Biography of a Book: Henry Lawson’s While the Billy Boils

Biography of a Book traces the life of an iconic Australian literary work in the lead-up to its initial publication—and for a century after.While the Billy Boils was Henry Lawson’s first story collection and remains an archetypal classic of Australian literature. Paul Eggert’s book-historical case study has far-reaching implications for the methods of literary study. Eggert not only revives the long-neglected concept of the literary work but also broadens it to incorporate reading practices, historical readerships, and the material forms of works that readers actually encountered.

Eggert shows how Lawson’s famous collection came out at a decisive moment for the development of a fully professional Australian literary publishing industry, then in its infancy in Sydney. The volume’s editing, design, and production were collaborative events that changed the feel and nature of Lawson’s writing. The book went on to be reprinted and repackaged countless times. Its production and reception histories act like a geological cross section, revealing the contours of successive cultural formations in Australia. In unraveling the life of Lawson’s classic work, Eggert’s book-historical approach challenges and clarifies established understandings of crucial moments in Australian literary history and of Lawson himself.