Extract from ABC News
A lot has changed since these readers browsed the Sydney Public Library collection in the 1920s, but there are some similarities in the types of books that are popular. (Supplied: National Library of Australia)
In the summer of 1925, long before podcasts, audiobooks and even paperbacks, holiday reading meant hoping a hardback fit in your suitcase.
Australia's population was around six million, Stanley Bruce was prime minister, Australia won the Ashes 4-1 and Geelong had just won their first ever flag in the Victorian Football League.
It was the inter-war period where culture was flourishing, and technology was making the world seem smaller.
And yet reading was as prolific as ever.
Two men reading in Queensland in the 1920s. (Supplied: National Library of Australia)
"Back in 1925, reading was an everyday activity," National Library of Australia historian Dr Rebecca Fleming said.
"We think of reading lists as being 'Which novels should I read on the beach?' but reading used to be so ingrained in people's lives … They were reading everything."
Shaping the world
Some books published in 1925 would go on to become household names, for better or for worse.
"It's really interesting to see who was popular at the time and who was going to emerge," Dr Fleming said.
Cole’s Funny Picture Book was a popular gift for children throughout the 1920s. (Supplied: National Library of Australia)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published in 1925, as was the first edition of The New Yorker magazine.
From a prison in Bavaria, Hitler released his first volume of Mein Kampf. A century later, it's banned in Austria and Romania and restricted in other European countries, while German bookstores began reselling it in 2016.
And just a year earlier, in 1924, A.A. Milne published a poetry book called When We Were Very Young — which included the character of Christopher Robin, who would later befriend Winnie the Pooh in the 1926 book.
The first American edition of A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh book 'The House at Pooh Corner', dated 1928, was part of a collection auctioned 80 years later at Sotheby's in London for 1.3 million pounds ($2.8 million). (Luke MacGregor: Reuters)
Books into films
Dr Fleming said several books from the mid-1920s era were turned into silent films at the time, too.
Helen de Guerry Simpson's Acquittal was among them, as was The Narrow Street by Edwin Bateman Morris.
"The whole idea of books becoming blockbusters is not new," Dr Fleming said.
One newspaper review from 1925 read: "The Narrow Street is another best seller of the printed page which will be a bestseller at the box office".
"That could be a sentence you would read today," Dr Fleming said.
Some films from that era have lasting appeal, too — Mabel Forrest's The Wild Moth was released in 1924 and adapted as The Moth of Moonbi in 1926 by Charles Chauvel.
A team of film makers in Queensland are currently attempting to recreate the film.
So what was on summer reading lists in 1925?
Dr Fleming said there were a lot of similarities between what was popular among readers 100 years ago and now.
Detective stories and romance novels were dominating best seller lists in 1925 — as they have done in 2025.
Jewelled Nights by Marie Bjelke-Peterson was among the most popular romance books (and it was also turned into a film).
In 1925, Agatha Christie was just starting out publishing books that would make her the best selling fictional writer of all time. (Getty: Popperfoto)
Agatha Christie, now the best-selling fiction author of all time, had just released her fifth of what would become 66 murder novels — The Secret of Chimneys.
Nature study and art books were popular too.
The Melbourne Argus recommended The Art of George Lambert on their 'Books for Christmas' list of 1925; Lambert later won an Archibald.
Henry Lawson's poetry was popular, and poet Kenneth Slessor was just beginning to gain a reputation.
Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson — famously known as Henry Handel Richardson. (Supplied)
Australian author Henry Handel Richardson's second book in her The Fortunes of Richard Mahony trilogy was released, called The Way Home.
There was interest, too, in international authors such as Joseph C. Lincoln's book, Queer Judson.
Time travelling into the past
Dr Fleming encouraged people to look into the past for their summer reading inspiration.
"There's a lot of universal themes that if you pick up some of these older books, even if the language is slightly different, you can recognise those themes," she said.
"There is a recognition of the universality of human experience, and [it's] a fascinating opportunity to look back and see how people looked at things then.
"That might be one of the things that keeps attracting people."
Dr Fleming said the types of books people liked hadn't really changed in 100 years. (Supplied: National Library of Australia)
So, is it possible to predict what readers in 2125 will look back on as a classic?
"It would be very hard to predict," Dr Fleming said.
"We can't time travel into the future, but we can absolutely time travel into the past.
"You can, as a reader, jump in there … and become a reader of 1925."
No comments:
Post a Comment