Australians

Press, Volume C, Issue 29436, 11 February 1961, Page 3

Australians

National Portraits. By Vance Palmer. Melbourne University Press. 237 pp.

Paperback editions of books that have been either out of print or have been available only at a high price have been a welcome feature of the publishing of British university presses during the last year or two. Now the Melbourne University Press has followed suit and produced its first paperback. It is a reissue of a popular set of biographical sketches by the late Vance Palmer.

First published in 1940, “National Portraits” was the subject of a fresh edition in both 1948 and 1954. This reissue as a Melbourne Paperback is based on the third edition which was enlarged by the inclusion of four additional short biographies (those of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, J. B. Chifley, John Flynn, and Professor L. F Giblin). Vance Palmer, the author, died in 1959. but “National Portraits” will help to keep his memory alive for many years to come, for it succeeds in bringing out what was most important to Australia in the lives of the 25 characters treated in it.

The author sought to deal with significant or representative types in a field as varied as possible in that it took in an explorer, a painter, a politician, a botanist, a banker, a soldier, a unionist, and a prelate. Vance Palmer selected his chosen 25 Australians “either because of their representative character, or because they seemed to me true pioneers, originating ideas and

tapping springs that were later to enrich the national life.”

Although a great deal of research into Australian history has been done in the last two decades and some outstanding new biographies have been written on men included in Palmer's list, his book retains its value and interest. Those who want to know more about John Macarthur and Lachlan Macquarie, the two • opening batsmen in Palmer's team, can now turn to the full-length studies by M. H. Eilis, but those who want short pen-portraits which sum up essentials in character and in contribution to the national growth of Australia cannot do better than turn to the first of the very welcome Melbourne Paperbacks.