ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

A little experience of mine that you may be interested in. Others might too, hopefully.


I went to our local library the other day and saw that they had a display in the foyer cabinets. The display was of old editions of childrens' books. Among the books, I saw an old copy of C.J.Dennis's Book for Kids, so I asked the young lady at the desk if I could have a close look at it. I thought perhaps it may have been an original edition from 1923.

The young library lady was very helpful, she opened the cabinet and allowed me to examine the book. It was a 1970 reprint of the first edition. Very interesting to see, so I thought.

I explained to the library lady why I had made the request. She just looked blank, I think she had no comprehenion or interest in why I wanted to see the book. I asked her if she knew who C.J.Dennis was. No. she had never heard of him, so I explained; to get the same blank uncomprehending look.

Oh dear oh dear oh dear. What a pity.

Probably would need a calculator to work out how much change to give for a $30 purchase when $50 is handed over. Very sad though for one who works as a librarian - although to be fair one could not expect them to know every author but he was hardly a fly by night.....wonder if she would have recognized the names of Lawson and Banjo???

Maureen, I thought the worst part was not that she didn't know, but that she was not interested in an historical perspective on Australian literature.

I guess to her I was just a boring old geezer, but she is a librarian, surely she would want to be interested in any information on Australian literature, especially for children, since our library has an extensive program of activities to introduce children to literature.

Maybe it's just a "job" to her Neville....sadly.

Could be Heather.

I get the impression that our culture is persuaded by the idea that only the latest is worth anything. Whatever is " before our time " can't be of any relevance to us, as if time was the marker of truth or wisdom.