Review of Journal of an Era: Notes from the Red Letter Days, by Jack Beasley

Abstract

Jack Beasley's Journal of an Era: Notes from the Red Letter Days is a companion volume to his earlier Red Letter Days: Notes from Inside an Era (Sydney: Australasian Book Society, 1979). Red Letter Days is an invaluable account of Australian writing and publishing associated with the Communist Party; the era evoked was the 1950s through the 1970s, and the book comprised five substantial discussions: Alan Marshall, Frank Hardy. Judah Waten, the Australasian Book Society, Zhdanovism, and Socialist Realism and the Communist Party of Australia. Journal of an Era supplements Red Letter Days by collecting twelve essays first written in the 1950s and 1960s, together with some 1980s contextualising comment.