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246 Nov for Doran Australian Book Review ABR is most grateful for the generous support of our November 2002, No. 246 chief sponsor, La Trobe University. ISSN 01 55-2864 Registered by Australia Post Published by Australian Book Review Inc. PO Box 2320, Richmond South, Victoria 3121 EditorialABR has been assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory Editor Peter Rose body; Holding Redlich; and Arts Victoria. We also acknow- Assistant Editor Aviva Tuffield ledge the generous support of our national sponsor, the Office Manager Dianne Schallmeiner National Library of Australia. Cover Designer Chong Printer Doran Printing Chair Robert Manne Treasurer Matt Kumar Board Members Peter Craven, Michael Crennan, Ramona Koval, Vicki Nicholson, Russ Radcliffe, Peter Steele Subscription rates (all prices include GST) Editorial Advisers Don Anderson, Peter Bishop, Isobel Crombie, Kerryn Goldsworthy, Paul Hetherington, John Hirst, Paul Kane, One year (ten issues) Patrick McCaughey, Pam Macintyre, Hilary McPhee, Allan Individuals: $63.50 Patience, Craig Sherborne, Michael Shmith, Ilana Snyder Institutions: $72.00 Editorial Assistants Elisha McMullen, Michael Williams Students/pensioners: $52.00 Overseas (airmail) Asia/NZ: Individuals: $82.00 Telephone: (03) 9429 6700 Institutions: $90.00 Fax: (03) 9429 2288 Overseas (airmail) Rest of World: Individuals: $107.00 E-mail: [email protected] Institutions: $112.00 http://www.vicnet.net.au/~abr/ Two years (twenty issues, Australia only) Unsolicited manuscripts will not be returned unless accompanied Individuals: $117.00 by stamped, self-addressed envelopes. Editorial matters should be Institutions: $135.00 directed to the editor; advertising/marketing ones to the assistant Students/pensioners: $93.00 editor; and subscription queries to the office manager. Letters to the editor will only be considered for publication if accompanied Additional copy to the same address (Australia only) by a telephone number, for verification. One year: $35.00 Two years: $70.00 Bernard Smith, art historian, lecturer and special interest in writers, was a significant figure in Austral- critic, born in 1916, was Professor of ian publishing. After working as Angus and Robertson’s Contemporary Art and London editor, he became the first Director Director of the Power Insti- of Publications at the National Library in 1971. tute of Fine Arts, Sydney His innovative publishing programme at the University, from 1967 to 1977. Among his Library included the diary of James Burney many publications are Place, Taste and (who accompanied Cook on his second voy- Tradition (1945) and The Boy Adeodatus: age), the letters of Vance and Nettie Palmer, The Portrait of a Lucky Young Bastard Augustus Earle’s drawings and the best- (1984). The National Library’s Manuscript selling Captain Bligh’s Bounty notebook. Collection holds Smith’s papers at MS 8680. For twenty years, Bolton also ran his own Covering the period 1938–99, they include private printery, Brindabella Press, renowned correspondence (principally with Jack for its finely printed and illustrated books Lindsay, 1979–88) and many handwritten and broadsides, mainly poetry, by writers drafts, notes and typescripts of his talks, including his wife, Rosemary Dobson, Judith lectures, addresses, as well as his book Wright, A.D. Hope, James McAuley and reviews and published articles. This material Kenneth Slessor. is amplified by three interviews held in the Alec Bolton (1926–1996) Oral History Collection. Portrait of Bernard Smith, Fitzroy, 1987 Our cover photograph of Bernard Smith is drawn from gelatin silver photograph; 17.7 x 12.7 cm the Library’s Alec Bolton Portrait Collection. Alec Bolton Pictures Collection, P2192/282 (1926–96), in addition to his work as a photographer with a Archived at Flinders University: dspace.flinders.edu.au AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW NOVEMBER 2002 1 CONTENTSCONTENTS LA TROBE UNIVERSITY ESSAY Andrea Goldsmith: ‘Homer and the Holocaust’ 31 CONTRIBUTORS 4 ADVANCES 5 LETTERS Filton Hebbard, Noni Durack, Carl Bridge, Molly Bloom, Victoria Chance, Val Wake 6 MEMOIR Bernard Smith: A Pavane for Another Time Peter Craven 9 Christopher Koch: The Many-Coloured Land Michael McGirr 11 John Bell: The Time of My Life Brian McFarlane 12 Ian Hansen: The Naked Fish Peter Steele 14 John Hanrahan: From Eternity to Here Christopher Bantick 15 POEMS R.A. Simpson 16 Craig Sherborne 20 Kate Middleton 25 Clive James 43 MUSIC James Freud: i am the voice left from drinking David Nichols 17 Robert Milliken: Lillian Roxon Gideon Haigh 18 CULTURAL Brett Hutchins: Don Bradman STUDIES Louis Nowra: Warne’s World Brian Matthews 21 David Coad: Gender Trouble Down Under Robert Reynolds: From Camp to Queer Graham Willett 23 Susan Hopkins: Girl Heroes Catharine Lumby 24 POLITICS Ross Fitzgerald: The Federation Mirror Rae Wear: Johannes Bjelke-Peterson Geoffrey Bolton 26 Ken Booth and Tim Dunne (eds): Worlds in Collision John Carroll: Terror Tony Coady 27 Geoffrey Robertson: Crimes Against Humanity Morag Fraser 29 LA TROBE UNIVERSITY ESSAY Homer and the Holocaust Andrea Goldsmith 31 HISTORY John Connor: The Australian Frontier Wars Lyndall Ryan 38 Cassandra Pybus and Hamish Maxwell-Stewart: American Citizens, British Slaves Donna Merwick 39 Peter McPhee: The French Revolution 1789–1799 Charles Sowerwine: France since 1870 Vesna Drapac 40 MILITARY Peter Dornan: Nicky Barr, an Australian Air Ace HISTORY Andrew McMillan: Catalina Dreaming John McCarthy 42 2 AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW NOVEMBER 2002 Archived at Flinders University: dspace.flinders.edu.au CONTENTS ESSAY Religion and Justice Raimond Gaita 44 LETTERS R.W. Home et al. (eds): Regardfully Yours: Selected Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller John Thompson 48 ARCHITECTURE Haig Beck and Jackie Cooper: Glen Murcutt Philip Drew (ed.): Touch This Earth Lightly Miles Lewis 50 PHOTOGRAPHY Helen Ennis: Man with a Camera Susan van Wyk 51 GALLERY NOTES Mary Eagle 53 FICTION Andrea Goldsmith: The Prosperous Thief Don Anderson 55 Sally Morrison: The Insatiable Desire of Injured Love Delia Falconer 56 A.L. McCann: The White Body of Evening Edwina Preston 57 Tracy Ryan: Jazz Tango Dianne Dempsey 58 POETRY Anthony Lawrence: Skinned by Light Brendan Ryan 59 LANGUAGE Bill Ramson: Lexical Images Nick Hudson 60 Kate Burridge: Blooming English Tore Janson: Speak Bruce Moore 61 Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum (eds): The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language Kate Burridge 62 Archived at Flinders University: dspace.flinders.edu.au AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW NOVEMBER 2002 3 Contributors Don Anderson, an Honorary Senior Lecturer in English Brian McFarlane is an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Sydney, is an Editorial Adviser to ABR. of Monash University. His Encyclopedia of British Film will be published in 2003. Christopher Bantick is a Melbourne reviewer. Michael McGirr is the fiction editor of Meanjin. Geoffrey Bolton is an historian at Murdoch University. Brian Matthews is Director of the Europe–Australia Institute Kate Burridge’s new book, Blooming English, is reviewed in at Victoria University. His books include A Fine and Private this issue. She teaches at La Trobe University. Place (2000). Tony Coady is Professorial Fellow and ARC Senior Research Donna Merwick is a Fellow at the Humanities Research Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Melbourne. He has Centre and the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research, recently co-edited, with Michael O’Keefe, Terrorism and Australian National University. Her book Death of a Notary Justice: Moral Argument in a Threatened World. was reviewed in the September issue. Peter Craven’s 2002 editions of The Best Australian Essays Kate Middleton is a Melbourne poet and librettist. and The Best Australian Stories will be published this month. Bruce Moore is Director of the Australian National Diction- Dianne Dempsey is a Victorian reviewer. ary Centre at the Australian National University. His many publications include The Australian Oxford Dictionary (1999). Vesna Drapac is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Adelaide. David Nichols is a lecturer in Australian Studies at Deakin University, and in Housing Policy at RMIT, Melbourne. Mary Eagle is a curator and author of many books about He is the author of The Go-Betweens (1997). Australian art. Edwina Preston is the author of Not Just a Suburban Boy, Delia Falconer is the author of The Service of Clouds (1997). a biography of Howard Arkley. Morag Fraser is Editor of Eureka Street. Brendan Ryan lives in Melbourne and is the author of Why I Am Not a Farmer (2000). Raimond Gaita is Professor of Philosophy at Australian Catholic University and Professor of Moral Philosophy at Lyndall Ryan is the author of The Aboriginal Tasmanians. King’s College, University of London. She is Foundation Professor of Australian Studies at the University of Newcastle. Andrea Goldsmith’s new novel, The Prosperous Thief, is reviewed in this issue. Craig Sherborne is a senior writer at the Herald-Sun. Gideon Haigh’s latest book is The Vincibles. R.A. Simpson, who died last month, wrote several collections of poetry, including The Sky’s Beach, due in 2003. Nick Hudson is a Melbourne publisher and author of Modern Australian Usage (1997). Peter Steele holds a Personal Chair in English at the University of Melbourne. His most recent book of poems is Clive James is the author of many novels, memoirs, and Invisible Riders (2000). collections of essays and poetry. His poem ‘The Place of Reeds’ first appeared in the
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