AustLit

'George Charles Ivan Smith (1915-1995) was, over his lifetime, a successful writer, broadcaster, war correspondent, movie producer, United Nations official, and academic. He was also a sensitive and determined man with a deep and abiding empathy with Richard Mahony and his creator, the Australian-born author, Henry Handel Richardson (pseudonym of Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson, 1870-1946). Anecdotes and facts about his involvement in Richardson's literary and personal life may be found in various documents, including Richardson's published correspondence with Mary Kernot, Smith's own BBC broadcasts, Olga Roncoroni's essay in 'Henry Handel Richardson: Some Personal Impressions', and Graeme Powell's article, "Building an Archive: The H. H. Richardson Papers in the National Library of Australia." These disconnected and largely sketchy references do little to tell the story of Smith's unwavering enthusiasm in promoting Richardson and her work in the final years of her life, nor do they explain his determination to preserve many of her manuscripts and other special collection items immediately following her death.' (Publication abstract)

'In 1997 the State Library of Victoria acquired the Victorian diaries of Joseph Jenkins, comprising part of each of 1869, 1870 and 1871-94. After Joseph Jenkins' death in 1898, in Wales, the diaries were stored in the attic of his daughter Elinor's farmhouse and, it seems, were forgotten until seventy years later when they were discovered by his great granddaughter, Frances Evans. His grandson, William Evans, thereafter published an 'Abridged and Annotated' version of the Australian diaries as Diary of a Welsh Swagman 1869-1894. This was an important publication It not only introduced Jenkins to a reading public, but in addition has become a well-regarded historical account of early Victoria.' (Author's introduction)