Member Loginmenu
The Burning Library

The Burning Library: Our Great Novelists Lost and Found

Geordie Williamson

A perfect introduction to Australian literature, The Burning Library explores the lives and work of some of our greatest novelists.

Alarmed by the increasingly marginal status of Australian literature in the academy, Williamson has set out to reintroduce us to those key writers whose works we may have forgotten or missed altogether. His focus is on fiction that gives pleasure, and he is ardent in defence of books that for whatever reason sit uneasily in the present moment.  

The Burning Library
is a dynamic act of reclamation inspired by Miles Franklin’s claim that a nation that fails to acknowledge its literary treasures is ‘neither preserved nor developed, but only defaced’.

Writers discussed in this collection:
M. Barnard Eldershaw
Xavier Herbert
Christina Stead
Dal Stivens
Patrick White
Jessica Anderson
Sumner Locke Elliott
Amy Witting
Olga Masters
David Ireland
Elizabeth Harrower
Thomas Keneally
Randolph Stow
Gerald Murnane

Interview/review highlights:

ABC Radio National Books & Arts Daily interview

Readings Bookshop Q&A

Insights review

2SER Sydney Educational Radio interview

ANZ Litlovers review

4ZZZ FM interview

Sydney Review of Books review

Geordie Williamson
About the Author

Geordie Williamson is chief literary critic of the Australian newspaper, a position he has held since 2008, though his essays and reviews have been appearing in newspapers and magazines here and in the UK for over a decade.

In 2011, he won the Pascall Prize for criticism, Australia’s only major national prize awarded for critical writing. He...

Read Moreright
Extent:
304pp
Format:
Paperback
Text publication date:
24 October 2012
ISBN:
9781921922985
AU Price:
$32.99
NZ Price:
$40.00
starstarstarstarstar
starstarstarstarstar
Loading Rating
Praise for Geordie Williamson
andThe Burning Library

‘Commands attention and invites dispute…Brilliant, unobliged and provoking work.’

‘As an introductory text to the Australian canon, The Burning Library is remarkable. Williamson’s enthusiasm for Australian literature and his boundless knowledge of the genre give the book an enlightening and accessible quality that brings to life a neglected part of our national heritage which, through Williamson’s astute gaze, appears absurd to have let fallen astray. I thoroughly recommend The Burning Library to any reader with an interest in Australian literature.’

Other editions ofThe Burning Library
  • The Burning Library
    ebook
    ISBN: 9781921961236
    24 October 2012
    Buy ebook