Laurie Hergenhan

Laurie Hergenhan (1931–2019) was Emeritus Professor of Australian Literature, University of Queensland. He founded the journal Australian Literary Studies in 1963 and edited it until 2001. His books include The Australian Short Story (University of Queensland Press, 1992), and Xavier Herbert: Letters (University of Queensland Press, 2002, co-edited with Frances De Groen).

Laurie Hergenhan reviews ‘The Difficulties of My Position: The diaries of prison governor John Buckley Castieau 1855–1884’ edited by Mark Finnane

August 2006, no. 283 • 01 August 2006

Both a scholarly resource and a good read, Castieau’s diaries, effectively edited, enliven and enrich our sense of colonial Melbourne. Castieau’s modest standing adds to the diaries’ significance as they record the dailiness of life, combining the public and the private: work, life around town and ‘the domestic minutiae of everyday life captured in his relentless record’. What makes Cast ... (read more)

'Mindscapes of the artist: Visiting Randolph Stow' by Laurie Hergenhan

July–August 2010, no. 323 • 01 July 2010

I visited Randolph Stow on impulse. We had corresponded briefly and since I was passing through London in February 1975, I asked if I might meet him. He kindly invited me to spend the day with him in East Bergholt, a village in Suffolk, two hours from London. Stow had been living there, in Dairy Farm Cottage, for some six years. Six years later, he moved to nearby Harwich. I did not visit Stow wi ... (read more)

'Letter from Istanbul' by Laurie Hergenhan

July 2001, no. 232 • 01 July 2001

Why don’t you go and see him?’ said Alper. I had met Alper in a small hotel in Istanbul. Over breakfast, we discovered a common interest in Orhan Pamuk, a distinguished contemporary Turkish novelist. Before leaving Australia, I had read Pamuk’s only two novels available in English translation (Faber), including his latest one, highly popular in Turkey, A New Life, and the previous, The Black ... (read more)