A certain style: Beatrice Davis, a literary life

by Jacqueline Kent

Beatrice Davis, 1902-1992, was Australia’s most acclaimed book editor, the ‘backroom girl of Australian literature’. As general editor at Angus and Robertson from the late thirties to the early seventies, she nurtured the talents of a host of well-known writers, including Thea Astley, Miles Franklin, Xavier Herbert, Ruth Park, Hal Porter and Patricia Wrightson. Her position as a judge of several major prizes, including the prestigious Miles Franklin Award, reinforced her pivotal role in Australia’s literary culture – a role that saw her by turns respected, feared, courted and berated. Jacqueline Kent’s compulsively readable, erudite and witty biography portrays a woman whose passion for living was as great as her passion for Australian literature.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Australia

344 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing about an editor is a challenge. On the one hand, their work is by its nature hidden. On the other hand, trying to follow the threads of their work (that is, the books they edited and the authors they nurtured) tends to destroy their coherence as a subject, as each thread must be followed for years, even decades, then put down to find another thread that may have started at the same time as the last or only months later. This is a good book, a fairly easy read, but rather than a biography of Beatrice Davis, Australia's first full-time book editor, it is more a history of the Angus & Robertson publishing house refracted through Davis's correspondence with her authors and friends. In this it is a very worthwhile read, giving a focus to an interesting period in Australian publishing history. It is interesting to see how many things have changed, but also to see how many practices, trends, and mythologies remain the same.

(Beyond the material difficulties of writing about an editor, it seems Kent may also have had some personal/moral difficulties. The chapter on Hal Porter in particular seems overly coy, which makes me wonder what else the author has left out.)

[Nathan Hobby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This an engrossing book. As head editor at Angus and Robertson, Beatrice Davis was so central to Australian publishing in the twentieth century that the biography becomes an intriguing history of the whole field through their relationships with her. We hear not just of the careers of literary greats like Miles Franklin, Hal Porter, Xavier Herbert, and Katharine Susannah Prichard, but writers whose names are less well known (Henrietta Drake Brockman) and writers of popular literature (Frank Clunes) and children's literature (Patricia Wrightson). Kent's accounts of them are excellent, distilling career trajectories and selecting illuminating anecdotes.

It is a biography focused on Davis's professional life, probably more due to the nature of the evidence than anything else - Davis's private life was truly private and Kent does not have access to many personal papers. The glimpses we do get suggest an unconventional and dramatic love life. Because of this constraint, there is a sense of the biography as a house with many doors locked to the reader (and biographer), but the study and the lounge room we are shown to are wonderful places to spend time.

[Natalie S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beatrice Davis always knew that someone would write a book about her. This formidable woman was Australia’s most acclaimed book editor. An individual born before her time, she was also the first person to have this role in Australia. It was a job she grabbed by the horns and made her own. A Certain Style was first published in 2001. Davis wasn’t alive to read the finished work but it is heartening to see that this won a National Biography Award upon publication. A Certain Style is a fitting and colourful literary work by a fellow book editor. It has now been re-released with some changes and a new introduction, which will ensure that a new generation of readers know about Davis’s finery.

To read the rest of this review please visit: https://100percentrock.com/book-revie...

[Natalie S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beatrice Davis always knew that someone would write a book about her. This formidable woman was Australia’s most acclaimed book editor. An individual born before her time, she was also the first person to have this role in Australia. It was a job she grabbed by the horns and made her own. A Certain Style was first published in 2001. Davis wasn’t alive to read the finished work but it is heartening to see that this won a National Biography Award upon publication. A Certain Style is a fitting and colourful literary work by a fellow book editor. It has now been re-released with some changes and a new introduction, which will ensure that a new generation of readers know about Davis’s finery.

To read the rest of this review please visit: https://100percentrock.com/book-revie...