![Two books placed on top of each other](/sites/default/files/styles/landing_page_banner/public/Mystery004new.jpg?itok=zMmyVCNw)
Books and literature
Take a closer look at the Library's literary and publishing treasures.
![Bookcase filled with Ethel Turner works](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/bookcase_ethel_turner.jpg?itok=mX63ZK61)
Ethel Turner gets personal
A new acquisition reveals the personal and professional lives of one of Australia’s best-known authors.
![Interior of library reading room.](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/rose_main_reading_room_nypl.jpg?itok=u8Jsualn)
Library tourism
Mark Dapin’s wish-list of the most beautiful libraries in the world to visit.
![Black and white portrait of Hélène Bessette.](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/1945_hb_a_angers_5.jpg?itok=xBgdNLyI)
The Blue Road
The untold story of French novelist Hélène Bessette and her poetic novel, La Route Bleue, a love story set in 1940s Sydney.
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A capital idea
Decorated initials — artworks in themselves — have a long history.
![A pastel portrait of Henry Lawson in profile. Lawson wears a suit and tie and has dark brown hair and a reddish brown bushy moustache. His eyes are slightly downcast as he looks to the right hand side of the frame.](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/henry_lawson_1914_florence_rodway_2.jpg?itok=__aj7mZP)
Do we still have time for Henry Lawson?
It is 100 years since the famous writer and chronicler of bush life died.
![Flower patterns](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/flower_border.jpg?itok=D1tg62fR)
The writer & the archivist
Rose de Freycinet, a nineteenth-century French woman, stowaway and diarist, unites a writer and an archivist 200 years later.
![Medical botany : containing systematic and general descriptions](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/e60537_0002.jpg?h=ae9e1d9b&itok=5x-zyF7e)
All well & good
Twenty-first-century notions of wellness have a long lineage.
![Ashendene Press, 1922](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/privatepresseg.jpeg?itok=IiZA7KzL)
The printer’s mark
That curious penguin on the spine of your favourite paperback isn’t there just for decoration.
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A changing world
Children’s picture books reflect the world that makes them, but must try to remake that world too.
![A portrait of HEAT magazine editor, Alexandra Christie taken at her work, Giramondo Publishing in Redfern. Shot for Openbook Winter 2022](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/ob_20220421_009_final_ob_lighter_flat.jpg?itok=Hk478gF-)
On fire
Alexandra Christie is the new editor of HEAT, an illustrious literary publication in its third incarnation
![Ben Crabbe, Karly Joyce and Bill Dowling in the Sound Kitchen foyer. Photo by Joy Lai](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/ob_20211207_070.jpg?itok=w7DV8A6M)
The sound of words
What’s the process for turning words on a page into words in your ear?
![Keira Knightley as Anna Karenina. Photo by Alamy On](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/d32p83.jpg?itok=Uu252CPA)
On literary merit
We may find it easy to give a book one star, or five, but what do we really mean by the phrase ‘literary merit’?
![Mary reading to Denis and Mabel, Richmond Park, London, c 1930](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/l_to_r_mary_denis_mabel_richmond_park_london_c1930_photo_by_eileen_singleton_private_collection_dennis_singleton.jpg?itok=C-YqG29K)
Queering the archive
A biographer reflects on the serendipity of finding traces of her subjects’ intimate lives in the archive.
![2019 NSW Premier's Literary Awards shortlists. Photo by Joy Lai.](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/ple_190214_114_jl_books.jpg?itok=Vy3CMYhl)
And the winner is …
What impact do prizes have on Australia’s literary ecosystem?
![Photo of Emily Bitto](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/emilybitto_27_10_21_0292.jpg?itok=mDd9G0Hs)
Wildest dreams
Emily Bitto's second novel raises compelling questions about writing and living.
![Winners of the Australian Book Design Awards 2021](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/coverartcollage.jpg?itok=6Z3Gvmd8)
Surface art
Book cover design is an intricate and sometimes baffling process that brings together authors, readers, publishers, booksellers and designers.
![Photographs from Gillian Mears’ albums in the Library collection, c 1978–2015, including her time in ‘Ant and Bee’ and Venezuela](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/5730_openbook_spring_meers.jpg?itok=SCGRuChz)
Romance and reality
A biographer faces withdrawal symptoms as she leaves behind an immense archive.
![Book spines](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/210323_048_final.jpg?itok=0N6JalsU)
Spine tingling
Looking closely at the spine could unlock the mystery of a rare book, or it could raise more questions.
![Radhiah Chowdhury, photo by Joy Lai](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/ob_20210407_005_final.jpg?itok=3ZYXhAQh)
New chapters
On diversity, discomfort and the turning of a new page for the Australian publishing industry.
![Jamie Marina Lau, photo by Diego Campomar, shot at The Photo Studio Australia](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/_mg_5498.jpg?itok=c1ivqysY)
Novel thinking
Jamie Marina Lau began her second novel in a dream-like state that belies her intense research.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/pathetic_nihilism.jpg?itok=I3hddJtV)
Beyond belief
Protecting the innocent through censorship has been a fraught and — in hindsight — sometimes comic endeavour.
![alarm_clock_final1.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/alarm_clock_final1_0.jpg?itok=J7j3WlgC)
The Alarm Clock
In the Schumacher household it was legendary: The Alarm Clock.
![Michael Williams, photo by Joy Lai](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/210125_023.jpg?itok=9mIqPZa7)
Turning pages
Sydney Writers’ Festival Artistic Director Michael Williams is ready for the challenges of 2021.
![Rebecca Starford, 2021, photo by Jason Zambelli](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/_m3i7449_rebecca_starford.jpg?itok=4OH2nv8R)
Words across cities
The theme of friendship and betrayal took this writer and editor from her non-fiction debut to her first novel.
![View at Oldbury, c 1826, by Charlotte Atkinson](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/oldbury-charlotte_edit.jpg?itok=WRsUPCNN)
Finding Charlotte
Two writers’ search for their mysterious and talented forebear was full of archival riches.
![Grace Perry, c 1960s](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/grace_0.jpg?itok=7FfbJnnT)
So you want to be a poet
She found fame as a teenage poet, but Grace Perry’s startling later work and her support for fellow poets are barely remembered.
![Illustration by Rosie Handley](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/probate_main.jpg?itok=9SBs7vp8)
Probate: a short story
Stan didn’t look good at all. I could see him in the garden, through a window. Hunched forward, sucking on a cigarette, mistaking it for a sign of life.
![A man is sitting in a bath with a wombat, goat and kangaroo and the water is overflowing onto the floor](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/pamelaallen_0003_cropped.jpg?itok=3hWuR-B5)
Mr Archimedes Moves In
The Library is the new home of award-winning children’s author and illustrator Pamela Allen’s extensive archive.
![Illustration of peas in a wineglass, on a book.](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/1_peas_in_glass_2000px.jpg?itok=nTMZM-Jl)
Peas: a short story
It’s just a bag of peas, she told herself. I can order more online. So why was she crying?
![Ben Crabbe, Karly Joyce and Bill Dowling in the Sound Kitchen foyer. Photo by Joy Lai](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/ob_20211207_070.jpg?itok=w7DV8A6M)
The sound of words
What’s the process for turning words on a page into words in your ear?
![Mireille Juchau.](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/200501_004_final_crop_sq.jpg?itok=DploDpKF)
These strange days: writers, post COVID-19
As writers adapt to a vastly altered publishing landscape, how will they remake themselves in a post-pandemic world?
![In the Days When The World Was Wide, Norman Lindsay copy In the Days When The World Was Wide, Norman Lindsay copy](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/lawson_days_the_world_lindsays_illustrations_01_wr.jpg?itok=MrebBSAD)
Unique editions of Henry Lawson’s early poems
The Library's holdings illustrate the significance of what can at first appear to be copies of the same work.
![An old magazine cover, featuring a woman wearing a swimsuit and a cone-shaped, bamboo hat and the headline: "Bigameist confesses 'I had six wives'".](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/weekend_vol3_no44_june_22_1957.jpg?itok=gwStEMn6)
- Art and culture
Working for the Weekend
Donald Horne’s unlikely editorship of the mass-market Weekend magazine was a crucial stage in the Lucky Country author’s development as a public intellectual.
![the magic pudding illustration](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/magic_pudding.jpg?itok=YNU0VklU)
The Magic Pudding
In October 1918 Angus & Robertson published what would become one of Australia’s best known children’s stories: The Magic Pudding.
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- History
- In Depth
World War I diaries
The Library's collection of World War I diaries offers a glimpse into the life of Australians at war.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/https/files02.sl.nsw.gov.au/fotoweb/public_archive/1031/10311723955134785336.jpg?itok=2APn82ZG)
- History
- People
- In Depth
Miles Franklin
‘Heaven could be no more magical and mystical than unspoiled Australia' - the brilliant career of Miles Franklin.
![Pickwick papers- Charles Dickens Image of Pickwick papers- Charles Dickens](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/pickwick_papers_charles_dickens.jpg?itok=GmnPIRXN)
- Art and culture
- History
- Quick Reads
A distant paradise for Dickens
Charles Dickens saw Australia as a utopia for the working class — and his wayward sons.
![Front Matter: un coup de dés jamais n'abolira de hasard, par Stéphane Mallarmé, Ed́itions de la Nouvelle revue française, 1914, State Library of New South Wales RHQ/1003 mallarme_front matter une_coup_1914_and_papers](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/mallarme_une_coup_1914_and_papers_wr_.jpg?itok=uuL7ltb6)
- Art and culture
- Blog
Mallarmé: ‘Pages’ and ‘A throw of the dice’
Rare first editions of two proto-modernist works by French poet Stéphane Mallarmé.
![Manifeste du Surrealisme [and] Poisson Soluble, Lettre aux voyantes, by Andre Breton, Paris, Simon Kra, 1929, State Library of New South Wales RH0254 Manifeste du Surrealisme [and] Poisson Soluble, Lettre aux voyantes, by Andre Breton, Paris, Simon Kra, 1929](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/20170706_150145.jpg?itok=ctXgZlzH)
- Art and culture
- Blog
Andre Breton: early Surrealist publications
Between 1919 and 1930 Andre Breton published experimental texts that defined the Surrealist movement.
![Literaire Spéciale Ecole Supranormale 1919, State Library of New South Wales PXA49 Literaire Spéciale Ecole Supranormale 1919, State Library of New South Wales PXA49](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/bp_wr_hughes_ecole_supranormale_1919-1920_literature_01.jpg?itok=uu2AQrl_)
- Art and culture
- Blog
The Randolph Hughes Collection
French literature and Pre-Raphaelite works 1800-1950
![Thyne Reid Trust Collection bookplate in Stirring Tales of Colonial Adventure: a book for boys (1894) by James Skipp Borlase](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/no4_thyne_reid_bookplate_crop.jpg?itok=S9qy__kW)
- Art and culture
- History
- Quick Reads
The enjoyment of a good story: 19th-century children's books
From tales of colonial adventure to moralising educational tracts, children’s literature in nineteenth-century Australia played a significant role in educating children as the nation’s future citizens.
![Reader in the Shakespeare Room](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/landingpages/images/img_8937_anna_in_shakespeare_window_photo_by_vanessa_bond_edit_retouch_crop.jpg?itok=rQbuTk_A)
- About the State Library
- Art and culture
- People
- In Depth
Shakespeare at the Library
Discover the fascinating story behind Shakespeare's First Folio and other stories featuring Shakespeare in the Library.
- Story
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- Art and culture
- Quick Reads
Illuminated manuscripts
Illuminated manuscripts are some of the most beautiful written works ever produced.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/https/s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/prod--slnsw-corporate-site/uploads/2018-06/collection-items/37671/c025080424h.jpg?h=9dc82252&itok=PsPQ-JyP)
- Collection item
- History
- Partnerships
- Quick Reads
Magna Carta
The Library holds a rare manuscript version of the 1297 statute of the Magna Carta that was signed by King John at Runnymede.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/https/s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/prod--slnsw-corporate-site/uploads/2018-06/collection-items/27881/a928963h.jpg?itok=qiYzmr22)
- Art and culture
- Quick Reads
Dorothea Mackellar's My Country
"I love a sunburnt country": Learn the history of one of Australia's best loved poems.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/https/files02.sl.nsw.gov.au/fotoweb/public_archive/1090/10902970.jpg?itok=I2oTHNFX)
- Art and culture
- People
- In Depth
Henry Lawson: poet of the people
A writer wrote of the hearts of men, and he followed their tracks afar;
For his was a spirit that forced his pen to write of the things that are.
![The Mystery of the Hansom Cab Fergus Hume Two books placed on top of each other](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/Mystery004new.jpg?itok=YmhRR8TA)
- Art and culture
- People
- Quick Reads
Catching a cab
A surprise bestseller in 1886, Fergus Hume’s The Mystery of a Hansom Cab continues to intrigue.
![Penguins Image of penguins from Birds of Australia](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/mega-menu-image-speldid-species.png?itok=znUiDyTr)
- Collection item
- Quick Reads
Splendid Species
The Library is delighted to announce the complete digitisation of its renowned "pattern" set of 681 folio-sized plates for 'The Birds of Australia' by John Gould.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/https/s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/prod--slnsw-corporate-site/uploads/2018-06/collection-items/32316/a128208h.jpg?itok=5kqtS6SV)
- Art and culture
- Quick Reads
Ethel Turner's Seven Little Australians
"We have decided to go to Lindfield. It will be like being buried alive to live in a quiet little country place after the bustle and excitement of town life."
![Hope you're still going strong! [tennis] c. 1916, colour postcard by May Gibbs](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/public/landing-pages/tiles/home-page/full-screen-slider/maygibbs_tennis_gum_nuts.jpg?itok=5vUkOe5l)
- Art and culture
- Partnerships
- People
- Image
- In Depth
The story of May Gibbs
May Gibbs, author, illustrator and cartoonist, has captured the hearts and imaginations of generations of Australians with her lovable bush characters and fairytale landscapes.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_280/https/files02.sl.nsw.gov.au/fotoweb/public_archive/3537/35374741.jpg?itok=v45pXAE2)
- History
- Natural world
- Quick Reads
Through Darwin's eyes
Australia played an important role in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.