While the Billy Boils

A scholarly edition of Henry Lawson’s famous collection of short stories While the Billy Boils, edited by Paul Eggert and Elizabeth Webby, is nearing completion. The texts are based on the original newspaper versions where Lawson found his voice. They were later heavily revised and copyedited for the volume While the Billy Boils in 1896. The actual documents on which these processes were carried out are in the Mitchell Library. They are the site where author’s intentions and 1890s colonial book marketing can be shown to have quite palpably met. The scholarly edition will record and interpret this process of adaptation and a supplementary website will give access to colour facsimiles of the documents Lawson and his copy-editor worked on. The full-scale scholarly edition is scheduled for publication in 2010 by Sydney University  Press. The edition will be accompanied by a monograph by Paul Eggert entitled  Making a Literary Classic:  A Textual and Cultural History of Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils 1888--1988

Contact: Professor Paul Eggert  
School of Humanities & Social Sciences 
UNSW at ADFA   
Canberra ACT 2600
Ph: 61 2 6268 8900 
Fax: 61 2 6268 8899 
Email: p.eggert@adfa.edu.au

Last Updated: 25 November 2009