John Arnold
Senior Lecturer, Communications & Media Studies
BA (Mon); Grad Dip Librarianship (RMIT); MA (Textual and Bibliographical Studies) (Mon)
Contact details | Research interests | Publications
Latest work
The Fanfrolico Press: satyrs, fauns and fine books
To be published in October 2008 by the Private Libraries Association in conjunction with the British Library, this elegantly produced book tells the story of the Fanfrolico Press from its beginnings in Sydney in 1923 to its closure following bankruptcy in London in late 1930. Using the letters and reminiscences of the key players – Jack and Norman Lindsay, P R Stephensen, and John Kirtley – it provides a detailed account of both the books published by the press and the entwined lives in both Sydney and London of the Lindsay family and their Fanfrolico associates in the nineteen-twenties.
John Arnold has been associated with the National Centre for Australian Studies since its foundation in 1989. A former Director of NCAS, he was also Head of the School of Political and Social Inquiry from September 2001 to February 2004.
John has taught in the both the Graduate Publishing and the Graduate Communications Programs offered by NCAS. He is currently teaching Com 4001/5001: Researching and Writing Australia and Com 4008: Media Ethics and Practice plus supervising students undertaking the Com 5004: Industry Research Project. He is also an experienced supervisor of Masters and Doctoral theses.
In his teaching John tries to engage and enthuse students in their chosen subjects, making them think independently and outside the square rather than just follow a rigid reading list or unit outline. In the first semester of 2008 he shared the position of Monash Visiting Lecturer in Australian Studies at the University of Copenhagen with NCAS colleague, Dr Jeff Jarvis.
Recent ARC Grant Success
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Australian Literary Publishing and its Economies, 1965-1995. Co Chief Investigator, ARC Discovery, 2007-09
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AustLit Phase Two: ARC Humanities Research Infrastructure, 2007-08
John Arnold is a member of the Australian Dictionary of Biography Victorian Working Party and a long-standing member of the State Library of Victoria Foundation. He is also the editor of the La Trobe Journal, a refereed journal published by Foundation.
Research interests
John’s research and related publications can be divided into four linked areas:
- The history of the book in Australia
- The bibliographic recording of publications by Australian authors
- Compilation of major Australian reference books and support materials for Australian Studies.
- The life and writings of the Australian expatriate writer, Jack Lindsay.
As part of a large ARC Linkage Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities Grant (2006-08) he is one of three editors of sub-project entitled ‘Publishers of Australian Literature’ which aims to create a dataset of biographical and organisational records covering the publishers of Australian literature from the early nineteenth century to the present day.
Publications
The Fanfrolico Press: Satyrs, Fauns and Ladies, Private Libraries Association in conjunction with the British Library (2008)
The Bibliography of Australian Literature. Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing/St Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 2001-08 (4 vols) Co-general editor.
‘Sun Books, 1965-1985’, in Paper Empire: a history of the book in Australia, 1946-2000 edited by Craig Munro and Robyn Sheehan-Bright, St Lucia, Qld: UQP, 2006, pp. 162-65.
‘Literature’ The Encyclopedia of Melbourne. Ed. Andrew Brown-May, et al. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 421-26. Co-author
A History of the Book in Australia, 1891-1945: a national culture in a colonized market, St Lucia Qld: University of Queensland Press, 2001, pp. 444. Co-editor and major contributor.
