Books & Biographies

One particular day in 1852 on two different ships in the District of Port Phillip, there arrived three pioneers integral to our city’s literary foundation. George Robertson, Edward Cole and Samuel Mullen, established various bookstores and commercial lending libraries and trained a generation of booksellers. (Grimwade, 2009, p.xiii).

160 years onward, I feel fortunate that others have documented trails that I am able to trace and with the privilege of using twenty-first century technology, weave into a layered narrative of my own.

The most useful and current references I’ve found regarding Melbourne literary history, have been the Arts Victoria UNESCO submission and  Literary Melbourne : a celebration of writing and ideas, edited by Stephen Grimwade (also a contributor to the Arts Victoria Melbourne City of Literature submission referenced previously). This 2009 anthology, produced in association with SLV celebrates the UNESCO designation by incorporating extracts from books across a diverse range of genres, complemented by insightful introductions and full colour illustrations from the SLV Pictures Collection. The book ends with a literary walking tour of Melbourne (extending to Carlton and Collingwood) conveniently locating the historical chronology geographically with a guided description and a map.

Some early book traders in Melbourne operated as mixed businesses, for examples, publishing, retail books, sheet music and stationery and circulating library, along with related services such as bookbinding and engraving. MV displays online many of the ‘trade tokens’ issued by booksellers, and traces the history of certain traders, eg ‘Muskett's bookstore was, according to John Hope, 'regarded as "the" bookshop of Melbourne prior to the establishment of E.W. Cole's Book Arcade.'

Muskett's bookstore was, according to John Hope, 'regarded as "the" bookshop of Melbourne prior to the establishment of E.W. Cole's Book Arcade.'

There are 2 themes in the MV online references about Cole which overlap and in the first of these can be found information about the fashion for the medallions and how they were distributed and used:
■Edward William Cole, Bookseller(1832-1918) and ■Cole's Book Arcade Collection.

Material from and about Cole and his businesses is well documented, with some objects also to be found in the SLV archives. Some years ago I particularly enjoyed reading the 2007 biography E.W. Cole : Chasing the rainbow, later expanded into another book, Utopian Man). At the goldfields after the death of his business partner, entrepreneurial Cole used the last of dwindled funds to produce lemonade to sell to the thirsty and malnourished miners; later new to Melbourne, he established a pie stand (from where in downtime he could write the books he intended to publish) before transforming the Eastern markets, a precursor to his store where he opened a tea salon in the renowned book arcade business where shoppers were serenaded by a live orchestra and the aforementioned medallions were sometimes sold as admission to manage queues.  Here was one of Melbourne’s earliest book cafes!  It has been considered that Cole’s humanitarian vision of  “the federation of the world” (Lang, 2007) and other socially democratic concepts to unite peoples beyond the 19 century preoccupations with race and class, prefigured the internet, where modern technology has irrevocably altered the landscape of modern media culture.

'Micro-publishing ... is all about the freedom to publish anything you want, whenever you want, in any form you like ... At the more entrepreneurial end of the micro-publishing spectrum is Arcade Publications, which has identified a gap in the market for short, inexpensive, carefully designed books covering aspects of Melbourne's hitherto unexplored history.'

– 'From little ventures small wonders emerge,' the Age, 24 January 2009, 

(Arcade Publications <http://arcadepublications.com/about.html> viewed May 2, 2012) 

Macroberstonland tells the amazing rags to riches tale of Australia’s very own Willy Wonka, Macpherson Robertson.

Another fascinating historical biography published by Arcade, MacRobertsonland (Robertson 2010) also illuminates much interesting history of Melbourne of the 19 and 20 centuries. Like Cole, Macpherson Robertson was another innovative Melbourne business identity who among other exploits also became an author; here again with an overlap of food and retailing. Among some of the legacies of his centenary gifts to Melbourne, in the 1930s Robertson had intended to build a library as part of his proposed ‘Temple of Youth ‘precinct, but the plan was heavily criticised and abandoned. (Robertson, 2010, p.153)  Inadvertently he did build a library and more with his contribution of the school that became Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School. In April, Port Phillip Library Service hosted an author talk w. Jill Robertson (coincidentally same surname, but not a relative of her subject!) and we were treated to insights into her journey and process along with a charming slide show of images which punctuate the book. At the time of publication, I was awaiting image use permissions from the author and publishers.

Another recent biography (2011) reflecting a well-known Melbourne book business, is Rare : A life among antiquarian books, about Kay Craddock, by Stuart Kells, a speaker at the recent Clunes Booktown Festival and that website provides an author profile.

Rare: a life among antiquarian books by Stuart Kells. Image reproduced with permission from Jane Curry Publishing.

In attributing the Wordpress blog link above, authorship was not clearly apparent as there is a copyright attribution of the book title at the bottom of the page to Stuart Kells, but the link appears as an extension of the Kay Craddock website, but doesn't seem accessible within; I found it by using a Google search for the book. At the time of publication, I was awaiting permissions from the author and publishers.( I also found incidentally that the review on the link to the Readings website had the author name incorrect!)

  

A few years ago I enjoyed an ALIA excursion for library technicians hosted by Kay and her husband at their Collins Street store where we learnt that Craddock is the only Australian (and only woman) to be president of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers. In 2007 she was awarded an Order of Australia for services to the antiquarian book trade. (Arts Victoria, 2008) The history of this premises is detailed within the website and includes references to the Presbyterian Bookroom and the Scottish Tearooms in the basement, established (originally across the road) in order to further the sale of missionary literature.

Kay Craddock Antiquarian Bookseller The Assembly Hall Building 156 Collins Street Melbourne

There are numerous histories, biographies and memoirs of significant Victorians who have contributed much to our cultural life and many of these stories reflect the values of promoting and sharing food and books among other art forms; where modern Melburnians such as Sunday Reed, Mietta O’Donell, Sheila Scotter, Mirka Mora and Stephanie Alexander are celebrated for more than the legacy of their influence.

Anne Mason, 1950s Cookery Writer, The Age & The Leader newspapers - Vintage Cookbooks online 

Hospitality histories and more abound on the shelves of two specialist retailers I visited: Books for Cooks in Fitzroy and Vintage Cookbooks in Kallista between them cover every genre relative to their niches.  I found it interesting to see how they organised and classified their material. These businesses participate in the Clunes Booktown Festival  (also addressed here in a later post) and have both expanded into online retailing, using multiple Web  2.0 channels. Ebooks is a growing stream for Books for Cooks, also known for their events (see Blog roll). I’m fortunate to have visited both stores recently, but admittedly found the variety and amount of stock somewhat overwhelming!