AustLit

'Publishing in Australia from the late nineteenth century and through much of the twentieth century was relatively haphazard, but nevertheless entrepreneurial. Arguably, publishers in the trade sector achieved their successes less through planning than through luck. This was not the case with educational publishing, where publishers had to work closely with educators and curriculum authorities in order to produce textbooks that met market needs. Peter Donoughue, former managing director of John Wiley in Australia, has observed that "educational publishing is usually thought of as the unglamorous side of the industry."1 It is also an aspect of the publishing sector that has remained largely invisible to public eyes'. (Author's introduction)