Furphy: The Water Cart and the Word

by John Barnes

The definitive history of the Furphy water cart and the use and development of the word furphy in the Australian lexicon. It challenges and demolishes through evidence many myths that have grown up over the years. Contains many historical photographs.

Contents
1. Carting water
2. John Furphy
3. Furphy's farm water cart
4. 'Furphy' becomes a household word
5. 'Furphy' by another name
6. 'Furphy' becomes a soldier's word
7. 'Furphy' becomes a collector's item
Afterword
Endnotes.

142 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2005

About the author

John Barnes (1931) is Emeritus Professor of English at La Trobe University, where he taught for 25 years specializing in Australian literature. In addition to his recent book La Trobe; Traveller Writer Governor (2017), he has previously written two biographies: The order of Things: A Life of Joseph Furphy (1990), and Socialist Champion: Portrait of the Gentleman as Crusader (2006).

Other books include: Joseph Furphy (1963); The Writer in Australia: A Collection of Literary Documents 1856-1964 (1969); Henry Kingsley and Colonial Fiction (1971); The Penguin Henry Lawson: Short Stories (in print since 1986): and (with Andrew Furphy) FURPHY: The Water Cart and the Word (2005). He was founding editor of Meridian: The La Trobe University English Review, and editor of the La Trobe Journal.

His current project is a book of literary reminiscences, Partial Portraits.