AustLit

Arthur and Emily: Letters in Wartime is an edited version of Chrystal Stirling's Soldiers Two. James Wieland (393) reports: 'In 1973, the Monash University Library acquired from the Australian bookseller, Burge Lopez, a manuscript itemised as an anonymous unpublished typescript novel' (9).' The editors of Arthur and Emily used the original manuscript, believing it to be a record of an actual exchange of correspondence. Their extensive search for a soldier by the name of Arthur Dunbar found no trace of such a person with a service record matching the Dunbar of the correspondence. The editors were unaware that it was fiction and had been published as such in 1918.

While Two Soldiers concludes just after Arthur Dunbar's death at Bullecourt in May 1917, the 1984 publication ceases in January 1916 while Dunbar is still training in Egypt before seeing action in France. James Wieland explains that the 1984 publication is 'an early draft of the first third of a novel--in-letters, Soldiers Two ...'. ('Arthur and Emily: A Note on a World War I Novel', Australian Literary Studies 14.3 (May 1990): 393-397).