In a terrific article in The Age entitled ‘Classics Going to Waste’, Michael Heyward from Text Publishing argues that something should be done about the way Australian Classic literature is neglected:
‘We put our books and writers on the high shelf of the past, where we forget about them. Imagine if our art galleries decided to banish the works of Brett Whiteley or Fred Williams to their darkened basements. Not for a year or two, but a decade or two. That’s what we routinely do to so many significant writers whose books are out of print’.
It’s wonderful news to read that many of our brilliant books of the past are going to be reissued by Text in their Text Classics series.
A wonderful idea – especially in a country where books are usually double the price…
By: Tony on January 23, 2012
at 11:56 am
Thanks for the heads up on this series!!! Can’t wait to see the full list of what they’re releasing.
By: Shanna on January 23, 2012
at 6:55 pm
Here’s the full list, Shanna: http://tiny.cc/bbv5z
By: Lisa Hill on January 25, 2012
at 12:14 am
I can’t tell you how often I have been amazed and shocked to discover wonderful, exceptional, often prize-winning books out of stock so “Cheers” to Text for their endeavours and hats off to you Lisa for the wonderful work you do as an Ambassador for Australian Literature.
By: karenlee thompson on January 23, 2012
at 7:15 pm
I was shocked when I couldn’t find herbert pooor fellow my country which is a book I want to read and considered a australian classic hope they publish some more classic need to be in print ,all the best stu
By: winstonsdad on January 24, 2012
at 8:06 am
Well, I’d hang out for that one as an eBook, Stu, it’s nearly 100o pages long and the postage would be a lot on a whopper like that!
By: Lisa Hill on January 25, 2012
at 12:12 am