Peter Pierce

What a lovely reference work. Over 900 Australian locations are listed, with relevant entries and excerpts from Australia's literary past. I'm constantly impressed by the variety of literary reference works which were published in Australia, but they heyday seems to have been the 1980s (unsurprisingly, as it was Australia's bicentenary and thus a time for national pride and/or reflection).

For example, Port Macquarie in New South Wales is listed with a reference to the maps in the appendix, dates of discovery and settlement, notable authors who lived there (including the convinct James Tucker and the short story writer Louis Becke), were born there, excerpts of two descriptions, one from non-fiction (1845) and one from fiction (1899), and a note on a local history book which is available.

The entry for my current home, St Kilda, mentions everyone from Martin Boyd to Marcus Clark, Fergus Hume and Christopher Koch to notable booksellers, obscure novelists, and a shout-out in Joan Lindsay's autobiography!

An index of authors is specific to location, advising where one was born, notable places one lived, and - if known - where particular works were written.

This is a fairly specific work, but it's right up my alley.… (mehr)