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Issue Details: First known date: 2012... 2012 The Burning Library : Our Great Novelists Lost and Found
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The Burning Library explores the lives and work of Australian novelists, many of whom have unjustly disappeared from the public imagination. Alarmed by the increasingly marginal status of Australian literature in the academy, Geordie Williamson has set out to reintroduce us to those key writers whose works we may have forgotten or missed altogether. His focus is on fiction that gives pleasure, and he is ardent in defence of books that for whatever reason sit uneasily in the present moment.

'Among the writers Williamson discusses are Dymphna Cusack, Elizabeth Harrower, David Ireland, Olga Masters and Gerald Murnane. The Burning Library is a dynamic act of reclamation inspired by Miles Franklin's claim that a nation that fails to acknowledge its literary treasures is "neither preserved nor developed, but only defaced".' (From the publisher's website.)

Notes

  • Author's note: This book is inspired by anger and hope. The anger comes from watching as Australian literature is dismantled by the people charged with preserving the best of our writing for future generations. And the hope? It grows out of a sense that neither academics nor publishers will rescue our collective literary achievement - it falls to ordinary readers to do what they cannot.
  • Dedication: For Frances
  • Epigraph: 'As a teacher he is involved in a task which would appear impossible by the standards of the scientific laboratory: to teach what, strictly speaking, cannot be taught, but only 'caught', like a passion, a vice or virtue. This 'impossibility' is the inspiration of his work.' -Erich Heller

    'I shouldn't worry about 'international standards'. Every country can produce its own great literature and needs no comparisons.' -Christina Stead, Letter to Ron Geering

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Text Publishing , 2012 .
      person or book cover
      Image courtesy of Text Publishing.
      Extent: 304p.
      Note/s:
      • Publication date: 24 October 2012.
      ISBN: 9781921922985 (pbk.), 9781921961236 (ebk.)

Other Formats

  • Also large print.

Works about this Work

The Voice and the Canon Geordie Williamson , 2022 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 18 June 2022; (p. 17)

'Literature by Indigenous Australians - the voice from the heart - is the true core of the Australian canon, writes Geordie Williamson The ur-text of the Australian canon appeared just over two centuries ago, in 1819, when First Fruits of Australian Poetry by Barron Field, a Supreme Court judge of New South Wales with literary pretensions, was published in Sydney.' (Introduction)

Book Review : The Burning Library : Our Great Novelists Lost and Found Patrick Condliffe , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: Queensland Review , December vol. 20 no. 2 2013; (p. 236-237)

— Review of The Burning Library : Our Great Novelists Lost and Found Geordie Williamson , 2012 selected work criticism
Anger and Hope Bernadette Brennan , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , February no. 348 2013; (p. 14-15)

— Review of The Burning Library : Our Great Novelists Lost and Found Geordie Williamson , 2012 selected work criticism
Local Writers Fire Passions Felicity Plunkett , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 23 February 2013; (p. 20)

— Review of The Burning Library : Our Great Novelists Lost and Found Geordie Williamson , 2012 selected work criticism
Auto Da Fe Nicholas Jose , 2013- single work review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , January 2013;

— Review of The Burning Library : Our Great Novelists Lost and Found Geordie Williamson , 2012 selected work criticism
Passions Provoked by the Book Peter Pierce , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 27 - 28 October 2012; (p. 22-23)

— Review of The Burning Library : Our Great Novelists Lost and Found Geordie Williamson , 2012 selected work criticism ; By the Book : A Reader's Guide to Life Ramona Koval , 2012 single work prose
Critical Juncture Kerryn Goldsworthy , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 17 November 2012; (p. 26-27) The Sydney Morning Herald , 17-18 November 2012; (p. 30-31)

— Review of The Burning Library : Our Great Novelists Lost and Found Geordie Williamson , 2012 selected work criticism
Auto Da Fe Nicholas Jose , 2013- single work review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , January 2013;

— Review of The Burning Library : Our Great Novelists Lost and Found Geordie Williamson , 2012 selected work criticism
Local Writers Fire Passions Felicity Plunkett , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 23 February 2013; (p. 20)

— Review of The Burning Library : Our Great Novelists Lost and Found Geordie Williamson , 2012 selected work criticism
Anger and Hope Bernadette Brennan , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , February no. 348 2013; (p. 14-15)

— Review of The Burning Library : Our Great Novelists Lost and Found Geordie Williamson , 2012 selected work criticism
Celebrating Great but Outmoded Writers Who Faded From View Geordie Williamson , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 19 October 2012; (p. 5)
Museum Mentality Who Killed Australian Literature? Geordie Williamson , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20-21 October 2012; (p. 8-9)
What I’m Reading James Tierney , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2013;
The Voice and the Canon Geordie Williamson , 2022 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 18 June 2022; (p. 17)

'Literature by Indigenous Australians - the voice from the heart - is the true core of the Australian canon, writes Geordie Williamson The ur-text of the Australian canon appeared just over two centuries ago, in 1819, when First Fruits of Australian Poetry by Barron Field, a Supreme Court judge of New South Wales with literary pretensions, was published in Sydney.' (Introduction)

Last amended 16 Jul 2013 15:34:23
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