers of Australia and New Zealand.
A Summary of the Best New Books 1930 single work column
— Appears in: All About Books , 5 December vol. 2 no. 12 1930; (p. 325-329)
This column is written 'as a bookseller selecting books for different types of readers rather than as a literary critic'. It is divided into the sections: 'Novels of Literary Merit', 'Popular Good Stories' and 'General Literature'. Its emphasis is not Australian literature.
Australian Literature Society [Women's Night Meeting Report] 1931 single work column
— Appears in: All About Books , 13 July vol. 3 no. 7 1931; (p. 159)
Authors, Editors, Publishers : Katharine Susannah Prichard and W. W. Norton Carol Hetherington , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , October vol. 22 no. 4 2006; (p. 417-431)

P.R. Stephensen observed that: 'Americans are interested in us' and instances of this interest on the part of writers, readers and publishers abound, stretching as far back as the nineteenth century, but little attention has been paid to it and a London-centric view of Australian literary production has prevailed. Laurie Hergenhan, in 1995, referred to 'an area that has been little studied - American editions of Australian works' which he noted 'were more extensive than has been realised.'

A particular example of Stephensen's 'real kinship' is to be found in W.W. Norton's relationship with Australian authors - Henry Handel Richardson, the Palmers, and Katharine Susannah Prichard. Norton visited Australia and later established personal relationships with the Palmers and, through them, with Prichard. His edition of Haxby's Circus restored the novel's original title Fay's Circus and re-instated some of the material reluctantly cut by Prichard from the 1930 English edition. This paper explores the relationship between Norton and Prichard and dicusses the American edition of one of Prichard's most highly regarded novels.

Last amended 16 Mar 2018 13:02:42
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