Books and literature

A new acquisition reveals the personal and professional lives of one of Australia’s best-known authors.

Mark Dapin’s wish-list of the most beautiful libraries in the world to visit.

The library that made me.

The untold story of French novelist Hélène Bessette and her poetic novel, La Route Bleue, a love story set in 1940s Sydney.

Decorated initials — artworks in themselves — have a long history.

A novelist brings a marginalised character back to the centre.

The library that made me.

A poem.

The library that made me.

A short story.

It is 100 years since the famous writer and chronicler of bush life died.

A poem by Thuy On.

Rose de Freycinet, a nineteenth-century French woman, stowaway and diarist, unites a writer and an archivist 200 years later.

Twenty-first-century notions of wellness have a long lineage.

That curious penguin on the spine of your favourite paperback isn’t there just for decoration.

Children’s picture books reflect the world that makes them, but must try to remake that world too.

Alexandra Christie is the new editor of HEAT, an illustrious literary publication in its third incarnation

The library that made me.

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

A poem by Toby Fitch.

We may find it easy to give a book one star, or five, but what do we really mean by the phrase ‘literary merit’?

A biographer reflects on the serendipity of finding traces of her subjects’ intimate lives in the archive.

A poem by Sarah Holland-Batt.

A short story.

What impact do prizes have on Australia’s literary ecosystem?

Emily Bitto's second novel raises compelling questions about writing and living.

Book cover design is an intricate and sometimes baffling process that brings together authors, readers, publishers, booksellers and designers.

A biographer faces withdrawal symptoms as she leaves behind an immense archive.

A short story.

A poem by Jane Gibian.

Looking closely at the spine could unlock the mystery of a rare book, or it could raise more questions.

The opposite of kindness is not cruelty or malice. It is reason.

On diversity, discomfort and the turning of a new page for the Australian publishing industry.

Jamie Marina Lau began her second novel in a dream-like state that belies her intense research.

Protecting the innocent through censorship has been a fraught and — in hindsight — sometimes comic endeavour. 

In the Schumacher household it was legendary: The Alarm Clock.

Sydney Writers’ Festival Artistic Director Michael Williams is ready for the challenges of 2021.

The theme of friendship and betrayal took this writer and editor from her non-fiction debut to her first novel.

A poem by Eunice Andrada.

Two writers’ search for their mysterious and talented forebear was full of archival riches.

After a person dies, there is the game show.

She found fame as a teenage poet, but Grace Perry’s startling later work and her support for fellow poets are barely remembered.

A poem by Maryam Azam.

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.

Rare first editions of two proto-modernist works by French poet Stéphane Mallarmé.

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

French literature and Pre-Raphaelite works 1800-1950

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. 

Discover the fascinating story behind Shakespeare's First Folio and other stories featuring Shakespeare in the Library.

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.

The Library is delighted to announce the complete digitisation of its renowned "pattern" set of 681 folio-sized plates for  'The Birds of Australia' by John Gould. 

"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.