The sullen rocks fly from the Bremer’s bed,

The Platypus, grown bolder, at Ipswich rears its head …

Christopher Lee’s essay on the literary history of the Darling Downs, impeccably researched and critically acute, offers some valuable insights into the important role played by long-lived civic groups such as the Toowoomba Ladies’ Literary Society in fostering an awareness not only of local writers such as George Essex Evans and Steele Rudd, but also of the importance of literary culture in general:

Toowoomba is civilised by the monuments: they continually prompt the ‘careless passerby’ to rehearse a set of ethical values which they serve to evoke and concretise; and a proper respect and attention to literature fulfils much the same function.

Lee offers refreshing, brief discussions of local poets Bruce Dawe, David Rowbotham and Jean Kent; only Dawe’s work is well known to readers outside Queensland, but Rowbotham and Kent deserve more attention than they have received. In their introduction, the editors make the questionable claim that ‘some of our best-known older Queensland writers [Rowbotham is mentioned here, along with Stephens, Palmer, Astley, and others] ... have been sold a little short by the academy.’ If this is true, these days it is also true of many ‘older writers’ from other parts of Australia, A.D. Hope and Patrick White among them.

Denis Cryle’s ‘The Bush Ethos in Central Queensland Writing’ is another readable and informative piece which has some fine things to say about the traditions of balladry and social protest; few of the writers make the league tables of Australian letters, but this is not to detract from the quality of an essay which (and this is typical of nearly all the contributions) reflects a keen appreciation of how writing is grounded in particular social formations; the writing of central and western Queensland may be more homogeneous than that of other areas, but even here there are significant differences which go beyond changing historical styles.

No literary history can be inclusive, and the editors of By the Book have acknowledged the problematic exclusion of drama from their range. Perhaps understandable for reasons of length, this exclusion is nevertheless regrettable. The essays on Brisbane’s literary life, commendable as they are, would have been strengthened by some consideration of the role that Twelfth Night Theatre, for example, has played in the cultural life of Queensland and in fostering local dramatic writing. (Hadgraft’s friend and colleague, the late Eunice Hanger, would have given a louder than usual derisory sniff). A stronger objection, given the book’s interest in poetry, is the scant attention paid to three of Australia’s foremost poets, all from Queensland. Gwen Harwood, whose life in Queensland until 1945 shaped her imaginative perceptions, is mentioned, but only in a cursory way. Kevin Hart, now resident in the United States, fares even worse, and Peter Porter does not rate a mention. All are distinguished poets who have written moving works about growing up in Brisbane. These are major flaws, considering that the expatriate Queensland novelist Janette Turner Hospital is such a (rightly) welcome visitor to these pages.

The decision to include writing by non-Queenslanders with Queensland subjects and settings is an interesting one, but I wonder whether the focus of the book might have been sharper had these works formed the subject of a separate essay. Here, too, there is at least one notable omission, the short stories written by the acclaimed Canadian writer Alice Munro during her short period as a writer in residence in Brisbane in 1980. ‘Bardon Bus’ and ‘The Jack Randa Hotel’, for example, are fine short stories which are likely to be better known in North America than here. Munro brings to them that extraordinary feeling for place which characterises Malouf’s writing about his native city. The exclusion of Munro is particularly surprising, given the emphasis which is placed elsewhere on the role of Queensland’s universities in fostering writing.

Some of the best moments in this volume concern Queensland’s considerable body of literature written in the margins (if at all) of even the best of most older literary histories. The work of women writers and indigenous authors of both sexes receives its proper recognition, and in the case of indigenous writing the overlapping of sections, from the ‘regional essays’ to Maggie Nolan’s snappy and stylish ‘Bitin’ Back’ in the ‘thematic’ section, works particularly well. Readers unfamiliar with Vivienne Cleven’s novel from which Nolan draws her title should read the powerful and funny story of Nevil Dooley, the Jean Rhys cross-dresser; published in 2001, this classic just made the date limits set by the editors. Nolan is right to point out that indigenous literature ‘deserves to be read on its merits as one of the most innovative and exciting forms of contemporary culture in Queensland’; one has only to consider the range and quality of work which has appeared since she wrote that. Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria (2006), one suspects, will have a readership wider than Xavier Herbert’s Capricornia (1938).

By the Book has its flaws, but what short literary history does not? All of its contributors write well, and the editors have done a sterling job in ensuring that there is a balance between continuity and style, and in the recognition that individual essayists have personal voices and interests. Readable from beginning to end, the volume will be essential reading for academics, students and general readers. I like to think that Cecil Hadgraft, whose office was almost as rich in Queensland literary treasures as the Fryer Library, would approve of it.