AustLit

‘The Australian version of the Western novel is the subject matter of Toni Johnson-Woods’ chapter. Western as a genre was present in Australia since colonial times – a ‘romance of property’ (Dixon 22). She takes up Len Meares, the man behind Marshall Grover as her case study. Perhaps the most intriguing part of her chapter is the study of book covers, as she argues that ‘books are more than printed codex; they are cultural products with covers, advertising, pricing and distribution.’ For Johnson-Woods, “the covers are semiotically charged marketing tools; the artwork, design and titles emit generic and cultural messages.” Australian Western authors, some of the most prolific authors, have been writing not only for an Australian readership but also for an international one. In conclusion Johnson-Woods laments that “I doubt if you’ll shake their hands or sign their books at writers’ festivals. It is not that they are not likeable people. They are tainted with a fatal literary disease, they’re carriers of the popular fiction virus. And even more condemning, they do not even write ‘respectable’ popular fiction like detective fiction – they write politically incorrect masculinist westerns. Regardless of how literary critics assess their contribution to Australian fiction, they provide hours of entertainment for their many readers.”’ (Editor’s foreword xiii)