Literature

Australia’s literary heritage may not be as prominent as some other countries, but it began soon after the settlement of Australia by the Europeans. Novels tended to be focused around the issue of resettlement and were set on the frontiers, including tales of adventure and derring-do in the Aussie Outback.

The first Australian novel to be written was by Quintus Servinton, and entitled A Tale founded upon Incidents of Real Occurrence. Written and published in Tasmania in 1831, and was soon followed in 1838 with a gothic romance by Anna Maria Bunn.

More recently, there has been a wealth of Australian writing talent. In 1973 Patrick White became the first Australian to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his novel The Eye of the Storm. Other notable writers since the 19702 include Peter Carey, Kate Grenville, David Malouf, Janette Turner Hospital and Tim Winton.

James Clavell with his Asian Saga, including the famed Shogun, is one of Australia’s better-known authors, along with Nevil Shute, and Thomas Keneally, who won the Booker Prize for Schindler’s Ark, upon which the film Schindler’s List is based.

More recently novels such as The Vivisector by Patrick White, Time Enough Later by Kylie Tennant, and The Sitters by Alex Miller have been hugely popular worldwide.

Onto non-fiction, and Charles Manning Hope Clark is believed to have written the definitive Australian history with his six-volume epic A History of Australia.

To find out more about Australian authors, visit The Australian Book Review website.

You may also be interested in The Literature of Australia – an Anthology by Nicholas Jose. This book details the history of Australian literature, from its beginnings to the present day. It covers all genres and includes many Australian writers who are now out of print. It has more than 500 works by over 300 hundred authors. For anyone interested in the huge variety of literature and its origins in Australia, then this is book is a must have. The book is released on the 25 September 2009 at a cost of $35.00.