Review of Australian Literature a Reference Guide, comp. Fred Lock and Alan Lawson

Abstract

The need for this book and its usefulness arc suggested by the way it has so rapidly become part of the Australian literary studies scene. It is important lo scholars and teachers and essential to postgraduate study. First published in 1977 at $2.75 it is now already back in print in a second edition, revised and expanded, but still modestly priced. 'The basic aim of the Guide . . . remains the same: to describe and evaluate the reference works most useful for the study of Australian literature, whether or not they are exclusively concerned with it* (Preface). So 'this book is not a guide to Australian literature, or to what has been written about it. It is strictly a guide to sources of information [my italics). It does not contain a list of articles on Henry Handel Richardson: it does describe a bibliography where such a list can be found, and other bibliographical sources that can be used lo supplement it".