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y separately published work icon Biography of a Book : Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils single work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 2013... 2013 Biography of a Book : Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Biography of a Book traces the life of an iconic Australian literary work in the lead-up to, and for a century after, its initial publication: Henry Lawson's 1896 collection While the Billy Boils. Paul Eggert follows Lawson's gradual development of a pared-back bush realism in the early 1890s, as he struggled to forge a career, writing short stories and sketches for the newspapers.

'Lawson's famous collection came out at a decisive moment for the development of a fully professional Australian literary publishing industry, then in its infancy in Sydney. The volume's editing, design and production were collaborative events that changed the feel and nature of Lawson's writing. He had to give ground on his texts and their sequencing.

'The collection went on to be reprinted and repackaged countless times. Its production and reception histories act like a geological cross-section, revealing the contours of successive cultural formations in Australia. In unravelling the life of Lawson's classic work Eggert's book-historical approach challenges and clarifies established understandings of crucial moments in Australian literary history and of Lawson himself.' (From the publisher's website.)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • University of Sydney, Camperdown, Marrickville - Camperdown area, Sydney Southern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: University Park, Pennsylvania,
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,      :       Sydney University Press ; Pennsylvania State University Press ,       2013 .
      Extent: xxx, 385p., [12]p. of platesp.
      Description: illus., facsims
      Note/s:
      • Preface by Paul Eggert. Preface dated: May 2012.
      • Includes a chronology (pp.xvi-xxx) of 'events in the life of Henry Lawson (HL) and in the production and reception of the stories and sketches collected for While the Billy Boils (1896), its impressions and later editions'.
      • Includes appendices, index and bibliography.
      ISBN: 9781743320129 (pbk.), 9781743320143 (hbk.)
      Series: y separately published work icon Penn State Studies in the History of the Book Pennsylvania State University Press (publisher), James L. W., III West (editor), University Park : Pennsylvania State University Press , 2012- Z1939160 2012 series - publisher criticism 'This series publishes books that employ a mixture of approaches: historical, archival, biographical, critical, sociological, and economic. Topics include professional authorship and the literary marketplace, the history of reading and book distribution, book-trade studies and publishing-house histories, and examinations of copyright and literary property.' (From the publisher's website.)
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Works about this Work

The Long 1890s : Henry Lawson, Francis Adams and the Anglo-Australian Network in London. Paul Eggert , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Script & Print , July vol. 40 no. 3 2016; (p. 133-143) 'The article presents an essay discussing the link between history and literature. The author highlights the influence of Ango-Australian ideologies to the formation of the culture and literature in Australia, and discusses the life of notable writers in the country including Francis Adams, and Henry Lawson including some of their noteworthy literary pieces.' (Publication abstract)
Biography of a Book : Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils; While the Billy Boils : The Original Newspaper Versions David Finkelstein , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: English Studies , vol. 96 no. 6 2015; (p. 727-729)
— Review of Biography of a Book : Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils Paul Eggert , 2013 single work criticism ; While the Billy Boils : The Original Newspaper Versions Henry Lawson , 2013 selected work short story
Untitled Annalisa Pes , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: Journal of the European Association for Studies of Australia , vol. 5 no. 1 2014;
— Review of Biography of a Book : Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils Paul Eggert , 2013 single work criticism ; While the Billy Boils : The Original Newspaper Versions Henry Lawson , 2013 selected work short story

This new scholarly edition by Professor Paul Eggert of Henry Lawson’s most famous collection of short stories While the Billy Boils, originally published by Angus and Robertson in 1896, is supplemented by a monographic companion study, Biography of a Book, in which Eggert investigates the phases of production, distribution and reception of the book and meticulously traces the editorial and critical fortunes of the stories and sketches included in the collection, from their earliest single appearance in local colonial newspapers and magazines since the late 1880s, to the several 20th-century editions and selections, until the latest commercial printings in the first decade of the present century. [From the journal's webpage]
'A Nation for a Continent' : Australian Literature and the Cartographic Imaginary of the Federation Era Robert Dixon , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 28 no. 1 2014; (p. 141-154, 254) 'During the Federation era, the isomorphic association of literature, land, and nation found expression through the cartographic imaginary, a term that is meant to focus especially on the role of maps in shaping imagined geographies, but which also includes related media such as topographical engravings and photographic views. Contrary to Paul Giles's implication of an achieved "national period" in American literary history, however, Dixon argues that in Australia during the Federation era, the cartographic imaginary expressed an alignment of literature, land, and nation that was more wished for than achieved. He claims that the literature of the Federation period-in particular, the sketches and stories of Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils (1896) and Joseph Furphy's novel Such is Life (1903)–reveals the uncertainties and the sense of incompletion that attend the cartographic imaginary.' (Publication abstract)
Travelling in Lawson's Tracks : A Review-Essay John Barnes , 2014 single work review essay
— Appears in: Coolabah , no. 13 2014; (p. 244-254)
— Review of Biography of a Book : Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils Paul Eggert , 2013 single work criticism ; While the Billy Boils : The Original Newspaper Versions Henry Lawson , 2013 selected work short story
The Sublime and the Ridiculous Craig Munro , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 20-21 July 2013; (p. 28-29) The Age , 20 July 2013; (p. 22) The Canberra Times , 20 July 2013; (p. 22)
— Review of While the Billy Boils : The Original Newspaper Versions Henry Lawson , 2013 selected work short story ; Biography of a Book : Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils Paul Eggert , 2013 single work criticism
Henry the Dogged : An Indubitable Classic of Australian Literature Paul Brunton , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , September no. 354 2013; (p. 24-25)
— Review of Biography of a Book : Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils Paul Eggert , 2013 single work criticism ; While the Billy Boils : The Original Newspaper Versions Henry Lawson , 2013 selected work short story
Biography of a Book : Henry Lawson’s While the Billy Boils, by Paul Eggert Peter Pierce , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 13 no. 3 2013;
— Review of Biography of a Book : Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils Paul Eggert , 2013 single work criticism
Biography of a Book : Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils; While the Billy Boils : The Original Newspaper Versions David Finkelstein , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: English Studies , vol. 96 no. 6 2015; (p. 727-729)
— Review of Biography of a Book : Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils Paul Eggert , 2013 single work criticism ; While the Billy Boils : The Original Newspaper Versions Henry Lawson , 2013 selected work short story
Untitled Annalisa Pes , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: Journal of the European Association for Studies of Australia , vol. 5 no. 1 2014;
— Review of Biography of a Book : Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils Paul Eggert , 2013 single work criticism ; While the Billy Boils : The Original Newspaper Versions Henry Lawson , 2013 selected work short story

This new scholarly edition by Professor Paul Eggert of Henry Lawson’s most famous collection of short stories While the Billy Boils, originally published by Angus and Robertson in 1896, is supplemented by a monographic companion study, Biography of a Book, in which Eggert investigates the phases of production, distribution and reception of the book and meticulously traces the editorial and critical fortunes of the stories and sketches included in the collection, from their earliest single appearance in local colonial newspapers and magazines since the late 1880s, to the several 20th-century editions and selections, until the latest commercial printings in the first decade of the present century. [From the journal's webpage]
'A Nation for a Continent' : Australian Literature and the Cartographic Imaginary of the Federation Era Robert Dixon , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 28 no. 1 2014; (p. 141-154, 254) 'During the Federation era, the isomorphic association of literature, land, and nation found expression through the cartographic imaginary, a term that is meant to focus especially on the role of maps in shaping imagined geographies, but which also includes related media such as topographical engravings and photographic views. Contrary to Paul Giles's implication of an achieved "national period" in American literary history, however, Dixon argues that in Australia during the Federation era, the cartographic imaginary expressed an alignment of literature, land, and nation that was more wished for than achieved. He claims that the literature of the Federation period-in particular, the sketches and stories of Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils (1896) and Joseph Furphy's novel Such is Life (1903)–reveals the uncertainties and the sense of incompletion that attend the cartographic imaginary.' (Publication abstract)
The Long 1890s : Henry Lawson, Francis Adams and the Anglo-Australian Network in London. Paul Eggert , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Script & Print , July vol. 40 no. 3 2016; (p. 133-143) 'The article presents an essay discussing the link between history and literature. The author highlights the influence of Ango-Australian ideologies to the formation of the culture and literature in Australia, and discusses the life of notable writers in the country including Francis Adams, and Henry Lawson including some of their noteworthy literary pieces.' (Publication abstract)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (8)
Last amended 14 May 2013 16:16:35
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