Exhausted classics run again: [1 All-round Country Edition]
Michelle Giglio, John Stapleton. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 31 Dec 2003: 23.
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Abstract
Professor [Tony Hassall] said many university lecturers here and overseas who taught Australian fiction faced the ongoing problem of not being able to get older texts.
When he heard about Classic Australian Works, he put [Jessica Anderson] straight back on the course list for his Australian literature students.
Synopsis: The Americans have engineered a coup in Khamla, north of Thailand. Prince Soumidath has been deposed. Civil war rages. Against this bedlam are parallel stories narrated by Gilly Herbert, the Australian wife of English academic David. Gilly’s experiences and the story of Peter Casement, Gilly’s lover, merge in a vivid evocation of the horrors of war.
Full Text
IT’S a source of frustration for every English lecturer in Australia — not being able to offer courses on classic Australian novels that are out of print.
In the past, students had to trawl through second-hand bookstores and the internet in their quest to find works by some of Australia’s finest 19th and 20th-century authors.
Now there is another way.
Students can order copies of old books through a print-on-demand service at Sydney University Press called Classic Australian Works.
The Copyright Agency pilot project gives access to 25 out-of- print books by distinguished writers such as Martin Boyd, Xavier Herbert, Jessica Anderson and Kylie Tennant.
The works were selected after a survey by the Australian Literature Gateway, which asked academics to nominate which significant works of Australian literature needed to be more widely available.
Users simply log on to a website and select their requested texts.
Within a few days the book is delivered, no longer a forgotten novel but born again.
Books are priced from $20 to $40 and printed as a high-quality paperback.
In 1985, Margaret Jones published The Smiling Buddha about an American-engineered coup in Asia. It has been out of print since.
Jones said she was intrigued by the technology.
“I thought the book was dead as far as literature was concerned, but it has been revived, it has been resurrected,” she said.
Copyright Agency chief executive Michael Fraser said he hoped the project would stimulate greater interest in the study of Australianliterature in universities.
“The project brings back some important works by writers
so they can speak to current and future generations,” Mr Fraser said. “This is vital for a bet-
ter understanding of our cultural heritage.”
James Cook University professor of English Tony Hassall said he was delighted he could once again teach books that had fallen off course lists because they were out of print.
Professor Hassall said many university lecturers here and overseas who taught Australian fiction faced the ongoing problem of not being able to get older texts.
Anderson’s The Commandant, which had been out of circulation for 15 years, was a favourite with students, but Professor Hassall had not been able to teach it for 10 years.
When he heard about Classic Australian Works, he put Anderson straight back on the course list for his Australian literature students.
“It means that anyone who wants to get a feel for the culture of the time is not forced to use one of four or five university libraries to get [classic books],” he said.
Classic Australian Works may increase the number of novels on offer if the pilot is successful.
Born-again literature
The Smiling Buddha
Author: Margaret Jones
Synopsis: The Americans have engineered a coup in Khamla, north of Thailand. Prince Soumidath has been deposed. Civil war rages. Against this bedlam are parallel stories narrated by Gilly Herbert, the Australian wife of English academic David. Gilly’s experiences and the story of Peter Casement, Gilly’s lover, merge in a vivid evocation of the horrors of war.
For the full list of works available: www.sup.usyd.edu.au/caw