This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1929.

Books

* Arthur H. Adams – ''A Man's Life'' *

Martin Boyd Martin à Beckett Boyd (10 June 1893 – 3 June 1972) was an Australian writer born into the à Beckett– Boyd family, a family synonymous with the establishment, the judiciary, publishing and literature, and the visual arts since the early 19t ...

– ''

Dearest Idol ''Dearest Idol'' (1929) is a novel by Australian writer Martin Boyd. It was published under the author's pseudonym "Walter Beckett". Story outline The novel is set in Europe and follows the story of a 19-year-old boy named Tony Dawson (called ...

'' *

Bernard Cronin Bernard Cronin (18 March 1884 – 9 June 1968) was an Australian author and journalist. With Gertrude Hart, he founded the Old Derelicts' Club in 1920 which later became the Society of Australian Authors. Life Cronin was born in Ealing, Midd ...

– ''Toad'' *

Jean Devanny Jane (Jean) Devanny (7 January 1894 – 8 March 1962) was a New Zealand writer and communist. Born in Ferntown near Collingwood, New Zealand, Collingwood in the Nelson district of New Zealand to William and Jane Crook, she migrated to Australia i ...

– ''Riven'' *

M. Barnard Eldershaw M. Barnard Eldershaw was the pseudonym used by the twentieth-century Australian literary collaborators Marjorie Barnard (1897–1987) and Flora Eldershaw (1897–1956). In a collaboration that lasted two decades from the late 1920s to the ...

– '' A House is Built'' * Arthur Gask – ''The Lonely House'' *

Mary Gaunt Mary Eliza Bakewell Gaunt (20 February 1861 – 19 January 1942) was an Australian novelist, born in Chiltern, Victoria. She also wrote collections of short stories, novellas, autobiographies, and non-fiction. She published her first novel '' ...

– ''The Lawless Frontier'' *

Norman Lindsay Norman Alfred William Lindsay (22 February 1879 – 21 November 1969) was an Australian artist, etcher, sculptor, writer, art critic, novelist, cartoonist and amateur boxer. One of the most prolific and popular Australian artists of his genera ...

– '' Madam Life's Lovers : A Human Narrative Embodying a Philosophy of the Artist in Dialogue Form'' * Jack McLaren – ''A Diver Went Down'' *

Frederic Manning Frederic Manning (22 July 188222 February 1935) was an Australian poet and novelist. Biography Born in Sydney, Manning was one of eight children of local politician Sir William Patrick Manning. His family were Roman Catholics of Irish orig ...

– ''The Middle Parts of Fortune : Somme and Ancre, 1916'' * Myra Morris – ''Enchantment'' *

Katharine Susannah Prichard Katharine Susannah Prichard (4 December 18832 October 1969) was an Australian author and co-founding member of the Communist Party of Australia. Early life Prichard was born in Levuka, Fiji in 1883 to Australian parents. She spent her childhoo ...

- '' Coonardoo'' *

Henry Handel Richardson Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson (3 January 187020 March 1946), known by her pen name Henry Handel Richardson, was an Australian author. Life Born in East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, into a prosperous family that later fell on hard tim ...

– '' Ultima Thule'' *

Alice Grant Rosman Alice Grant Rosman (18 July 1882 — 20 August 1961) (born Alice Trevenen Rosman) was an Australian novelist. Writing career Alice Rosman was born in Kapunda, South Australia. She had one sister called Mary and the two girls attended St Mary's ...

– ''Visitors to Hugo'' * Arthur W. Upfield – '' The Barrakee Mystery''

Short stories

Dulcie Deamer Mary Elizabeth Kathleen Dulcie Deamer (13 December 1890 – 16 August 1972) was a New Zealand-born Australian novelist, poet, journalist and actor. She was a founder and committee member of the Fellowship of Australian Writers. Life Deamer was bo ...

– ''As It Was in the Beginning'' *

Vance Palmer Edward Vivian "Vance" Palmer (28 August 1885 – 15 July 1959) was an Australian novelist, dramatist, essayist and critic. Early life Vance Palmer was born in Bundaberg, Queensland, on 28 August 1885 and attended the Ipswich Grammar School. With ...

** "Ancestors" ** "Jettisoned" *

– "The Bath" *

David Unaipon David Ngunaitponi (28 September 1872 – 7 February 1967), known as David Unaipon, was an Aboriginal Australian man of the Ngarrindjeri people. He was a preacher, inventor and author. Unaipon's contribution to Australian society helped to bre ...

– ''Native Legends''

Children's and Young Adult fiction

Mary Grant Bruce Mary Grant Bruce (24 May 1878 – 2 July 1958), also known as Minnie Bruce, was an Australian children's author and journalist. While all her thirty-seven books enjoyed popular success in Australia and overseas, particularly in the United Kingdo ...

– ''The Happy Traveller'' *

May Gibbs Cecilia May Gibbs MBE (17 January 1877 – 27 November 1969) was an Australian children's author, illustrator, and cartoonist. She is best known for her gumnut babies (also known as "bush babies" or "bush fairies"), and the book ''Snugglepot a ...

– ''Bib and Bub in Gumnut Town'' *

Lilian Turner Lilian Turner (21 August 1867 – 25 August 1956) was an Australian writer. Biography Lilian Wattnall Burwell was born 21 August 1867. She was the elder sister of Ethel Turner and the daughter of Bennett George and Sarah Jane Burwell. Bennett G ...

– ''Lady Billie''

Poetry

Ruth Bedford Ruth Bedford (2 August 1882 – 24 July 1963) was an Australian poet, playwright and fiction writer. Career Born in Petersham, Sydney, to Alfred Percival Bedford and Agnes Victoria Stephen, daughter of Sir Alfred Stephen, an influential chief ...

– ''Fairies and Fancies'' * Furnley Maurice – ''The Gully and Other Verses'' * Myra Morris – ''White Magic'' *

John Shaw Neilson John Shaw Neilson was an Australian poet. Slightly built, for most of his life he worked as a labourer, fruit-picking, clearing scrub, navvying and working in quarries, and, after 1928, working as a messenger with the Country Roads Board in Mel ...

– "The Whistling Jack" *

Kenneth Slessor Kenneth Adolphe Slessor (27 March 190130 June 1971) was an Australian poet, journalist and official war correspondent in World War II. He was one of Australia's leading poets, notable particularly for the absorption of modernist influences int ...

** "Cucumber Kitty" ** "Snowdrops"

Drama

* Betty Roland – ''Morning''

Non-fiction

* Alec H. Chisholm – ''Birds and Green Places : A Book of Australian Nature Gossip''

Awards and honours

Literary

Births

A list, ordered by date of birth (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of births in 1929 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of death. * 5 January – Veronica Brady, poet and critic (died

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

) * 1 February –

R. A. Simpson Ronald Albert Simpson (1 February 1929 – 2 October 2002) was an Australian poet and poetry editor, artist and art lecturer. He was one of the Melbourne poets, and had a long tenure as poetry editor of ''The Age''. Life Simpson was born ...

, poet (died

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

) * 16 February – Peter Porter, poet (died

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

) *26 March – David Lake, science fiction novelist (born in India)(died

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

) * 2 April –

Catherine Gaskin Catherine Gaskin (2 April 19296 September 2009) was an Irish–Australian romance novelist. Biography Gaskin was born in Dundalk Bay, County Louth, Ireland in 1929. When she was only three months old, her parents moved to Australia, settling i ...

, novelist (born in Ireland)(died

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

) * 14 April –

Ray Mathew Raymond Frank "Ray" Mathew (14 April 192927 May 2002) was an Australian author. Mathew wrote poetry, drama, radio plays and filmscripts, short stories, novels, arts and literature criticism, and other non-fiction. He left Australia in 1960 and nev ...

, novelist, poet and dramatist (died

) * 5 May –

Kenneth Cook Kenneth Bernard Cook (5 May 1929 – 18 April 1987) was an Australian journalist, television documentary maker, and novelist best known for his works ''Wake in Fright (novel), Wake in Fright'', which is still in print five decades after its first ...

, novelist (died

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

) * 7 October –

Ken Inglis Kenneth Stanley Inglis, (7 October 1929 – 1 December 2017) was an Australian historian. Early life and education Inglis was born in the Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe, on 7 October 1929, the son of Stan and Rene Inglis. He was educated at Tyler ...

, historian (died

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

) * 11 December –

Desmond O'Grady Desmond M. O'Grady (11 December 1929 – 26 November 2021) was an Australian journalist, author, and playwright who resided and worked in Rome from 1962. Early life Desmond Michael O’Grady, (b. 11 December 1929) was born in Melbourne, Aus ...

, novelist and short story writer (died

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

in Italy)

Deaths

A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by

surname In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...

) of deaths in 1929 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth. * 27 February — Lala Fisher, poet, writer and editor (born

1872 Events January–March * January 12 – Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum, the first ruler crowned in that city in over 500 years. * February 2 – The government of the United Kingdom buys a number of forts on ...

) * 28 May –

Barbara Baynton Barbara Janet Baynton (née Lawrence; 4 June 1857 – 28 May 1929) was an Australian writer known primarily for her short stories about life in the bush. She published the collection '' Bush Studies'' (1902) and the novel ''Human Toll'' (1907), ...

, novelist and short story writer (born

1857 Events January–March * January 1 – The biggest Estonian newspaper, ''Postimees'', is established by Johann Voldemar Jannsen. * January 7 – The partly French-owned London General Omnibus Company begins operating. * Janua ...

) * 8 June – Laura Palmer-Archer, short story writer, wrote as Bushwoman (born

1864 Events January–March * January 13 – American songwriter Stephen Foster ("Oh! Susanna", "Old Folks at Home") dies aged 37 in New York City, leaving a scrap of paper reading "Dear friends and gentle hearts". His parlor song " ...

)

References

{{Years in Australian literature

Literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

Australian literature by year 20th-century Australian literature