I got this idea (and the graphic) from Literary Potpourri but I’m adapting it for Australian and New Zealand books and authors. So although for millennia our Indigenous people have told stories here for entertainment, education and to preserve historical memory, that limits the concept of anniversaries to the period after the introduction of print in 1788, and for the purposes of this post to books that in 2022 turn 25, 50, 75, 100, 150 and 200.
FYI The earliest known Indigenous contribution to print that I know of is Bennelong’s letter to Mr Phillips, Lord Sydney’s Steward, in 1796. It is reproduced in the PEN Macquarie Anthology of Aboriginal Literature edited by Anita Heiss and Peter Minter.
However, this meme turned out to be harder than I thought. 1997 was easy, I found books in my own reading record because I’d read them, and just as well because the entry at Wikipedia is surprisingly scanty. 1972 was harder. I’d read hundreds of books by then, but not many by Australians. I had to supplement the list of what I’d read with books I hadn’t read, but at least I was familiar with the authors who were listed at WP and I had read their books that were published in other years. 1947 was the same, except that with the exception of Miles Franklin and Norman Lindsay, I hadn’t read anything by the authors that WP lists. I had read only two books published in 1922 and one of those authors was from New Zealand, and after that I was again in unfamiliar territory. As for 1822…
ANNIVERSARIES
25: PUBLISHED IN 1997
From my reading record (links are to my reviews):
Fiction
- Jack Maggs by Peter Carey
- Secrets, by Robert Dessaix, Amanda Lohrey and Drusilla Modjeska
- The Sound of One Hand Clapping by Richard Flanagan
- Shiver by Nikki Gemmell
- One for the Master by Dorothy Johnston
- The Custodians by Nicholas Jose
- The French Mathematician by Tom Petsinis
- The Essence of the Thing by Madeleine St John
Non fiction
- The Fiftieth Gate by Mark Raphael Baker
- A Biased Memoir by Ruth Cracknell
- Rooting Democracy by Moira Rayner
- Port Arthur, A Story of Courage & Strength by Margaret Scott
- Healthy Vegetarian Eating by Rosemary Stanton
- Snake Cradle by Roberta (Bobbi) Sykes
Plus three I haven’t read from the list at Wikipedia
- Rod Jones (author), Nightpictures (fiction)
- Barbara Blackman, Glass after Glass (NF)
- Lynne Hume, Witchcraft and Paganism in Australia (NF)
50: PUBLISHED IN 1972
Just three from my reading record (links to my reviews), all fiction:
- The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith by Thomas Keneally
- Stradbroke Dreamtime by Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker)
- The Acolyte by Thea Astley
-
- 1972, winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award
But Wikipedia lists these novels:
- David Ireland – The Flesheaters
- Sumner Locke Elliott – The Man Who Got Away
- Russell Braddon – End Play
- Jon Cleary – Man’s Estate
- Sumner Locke Elliott – The Man Who Got Away
- Catherine Gaskin – A Falcon for a Queen
- Peter Mathers – The Wort Papers
75: PUBLISHED IN 1947
From my own reading record, two novels and a play by Patrick White (which I’ve seen on stage too.)
- Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by joint writing team Marjorie Barnard and Florence Eldershaw
- Cyclone by Vance Palmer
- The Ham Funeral by Patrick White
- Jon Cleary – You Can’t See ‘Round Corners
- Erle Cox – The Missing Angel
- Miles Franklin – The Thorny Rose
- Arthur Gask – The Dark Mill Stream
- Catherine Gaskin – With Every Year
- Ion L. Idriess – Isles of Despair
- Norman Lindsay – Halfway to Anywhere
100: PUBLISHED IN 1922
From my own reading record:
- The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield (NZ)
- The Sentimental Bloke by C J Dennis
And from the list at Wikipedia
- Mary Grant Bruce — The Stone Axe of Burkamukk
- Hilda Bridges — The Squatter’s Daughter
- Mary Grant Bruce — The Stone Axe of Burkamukk
- Bernard Cronin — Bluff Stakes
- Jean Curlewis — Drowning Maze
- Dulcie Deamer — The Street of the Gazelle
- Edward Dyson — The Grey Goose Comedy Company
- Havelock Ellis — Kanga Creek: An Australian Idyll
- Mary Gilmore — The Hound of the Road
- Nat Gould
- A Dangerous Stable
- Racing Rivals
- Vance Palmer — The Boss of Killara
- Alec H. Chisholm — Mateship with Birds (NF)
- Mary Gaunt — Where the Twain Meet (NF)
150: PUBLISHED IN 1872
Now it gets difficult…these are from the list at Wikipedia.
- Louisa Atkinson — Tressa’s Resolve
- Harriet Miller Davidson — A Man of Genius
- B. L. Farjeon — Bread-and-Cheese and Kisses
- Maud Jeanne Franc — Jem’s Hopes and What They Grew To
200: PUBLISHED IN 1822
There isn’t even a page for this at Wikipedia. I’ve searched through the Macquarie PEN Anthologies of Australian Literature and of Aboriginal Literature and I can’t find anything published in this year. A complete blank…
So, to AUTHOR BIRTHDAYS
100: AUTHORS BORN IN 1922 CELEBRATING THEIR CENTENARIES
- 2 August — Geoffrey Dutton, poet and author. He died in 1998. (I have his Tamara on the TBR)
- 28 August — Jacob C. Rosenberg, poet and novelist He died in 2008. I have read East of Time and Sunrise West, pre blog but I’ve contributed brief reviews at Goodreads.
150: AUTHORS BORN IN 1872 CELEBRATING THEIR 150TH
I don’t know any of these authors except David Unaipon so the links go to Wikipedia.
- 27 January — Lala Fisher, poet, writer and editor (died 1929)
- 22 February — John Shaw Neilson, poet (died 1942)
- 6 March — Mabel Forrest, poet (died 1935)
- 6 June — Arthur H. Adams, poet (died 1936)
- 28 September — David Unaipon, author (died 1967)
- 8 October — Bertram Stevens, poet and editor (died 1922)
Over to you dear readers. Have you read any of these books, and can you suggest any others?
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
Jaysus. This must have been such hard work to put together, Lisa. Not sure about the Nicci French inclusion seeing as I was obsessed by this author for many years … it’s a pseudonym for British writers Nicci Gerard and Sean French … is there an Australian connection I don’t know about 🤔
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By: kimbofo on January 5, 2022
at 4:14 pm
Ah, I think you are right. I had listed them as Australian in my Excel file, and didn’t check it. I’ll remove them now, thanks!
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By: Lisa Hill on January 5, 2022
at 6:38 pm
John Shaw Neilson was a beautiful poet, and lived an extraordinarily hard life. I highly recommend John Shaw Neilson: A Life in Letters by Helen Hewson (Miegunyah Press, 2001). You’ll fall in love with him, I’m sure!
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By: Teresa Pitt on January 5, 2022
at 5:08 pm
Ah, I didn’t include poets, just limited myself to fiction and a bit of NF. But I’m sure you’re right!
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By: Lisa Hill on January 5, 2022
at 6:36 pm
So fascinating and astonishing
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By: carmelbird on January 5, 2022
at 6:05 pm
No promises, but I’d like to do this every year…
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By: Lisa Hill on January 5, 2022
at 6:40 pm
I’ve read Jack Maggs, but that’s about it except of course I’ve read many of the authors – just not these books. And I have heard of John Shaw Neilson and Mabel Forrest.
This is a big job Lisa! Well done.
BTW a little typo, I think. You say “that in 2021 turn 25, 50, 75, 100, 150 and 200” but I think you mean “in 2022”.
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By: Whispering Gums on January 5, 2022
at 7:49 pm
Thanks for picking that up… I make this mistake repeatedly at the start of every year!
I’m hoping Bill will come visiting with his encyclopaedic knowledge of old OzLit. I told him some time ago that I had a vague ambition to post a review of an Australian book for every year of the C20th, and he very kindly sent me a list but I lost it when I had my computer disaster.
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By: Lisa Hill on January 5, 2022
at 8:30 pm
I saw Lit Pot’s anniversary post & thought what a great idea…someone needs to do one for Australian authors. And here you are!!
One bday I spotted when I had a quick look myself the other day was Hesba Fay Brinsmead born on the 15th March 1922. She wrote YA fiction before it was a thing, in particular the wonderful Pastures of the blue crane – https://bronasbooks.com/2013/11/15/pastures-of-the-blue-crane-by-h-f-brinsmead/
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By: Brona's Books on January 5, 2022
at 9:44 pm
AH yes, I remember we had that one in the school library!
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By: Lisa Hill on January 5, 2022
at 11:30 pm
What an interesting post! I know I’ve read the Mansfield, and possibly some of the other authors too. But many which are new to me!
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By: kaggsysbookishramblings on January 6, 2022
at 2:12 am
It was interesting to me because it brought home that the British and European literary tradition is different to ours in a number of ways, but critically its age. English Lit goes back to Beowulf and Chaucer etc, but ours really only started in the C19th and even then we didn’t have our own publishing industry for a very long time and relied on imports of English Lit. So that is what shaped out reading tastes.
Scholars would know more about this than me, but even in the C20th Australian authors like Miles Franklin got their books published in the UK, until about mid century, I think.
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By: Lisa Hill on January 6, 2022
at 10:27 am
Hi Lisa, a remarkable list and good one.I have read a few, and have a few. Jennifer J by Ethel Turner is one you could add to 1922. Also, her sister, Lilian Turner wrote in the same year, Peggy the Pilot. From my book on Australian Literature by Cecil Hadgraft, the first novel printed in Australia was in Hobart, 1930, titled Quintus Servinton by Henry Savery.
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By: Meg on January 6, 2022
at 9:57 pm
Thanks, Meg, I looked up Jennifer J at Goodreads but there’s no description: is it a children’s book?
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By: Lisa Hill on January 6, 2022
at 10:22 pm
Hi Lisa, Jennifer J is a children’s book, dedicated to the girls of Sydney High School, 249 pages.
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By: Meg on January 7, 2022
at 6:31 am
Now I remember, Ethel Turner was one of the women featured in Brenda Niall’s Friends and Rivals. She was a friend of Barbara Baynton.
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By: Lisa Hill on January 7, 2022
at 8:39 am
Ethel Turner of course wrote Seven little Australians, and she had a bit of a rivalry at Sydney High School with Louise Mack.
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By: Whispering Gums on January 7, 2022
at 9:24 am
I must get round to reading Louise Mack’s book which lurks somewhere on my TBR…
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By: Lisa Hill on January 7, 2022
at 8:48 pm
Erewhon (on Literary Potpourri’s list) is an 1872 Victorian satire that comes out of colonial New Zealand (a Kiwi here). The author Samuel Butler was a prominent early settler (though he returned to Britain abruptly after only a little over four years in Canterbury). While Erewhon is an anagram for ‘Nowhere’ (it’s almost ‘Nowhere’ backwards), the work – including the setting and content – is very much inspired by his time in New Zealand.
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By: Guy on January 18, 2022
at 1:07 pm
Hello Guy, thanks for your comment.
I have Erewhon on my TBR, but I never knew that there was a Kiwi connection!
Now I really must read it…
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By: Lisa Hill on January 18, 2022
at 5:46 pm
This must have been a lot of work (fun to do but time consuming)
I’ve read one!!! The Essence of the Thing. Excellent book.
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By: Emma on January 24, 2022
at 5:49 pm
It’s the sort of thing I can do during the Summer holidays when there’s not much happening:)
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By: Lisa Hill on January 24, 2022
at 5:55 pm
It’s hard to imagine heat and summer when it’s minus something here. Enjoy the nice weather!
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By: Emma on January 29, 2022
at 5:51 pm
LOL Emma, I spoke too soon. We just had a massive cold front go through and our street was flooded. Only up as far as the driveway, but still, a LOT of water!
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By: Lisa Hill on January 29, 2022
at 7:02 pm
Here it’s days and days of grey sky, which is unusual. Vivement le printemps!
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By: Emma on January 30, 2022
at 8:55 pm
*Snap* I’ll be glad to see the back of this season here too. I love autumn:)
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By: Lisa Hill on January 30, 2022
at 9:20 pm