ANGUS & ROBERTSON #AustPublishingHistory AUSTRALIAN PUBLISHING HISTORY ANGUS & ROBERTSON @statelibrarynsw The State Library’s Angus • Collection 03: A&R further WARATAH & Robertson (A&R) archive records, 1880–1979, including houses almost 1000 boxes of business records of subsidiary business records, publishing companies. Purchased from &THISTLE files, author and publisher’s A&R in 1977. correspondence, and original • Collection 04: A&R estrays, manuscripts by Australian 1854–1971. These records, writers. There is also an array previously held by others, of original artwork, comprising were acquired between 1995 more than 7500 photographs, and 1998. paintings and drawings, and 134 volumes of press reviews of The State Library is currently A&R publications. The archive in the process of making the came into the Library over time, collection more available to in several consignments: the public by creating online • Collection 01: A&R records, catalogue records for the 1888–1932. The bulk of this entire collection, arranging collection, assembled by and describing unprocessed George Robertson as a record materials, and rehousing many of the firm, came into the items, which will enable the Library in April 1933. eventual digitisation of selected parts of the collection. • Collection 02: A&R original drawings and jacket designs by Australian artists to illustrate publications by Australian authors, c 1896–1920. Purchased from A&R in 1960. HOSTED BY THE STATE LIBRARY OF NSW IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE DIGITAL HUMANITIES RESEARCH GROUP AT WESTERN SYDNEY UNIVERSITY P&D4913-3/2017 WARATAH &THISTLE PROGRAM ANGUS & ROBERTSON | AUSTRALIAN PUBLISHING HISTORY MONDAY 10 APRIL 2017 8.30 am – 9 am 10.30 am – 11 am 12.30 pm – 1 pm 3 pm – 3.30 pm Macquarie Room Macquarie Room Metcalfe Auditorium Macquarie Room Registration Morning tea Sir Frank Packer’s Bid Afternoon tea (self-catered) for A&R (self-catered) CRAIG MUNRO AND 9 am – 9.15 am A&R display BRIDGET GRIFFEN-FOLEY Digital Humanities Metcalfe Auditorium (State Library) display (WSU) 1 pm – 2 pm Welcome to Country Macquarie Room UNCLE ALLEN MADDEN 11 am – 11.30 am 3.30 pm – 4.30 pm Metcalfe Auditorium Metcalfe Auditorium Lunch 9.15 am – 10 am Henry Lawson’s Panel discussion Metcalfe Auditorium Anzac Boots 2 pm – 2.30 pm CHAIR: RACHEL FRANKS DR CHRIS LEE Metcalfe Auditorium Opening remarks JASON ENSOR 4.30 pm – 5 pm Publisher with a Cause RICHARD NEVILLE 11.30 am – 12 noon Metcalfe Auditorium Metcalfe Auditorium JASON ENSOR Revealing the Records: Closing remarks A&R in the Library Zora Cross JASON ENSOR ANN PECK 2.30 pm – 3 pm CATHY PERKINS Metcalfe Auditorium Thanks RICHARD NEVILLE 10 am – 10.30 am 12 noon – 12.30 pm ARCHivER Project Metcalfe Auditorium Metcalfe Auditorium HELEN BONES KEYNOTE Beatrice Davis Lines of Enquiry JACQUELINE KENT NEIL JAMES A one-day symposium Monday 10 April 2017 WARATAH &THISTLE Macquarie Room & Metcalfe Auditorium ANGUS & ROBERTSON | AUSTRALIAN PUBLISHING HISTORY State Library of New South Wales #AustPublishingHistory Scotsmen David Angus (1855–1901) and George Robertson (1860–1933) chose two flowers as the emblem of Angus & Robertson (A&R), their Sydney-based publishing house, founded in 1886. Producing their first JACQUELINE KENT DR JASON ENSOR publication in 1888, the partnership grew into a successful company JACQUELINE KENT IS THE AUTHOR DR JASON ENSOR IS A OF A CERTAIN STYLE: BEATRICE RESEARCHER AND MANAGER which championed Australian writers, marketed alongside established DAVIS, A LITERARY LIFE (2001). OF DIGITAL HUMANITIES AT international authors. WESTERN SYDNEY UNIVERSITY, ‘There goes a AND A VISITING PROFESSOR George Robertson actively encouraged David Scott Mitchell in his desire gentlewoman … AT THE ELECTRONIC TEXTUAL to build an unparalleled collection of Australian literature, and in the subsequent CULTURES LAB, UNIVERSITY OF and she’s a little VICTORIA, CANADA. establishment of the Mitchell Library — now the custodian of the A&R archive. beaut, too!’ It remains the single most valuable resource for studying Australian writing Publisher and publishing. Beatrice Davis with a Cause: at Angus & Robertson This symposium brings together contemporary researchers working on The Angus & Robertson Legacy various aspects of Australian literature, publishing history, print culture Beatrice Davis was the chief editor and A reasonable question to ask is why and the digital humanities. arbiter of literary taste at A&R from 1937 Angus & Robertson? Landmark publications until 1973. She nurtured the talents of like The Man from Snowy River, canonical many well-known Australian writers, children’s books The Magic Pudding and KEYNOTE CATHY PERKINS including Thea Astley, Miles Franklin, Blinky Bill, and A&R’s post-war effort to CATHY PERKINS, AN EDITOR Xavier Herbert, Ruth Park, Hal Porter build up distinctly Australian educational AT THE STATE LIBRARY, IS and Patricia Wrightson. Her position as DR NEIL JAMES RESEARCHING THE LIFE publishing have consolidated their DR NEIL JAMES CREATED THE OF AUSTRALIAN WRITER a judge of several major prizes, including reputation as one of Australia’s most ANGUS & ROBERTSON ORAL ZORA CROSS. the Miles Franklin Award, reinforced her HISTORY COLLECTION. HE HAS culturally significant publishers of PUBLISHED FOUR BOOKS AND Zora Cross: pivotal role in Australia’s literary culture. Australian writing. MORE THAN 90 ARTICLES, ESSAYS AND REVIEWS ON LITERATURE A Household Biographer Jacqueline Kent has drawn During the 20th century, it also became AND LANGUAGE. Name on Davis’s frank editorial correspondence one of the largest copyright holders in In 30 years of publishing, George to present a portrait not only of an elegant, Australian literature and has continued Robertson had never met an author bohemian and forthright woman, but of an to be the focus of scholarly inquiry. Lines of Enquiry: as astonishing as Zora Cross. Her book era in Australian book publishing when a What made this company such a primary Reading a Publisher’s Archive Songs of Love and Life was a publishing writer’s passion for living was as great as contributor to Australian culture? their passion for literature. The Angus & Robertson collection event in 1917: a young woman with literary talent writing about sex. Soldiers took preserves the history of the most influential DR HELEN BONES publisher in Australian literary history. it to the trenches and many newspaper DR CRAIG MUNRO DR HELEN BONES IS A RESEARCH The collection has already yielded valuable inches were devoted to the author’s & PROFESSOR ASSOCIATE WITH THE DIGITAL HUMANITIES RESEARCH GROUP insights into Australian literature and the genius and daring. Robertson believed BRIDGET GRIFFEN- AT WESTERN SYDNEY UNIVERSITY, lives of individual writers. Yet in some ways, Zora Cross would endure as a household FOLEY WITH AN INTEREST IN name alongside Shakespeare and Rossetti. DR CRAIG MUNRO IS A TRANS-TASMAN AND we have barely begun to mine its files. COLONIAL PUBLISHING The story of her experience with Angus BIOGRAPHER AND THE FORMER Dr Neil James will outline the lines PUBLISHER AT UQP. HIS BOOKS AND WRITING NETWORKS. of enquiry we should consider when & Robertson has a cast of characters INCLUDE THE 2015 MEMOIR UNDER COVER: ADVENTURES IN THE ART Using the Angus approaching this collection. including Norman Lindsay, Rebecca Wiley OF EDITING. & Robertson and Christopher Brennan. He will argue that the A&R files have BRIDGET GRIFFEN-FOLEY IS PROFESSOR OF MEDIA, Collection for Humanities and as much to offer social history as literary AND DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRE FOR MEDIA HISTORY, AT MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY. HER BOOKS INCLUDE THE HOUSE Education Research (ARCHivER) history, Australian art and design as fiction DR CHRIS LEE OF PACKER (1999). The ARCHivER project is funded by the and poetry. Neil will celebrate some gems CHRISTOPHER LEE IS A PROFESSOR OF LITERARY Sydney Media Mogul Australian National Database Service that have emerged from the collection, STUDIES AT GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY, Stalks the Old Firm: and led by Dr Jason Ensor from Western and challenge the next generation of QUEENSLAND. Sir Frank Packer’s Bid for A&R Sydney University. It uses the State Library’s writers and researchers to unearth more. Henry Lawson’s In 1960, Angus & Robertson was Australia’s archive of the A&R business papers to Anzac Boots pre-eminent bookseller–publisher, with showcase how we can make better use ANN PECK This paper reflects 600 staff globally. New Zealand corporate of paper-based, high-value historical ANN PECK, A LIBRARIAN AT upon the role of collections through digital technologies. THE STATE LIBRARY, RECENTLY raider Walter Vincent Burns became COMPLETED A YEAR-LONG Angus & Robertson in curating A&R’s managing director, shutting down It also looks at ways to do this that PROJECT WHICH IMPROVED a sense of Australian culture by looking sustain and enhance archival practice ACCESS TO THE ANGUS & publishing and buying bookshops in ROBERTSON ARCHIVE. at the publication of Henry Lawson’s prime locations. and principles, while leading Australian writing and Charles Bean’s Official History humanities research in new directions. Revealing This was all too much for the A&R board, of Australia in the War of 1914–1918. so Burns offered to sell his shares to Dr Helen Bones will use her own the Records: It is especially interested in the role a media tycoon Sir Frank Packer. Having just research questions about the rise and fall Angus & Robertson publisher might play in establishing an acquired the Bulletin, Sir Frank launched of trans-Tasman publishing networks to in the Library appropriate level of culture for a young, a full-scale takeover bid for the equally illustrate the benefits and possibilities The A&R archive was acquired by the egalitarian society. venerable Angus & Robertson Ltd. Though of the digital tool being created. State Library in various consignments his bid stalled, the pugnacious Packer was from the 1930s to the 1970s. It contains the able to buy up three-quarters original manuscripts of AB ‘Banjo’ Paterson, of a million shares, Henry Lawson, May Gibbs, Miles Franklin, mounting a vitriolic Norman Lindsay, CJ Dennis and CW Bean, newspaper campaign among others, along with correspondence against the A&R and other papers.