AustLit logo

AustLit

image of person or book cover 6808878510579360366.jpg
This image has been sourced from online.
y separately published work icon Coonardoo : The Well in the Shadow single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1928... 1928 Coonardoo : The Well in the Shadow
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Set in North-West of Western Australia, it describes life on cattle stations and the relationship between the white owner of the station and Coonardoo, an Aboriginal woman.

Exhibitions

18005813
18005672

Reading Australia

Reading Australia

This work has Reading Australia teaching resources.

Unit Suitable For

AC: Year 12 (Literature Unit 3). Also suitable for Year 10 English and Year 11 Literature.

Themes

Aboriginality, Australian country life, love, prejudice, reconciliation, relationships

General Capabilities

Intercultural understanding, Literacy

Cross-curriculum Priorities

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Serialised by: The Bulletin 1880 periodical (6777 issues)
      1928 .
      Alternative title: Coonardoo
      Note/s:
      • Published in serialised format in the Bulletin in 15 weekly instalments, from 5 September 1928.
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Jonathan Cape ,
      1929 .
      image of person or book cover 278700933826235438.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 320p.
      Note/s:
      • Includes a glossary, pp.7-9, of 'Native Words'.
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      W. W. Norton ,
      1930 .
      Alternative title: Coonardoo
      Extent: v, 9-320 p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Includes a 'Glossary of Aboriginal and Australian Words', pp.310-320.
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Pacific Books , 1961 .
      Extent: vi, 207p.p.
      Reprinted: 1968 , 1971
      Series: Pacific Books Angus and Robertson (publisher), 1961 series - publisher The establishment of this paperback imprint of Angus Robertson was spearheaded by Beatrice Davis. It started with print runs of 20,000 in 1961 (Paper Empires: History of Book in Australia, 18).This paperback series, published by Angus and Robertson, contains both numbered and unnumbered volumes. Number in series: 5
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Angus and Robertson ,
      1973 .
      image of person or book cover 7238153054093601188.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Alternative title: Coonardoo
      Extent: vi, 207p.p.
      ISBN: 0207126615
    • Moscow,
      c
      Russia,
      c
      c
      Former Soviet Union,
      c
      Eastern Europe, Europe,
      :
      Progress Publishers ,
      1974 .
      Extent: 274p.
      Description: illus.
      Note/s:
      • Includes bibliography.
      • Preface in Russian by L. Kasatkina.
      • Glossary and commentary in Russian by L. Golobchinskaiya.
    • Pymble, Turramurra - Pymble - St Ives area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: HarperCollins Australia , 2002 .
      image of person or book cover 2304417091201232179.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Alternative title: Coonardoo
      Extent: xx, 250p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Introduced by Drusilla Modjeska. Also includes introduction to 1964 edition by Douglas Stewart.
      ISBN: 0207198470
    • South Sydney area, Sydney Southern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: HarperCollins Australia , 2013 .
      image of person or book cover 4438422667243738897.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 304p.
      Note/s:
      • First published 1929
      • Published: 1st March 2013
      ISBN: 9780732296933 (pbk.)

Other Formats

  • Braille.
  • Sound recording.

Works about this Work

‘As My Great Day Approaches’: Katharine Susannah Prichard in 1969 Nathan Hobby , 2019 single work biography
— Appears in: Westerly , vol. 64 no. 2 2019; (p. 129-137)
'In the archives, after a life in black and white, Katharine Susannah Prichard bursts into colour at the end of her life. The ten minute home video lingers reverentially over the white-haired woman. It captures her doing ordinary things at her home in Greenmount in the hills of Perth— writing at her desk, standing outside her writing cabin, posing in front of a blooming wattle bush in her garden, drinking tea on her verandah with friends. All through it she is talking, talking, talking, but her words are lost; there is no sound. Usually things are the other way around—all words and no visuals.' (Introduction)
Australien Russell McDougall , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: Verdenslitteraturer : Introduktion til litteraturen uden for Europa 2019; (p. 253-284)
"Australia Is Very American" : Australian Historical Fiction in America 1920s-1940s David Carter , Roger Osborne , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Books and Authors in the American Marketplace : 1840s-1940s 2018; (p. 231-270)

The previous chapter revealed how, in the early 1930s, Norton's publication of Henry Handel Richardson s Ultima Thule and the Fortunes of Richard Mahony trilogy brought Australia and its literature "deep into the consciousness of reading America' The impact of Richardson's novels was strengthened by the appearance of Katharine Susannah Prichard's Coonardoo in 1930 from the same publisher. Richardson's and Prichard's novels were in fact part of a longer sequence of ambitious Australian works published in the United States from the late 1920s to the mid 1940s. In contrast to the decline in the number of Australian novels published in America across the first three decades of the twentieth century, at the very end of the 1920s we begin to see a cluster of substantial novels appearing together - and being brought together by reviewers. Fiction publishing in general in the United States grew rapidly from a low point in 1919 to a peak in 1929; the number of titles dipped slightly through the Depression years but high levels continued until the early forties. Against this background, the pattern of publication and increased receptivity for Australian novels was sustained until the mid-forties, but with little continuity into the postwar years when many writers had, in effect, to begin again in establishing the viability of Australian work in the American marketplace. There is, then, a relatively discrete historical trajectory across the two decades from the late twenties, emerging from almost nothing and collapsing in the later forties as both cultural and industrial circumstances change.' (Introduction)

Becoming Articulate : Henry Handel Richardson and Katharine Susannah Prichard David Carter , Roger Osborne , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Books and Authors in the American Marketplace : 1840s-1940s 2018; (p. 195-230)

'From the late 1920s to the early 1940s, American reviewers were often compelled to remark on the increasing presence of Australian books and authors in the American marketplace. The publication in short succession of Henry Handel Richardson's The Fortunes of Richard Mahony trilogy (1929-30) and Katharine Susannah Prichard's Working Bullocks (1927) and Coonardoo (1930) appeared to announce Australia's literary coming of age: "Australia at last seems to have become articulate, when in so short a space of time it can produce such books as Henry Handel Richardson's Ultima Thule, Miss Prichard's own Working Bullocks and this fine story of white codes and primitive codes mixed and never fusing [Coonardoo]"; "Australia is taking her place as an important contributor to English letters ... It is no longer possible to ignore that country's claim to a definite attention") By comparison to the authors discussed in the previous chapter, Richardson and Prichard together could draw attention, not just to individual hooks by Australian authors, but to works of literature about Australia and hence to the idea of Australian literature itself. As one US reviewer put it, Ultima Thule had "brought the Australian country into the deep consciousness of reading America" and Coonardoo promised to do the same. Another concluded that "those who maintain that no literature comes out of Australia are beginning to revise their opinions as each new book is announced by Henry Handel Richardson, Katherine Susannah Pritchard [sic] and Dorothy Cottrel [sic]".' (Introduction)

Renegotiating the American Connection : Australian Fiction 1900-1930s David Carter , Roger Osborne , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Books and Authors in the American Marketplace : 1840s-1940s 2018; (p. 111-160)

'The first three decades of the twentieth century present no clear pattern for the publication of Australian novels in the United States outside the serial relationships with publishers that certain genre writers were able to achieve. Otherwise, in all but a few cases, we see one-off or occasional publishing, with few signs of sustained investment in individual authors and even less in Australian books per se. Towards the end of the period, however, the situation changes quite suddenly with the enormous critical and sales success of Henry Handel Richardson's Ultima Palk in 1929, followed the year after by Katharine Susannah Prichard's Coonardoo, and these two authors will be the subject of Chapter 6. The present chapter surveys the presence in the American marketplace of Australian writers working in the broad field of commercial fiction but outside the popular genres of crime, mystery and women's romance. It examines the obstacles and opportunities for Australian authors and stories in America in these decades after the passing of international copyright legislation in the United States and as the structures of the modem, twentieth-century US publishing industry were set in place.'  (Introduction)

The Romance of an Aboriginal C. C. (fl. 1927-31) , 1929 single work review
— Appears in: The Black Swan : The Magazine of the Guild of Undergraduates of the University of Western Australia The , vol. 13 no. 2 1929; (p. 20-22)

— Review of Coonardoo : The Well in the Shadow Katharine Susannah Prichard , 1928 single work novel
Gerald Gould Praises 'Coonardoo' Some Views, News and Reviews 1929 single work review
— Appears in: All About Books , 20 August vol. 1 no. 9 1929; (p. 282)

— Review of Coonardoo : The Well in the Shadow Katharine Susannah Prichard , 1928 single work novel
'Coonardoo' Nettie Palmer , 1929 single work review
— Appears in: All About Books , 20 September vol. 1 no. 10 1929; (p. 305-304)

— Review of Coonardoo : The Well in the Shadow Katharine Susannah Prichard , 1928 single work novel
Trailblazing Black-White Tale Mary Philip , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 4 - 5 November 2006; (p. 22)

— Review of Coonardoo : The Well in the Shadow Katharine Susannah Prichard , 1928 single work novel
[Review] Coonardoo : The Well in the Shadow Outbacker , 1929 single work review
— Appears in: The Capricornian , 19 September 1929; (p. 11)

— Review of Coonardoo : The Well in the Shadow Katharine Susannah Prichard , 1928 single work novel
Books that Changed My Life : Reading Coonardoo Enza Gandolfo , 2002 single work column
— Appears in: Overland , Summer no. 169 2002; (p. 127-129)
Politics and Xavier Herbert's Women Kevin Green , 1983 single work criticism
— Appears in: Kunapipi , vol. 5 no. 1 1983; (p. 51-62)
The Politics of Race and the Possibilities of Form in the Work of Katharine Susannah Prichard Delys Bird , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Frank Hardy and the Literature of Commitment 2003; (p. 185-197)
Katharine Susannah Prichard : Her Novel on the Aborigines Greatly Shocked Australians Vance Palmer , 1959 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Age , 14 March 1959; (p. 18)
y separately published work icon Katharine Susannah Prichard's Coonardoo : A Critical Study Rosaleen A. Limbers , Sydney : Little Hills Press , 1981 Z1196238 1981 single work criticism

Awards

1928 joint winner The Bulletin Novel Competition Submitted under the name Jim Ashburton.
Last amended 30 Apr 2020 08:25:41
X