The Anatomy of a Best-Seller: the Making of "Come in Spinner"
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016 University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 1990 The anatomy of a best-seller: the making of "Come in spinner" Marilla North University of Wollongong Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses University of Wollongong Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorise you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: This work is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this work may be reproduced by any process, nor may any other exclusive right be exercised, without the permission of the author. Copyright owners are entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. A reproduction of material that is protected by copyright may be a copyright infringement. A court may impose penalties and award damages in relation to offences and infringements relating to copyright material. Higher penalties may apply, and higher damages may be awarded, for offences and infringements involving the conversion of material into digital or electronic form. Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Wollongong. Recommended Citation North, Marilla, The anatomy of a best-seller: the making of "Come in spinner", Master of Arts (Hons.) thesis, Department of English, University of Wollongong, 1990. https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/2201 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] NOTE This online version of the thesis may have different page formatting and pagination from the paper copy held in the University of Wollongong Library. UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG COPYRIGHT WARNING You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorise you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: Copyright owners are entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. A reproduction of material that is protected by copyright may be a copyright infringement. A court may impose penalties and award damages in relation to offences and infringements relating to copyright material. Higher penalties may apply, and higher damages may be awarded, for offences and infringements involving the conversion of material into digital or electronic form. THE ANATOMY OF A BEST-SELLER: THE MAKING OF COME IN SPINNER A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Honours Master of Arts by Coursework (Post-Colonial Literature) from the University of Wollongong. by Marilla North B.A. T.Cert. Department of English: 1990 ii CONTENTS Page Chapter I The Making of the 1946 Daily Telegraph Novel Competition 1 Chapter II The Life and Work of Dymphna Cusack 25 (A Literary Biography) Chapter III The Life and Literary Work of Florence James (A Biographical Portrait) 72 Chapter IV The Drafts and Revisions of the Manuscript of Come In Spinner to first publication, 1951 93 Chapter V The Critical Context: The late 1940s Literary and Social Milieu, and the place of Come In Spinner 129 Appendix I Index to attached enclosures * (i) Press Clippings from the Daily Telegraph 1944-1946 (ii) Archival Photographs of Macquarie Street, Sydney in the Parliament House precinct, taken in the 1930’s (ex NSW Government Printing Office archives) i Appendix II Dramatis Personae: The characters of Come In Spinner - an alphabetical listing with brief character/role summary iv Appendix III An Analytic Synopsis of the Unabridged 1988, Angus & Robertson edition compared with the original 1951 Heinemann edition. xix REFERENCES AND PRIMARY SOURCES xlii * See sleeve inside the back cover for enclosures 111• • • ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Marcia Gosper - thesis typing specialist. Florence James, co-author of Come In Spinner, subject of the biography from which this dissertation has arisen. At 88 she has brought a keen intellect to our interviews on the biographical work, and has been both friend and mentor during this research. Dr Paul Sharrad - lecturer, intellectual guide and friend. Elisabeth Thomas, who assisted in transcribing and indexing the taped interviews. iv SUMMARY Although I had, like many female readers of my generation, read and re-read Come In Spinner as a teenager in the late 1950s, the book first actively engaged me in 1978 when I assisted in setting up the methodology for a market research project aimed at establishing its viability as a twentieth century film, I went on to research the biography of Florence James, one of the book*s co-authors, a task I have been engaged in more intensively since late in 1986. The tentative title of that biography is The ’Svinner Years, for I became increasingly fascinated by the strong influence which the book has had on the life of Florence James herself, and, to a lesser extent, on the lives of her daughters and grand-daughters. It was as if the book had taken on a life of its own and exercised a power which drew others into its net. As Jean-Paul Sartre observed, a book "is an emanation of inter subjectivity, a living bond of rage, hatred or love between those who have produced it and those who receive it.” [1.] This dissertation is the immediate result. * * * The 'anatomy* of the text itself of Come In Spinner is evident in the contents of the three Appendices. Appendix III dissects the novel (Angus & Robertson 1988 unabridged edition) into its component 'scenes’ and indicates (in italics) the scalpel marks of the five or six revisions, thus highlighting the material omitted from the 1951 First Edition. These were the censorable scenes and subplots which fell victims to the fray, as those with a vested interest in preserving the book’s integrity battled with those who wished to excise its dangerous content, calling it "libellous" and "obscene". Appendix II lists the 'cast* alphabetically, for easy reference. One day a social historian may match their names - as composites or individuals - with the real characters of 1944 Sydney. Appendix I lists the enclosures which give the flavour of the Daily Telegraph newspaper under Brian Penton’s editorship, in reproductions from microfilm copies of articles relevant to the social, political and cultural 'climate’ of the mid 1940’s. There are also three photographs from the NSW Government Printer’s archives - showing the precise location of Dymphna Cusack’s atelier flat at 223 Macquarie Street from which she observed the power brokers entering NSW Parliament House during Premier McKell’s first period in State government, and which also locates the approximate site of the fictional Hotel South Pacific. V * * * The process of writing, editing and revising the book itself to its final 1951 published form is described in the five chapters which trace through the people and the events which gave Come In Spinner form and life. Chapter I focuses on Brian Penton’s editorship of the Daily Telegraph (1941-1951), his relationship with Frank Packer and the 1946 Novel Competition. This chapter also pries beneath the surface of the nexus between politicians and media barons - and finds the birth of the public relations industry in Australia. Chapter II provides an original literary biography of Dymphna Cusack (a task which involved considerable and complex research), giving an historical and sociological portrait of the background, people and experiences which formed Dymphna Cusack and informed her creativity, as one of Australia’s internationally best-known writers of her time. Chapter III provides an original biographical portrait of Florence James, and endeavours to depict those factors in her life which provided a very different formative background from Dymphna Cusack’s, as well as those influences which gave her similar ethical impulses - all of which would come together in the collaboration on Come In Spinner. Chapter IV traces the chain of people and events which Come In Spinner * s manuscript engaged from October 30, 1946 to February 15, 1951. It is a careful weaving from primary sources which include three separate holdings of correspondence by the major actors, and interviews with those players who are still alive. Chapter V briefly attempts to place Come In Spinner in its literary and socio-historical context as a ’social realist* novel in late 1940s Australia. I have tried to keep the integrity of what Cusack and James set out to do with Come In Spinner, that is - to ’’tell it how it was.” The main difference is that I have time and distance on my side, and so can name the names which they could not. * * * * 1. Jean-Paul Sartre "We Write for our Own Time" Mean.1 in. Volume 8. No. 3. Spring 1949. CHAPTER I THE MAKING OF THE 1946 DAILY TELEGRAPH NOVEL COMPETITION: THE CAST: The Editor Brian Penton - a brilliant man with bifurcated vision. The Proprietors: Frank Packer - ex-pugilist turned media baron. Edward Granville Theodore - former Labor Deputy Prime Minister A Treasurer The Re-Write Man: W. Stewart Howard - Premier William McKell’s PR officer, Robert Menzies’s image maker: a lit.crit. and fixit man. Page 1 The 1946 Daily Telegraph Prize for the great Australian post war novel was the initiative of Brian Penton, writer, and editor of the Telegraph from 1941 (at only 27 years) until his death from cancer on August 24, 1951.