May 2005 Newsletter

PROJECT GUTENBERG OF AUSTRALIA
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MONTHLY NEWSLETTER - May 2008 [includes details of ebooks placed online during April 2008]

Dear Avid Reader,

Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing ebooks mentioned in this newsletter.

CONTENTS:
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* News and Reviews
* Last month's postings
* Other Information (including details of how to unsubscribe)

NEWS AND REVIEWS
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VIRGINIA WOOLF (1882-1941)
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Virginia Woolf was an English writer and essayist. We have most of her works at PGA and they consistently rank as some of the most popular downloads from the PGA site. You can access ebooks of her works from http://gutenberg.net.au/pages/woolf.html where you will also find a few snippets of her writing.

The Wikipedia article on Woolf at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf states that she "is considered one of the greatest innovators in the English language. In her works she experimented with stream-of-consciousness, the underlying psychological as well as emotional motives of characters, and the various possibilities of fractured narrative and chronology. In the words of E. M. Forster, she pushed the English language 'a little further against the dark,' and her literary achievements and creativity are influential even today."

F SCOTT FITZGERALD (1896-1940)
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Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F_Scott_Fitzgerald

F Scott Fitzgerald was an American writer and a contemporary of Virginia Woolf. His works are also very popular downloads at the PGA site. You can access ebooks of his novels and short stories from http://gutenberg.net.au/pages/fitzgerald.html

Fitzgerald is considered by many to be one of the twentieth century's greatest writers and "The Great Gatsby" is a 20th Century classic. The Wikipedia article on the book at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby notes that "the novel chronicles an era that Fitzgerald himself dubbed the 'Jazz Age.' Following the shock and chaos of World War I, American society enjoyed unprecedented levels of prosperity during the 'roaring' 1920s as the economy soared. At the same time, Prohibition, the ban on the sale and manufacture of alcohol mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment, made millionaires out of bootleggers and led to an increase in organized crime. Although Fitzgerald, like Nick Carraway in his novel, idolized the riches and glamour of the age, he was uncomfortable with the unrestrained materialism and lack of morality that went with it."

QUOTABLE QUOTES
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Correction:
The quotes in last month's newsletter included one attributed to Phyllis Diller.
The word "mad" was omitted. The correct quote is:

"Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight."

* * * * * * * * *

From Dr Widger's Library at http://www.gutenberg.net.au/widger/home.html

The following quotes are from 'Quotes and Images from the Works of John Galsworthy' at http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/7/5/4/7544/7544-h/7544-h.htm Galsworthy is, perhaps, best known as the author of "The Forsyte Saga", the ebooks of which can be accessed from http://www.gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-a-m.html#galsworthy Galsworthy spoke for the man "of his time", as the following quotations illustrate.

* * * * *

"I'm bad," he said, pouting--"been bad all the week; don't sleep at night. The doctor can't tell why. He's a clever fellow, or I shouldn't have him, but I get nothing out of him but bills."

* * *

Out of his other property, out of all the things he had collected, his silver, his pictures, his houses, his investments, he got a secret and intimate feeling; out of her he got none.

* * *

Forces regardless of family or class or custom were beating down his guard; impending events over which he had no control threw their shadows on his head. The irritation of one accustomed to have his way was roused against he knew not what.

* * *

She was such a decided mortal; knew her own mind so terribly well; wanted things so inexorably until she got them--and then, indeed, often dropped them like a hot potato. Her mother had been like that, whence had come all those tears. Not that his incompatibility with his daughter was anything like what it had been with the first Mrs. Young Jolyon. One could be amused where a daughter was concerned; in a wife's case one could not be amused.

AUSTRALIAN POETRY
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SAID HANRAHAN

"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
In accents most forlorn,
Outside the church, ere Mass began,
One frosty Sunday morn.

The congregation stood about,
Coat-collars to the ears,
And talked of stock, and crops, and drought,
As it had done for years.

"It's looking crook," said Daniel Croke;
"Bedad, it's cruke, me lad,
For never since the banks went broke
Has seasons been so bad."

"It's dry, all right," said young O'Neil,
With which astute remark
He squatted down upon his heel
And chewed a piece of bark.

And so around the chorus ran
"It's keepin' dry, no doubt."
"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"Before the year is out."

"The crops are done; ye'll have your work
To save one bag of grain;
From here way out to Back-o'-Bourke
They're singin' out for rain.

"They're singin' out for rain," he said,
"And all the tanks are dry."
The congregation scratched its head,
And gazed around the sky.

"There won't be grass, in any case,
Enough to feed an ass;
There's not a blade on Casey's place
As I came down to Mass."

"If rain don't come this month," said Dan,
And cleared his throat to speak-
"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"If rain don't come this week."

A heavy silence seemed to steal
On all at this remark;
And each man squatted on his heel,
And chewed a piece of bark.

"We want an inch of rain, we do,"
O'Neil observed at last;
But Croke "maintained" we wanted two
To put the danger past.

"If we don't get three inches, man,
Or four to break this drought,
We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"Before the year is out."

In God's good time down came the rain;
And all the afternoon
On iron roof and window-pane
It drummed a homely tune.

And through the night it pattered still,
And lightsome, gladsome elves
On dripping spout and window-sill
Kept talking to themselves.

It pelted, pelted all day long,
A-singing at its work,
Till every heart took up the song
Way out to Back-o'-Bourke.

And every creek a banker ran,
And dams filled overtop;
"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"If this rain doesn't stop."

And stop it did, in God's good time;
And spring came in to fold
A mantle o'er the hills sublime
Of green and pink and gold.

And days went by on dancing feet,
With harvest-hopes immense,
And laughing eyes beheld the wheat
Nid-nodding o'er the fence.

And, oh, the smiles on every face,
As happy lad and lass
Through grass knee-deep on Casey's place
Went riding down to Mass.

While round the church in clothes genteel
Discoursed the men of mark,
And each man squatted on his heel,
And chewed his piece of bark.

"There'll be bush-fires for sure, me man,
There will, without a doubt;
We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"Before the year is out."

From:
Around The Boree Log and Other Verses
by John O'Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan 1879-1952)
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0500051.txt

'GOOGLE' ADS
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LAST MONTH'S POSTINGS
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A list of all the books we provide is available from http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty.html
Check there to see if there are other works by the authors listed below.

-- APRIL POSTINGS --

Apr 2008 Pitcairn's Island, Nordhoff and Hall              [080042xx.xxx] 1624A
[Authors full names: Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall]
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800421.txt or .zip
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800421h.html
Apr 2008 Men Against the Sea, Nordhoff and Hall            [080041xx.xxx] 1623A
[Authors full names: Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall]
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800411.txt or .zip
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800411h.html
Apr 2008 Mutiny on the Bounty, Nordhoff and Hall           [080040xx.xxx] 1622A
[Authors full names: Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall]
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800401.txt or .zip
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800401h.html
Apr 2008 No Living Witness, Emile C Tepperman              [080039xx.xxx] 1621A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800391.txt or .zip
Apr 2008 Hole-in-the-Wall Barrett, Max Brand               [080038xx.xxx] 1620A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800381.txt or .zip
Apr 2008 Tales of Mean Streets, Arthur Morrison            [080037xx.xxx] 1619A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800371.txt or .zip
Apr 2008 The Thrust of a Finger, H Bedford-Jones           [080036xx.xxx] 1618A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800361.txt or .zip
Apr 2008 Three Smart Silks, H Bedford-Jones                [080035xx.xxx] 1617A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800351.txt or .zip
Apr 2008 Clancy Detective, H Bedford-Jones                 [080034xx.xxx] 1616A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800341.txt or .zip
Apr 2008 The Blue Beetle, H Bedford-Jones                  [080033xx.xxx] 1615A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800331.txt or .zip
Apr 2008 Irregular Brethren, H Bedford-Jones               [080032xx.xxx] 1614A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800321.txt or .zip
Apr 2008 The Just Men Of Cordova, Edgar Wallace            [080031xx.xxx] 1613A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800311.txt or .zip
Apr 2008 The Brigand, Edgar Wallace                        [080030xx.xxx] 1612A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800301.txt or .zip

OTHER INFORMATION
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Newsletter Editor: Colin Choat

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