Books and literature

A poem

Stan didn’t look good at all. I could see him in the garden, through a window. Hunched forward, sucking on a cigarette, mistaking it for a sign of life.

The Library is the new home of award-winning children’s author and illustrator Pamela Allen’s extensive archive.

It’s just a bag of peas, she told herself. I can order more online. So why was she crying?

What’s the process for turning words on a page into words in your ear?

As writers adapt to a vastly altered publishing landscape, how will they remake themselves in a post-pandemic world?

The Library's holdings illustrate the significance of what can at first appear to be copies of the same work.

Donald Horne’s unlikely editorship of the mass-market Weekend magazine was a crucial stage in the Lucky Country author’s development as a public intellectual.

In October 1918 Angus & Robertson published what would become one of Australia’s best known children’s stories: The Magic Pudding.

The Library's collection of World War I diaries offers a glimpse into the life of Australians at war. 

‘Heaven could be no more magical and mystical than unspoiled Australia' - the brilliant career of Miles Franklin.

Charles Dickens saw Australia as a utopia for the working class — and his wayward sons.

Between 1919 and 1930  Andre Breton published experimental texts that defined the Surrealist movement.

In 1864 the Reverend John M. Jephson published his book on the birthplace, home, and grave of Shakespeare. Nestled within the pages of text are a series of photographs of sites relating to Shakespeare’s life in Stratford-on-Avon.

From tales of colonial adventure to moralising educational tracts, children’s literature in nineteenth-century Australia played a significant role in educating children as the nation’s future citizens. 

Illuminated manuscripts are some of the most beautiful written works ever produced.

The Library holds a rare manuscript version of the 1297 statute of the Magna Carta that was signed by King John at Runnymede.

"I love a sunburnt country": Learn the history of one of Australia's best loved poems.

A writer wrote of the hearts of men, and he followed their tracks afar;

For his was a spirit that forced his pen to write of the things that are.

A surprise bestseller in 1886, Fergus Hume’s The Mystery of a Hansom Cab continues to intrigue.

"We have decided to go to Lindfield. It will be like being buried alive to live in a quiet little country place after the bustle and excitement of town life."

May Gibbs, author, illustrator and cartoonist, has captured the hearts and imaginations of generations of Australians with her lovable bush characters and fairytale landscapes.

Australia played an important role in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.