"The literary hoax of the twentieth century" has been revived through a recent offering by Douglas Stewart Fine Books, Melbourne. It consists of the following copy of the 1944 autumn number of Angry Penguins edited by Max Harris and John Reed, Melbourne, commemorating the (bogus) Australian poet Ern Malley created by James McAuley and Harold Stewart .The foxed copy ,with illustrated wrappers by Sidney Nolan , is listed at $1650. It contains a rare errata slip and early pencil annotations commenting on the poetry and the Adelaide prosecution of Max Harris .
In addition to the legendary poems by ‘Ern Malley’ this issue also includes contributions by Albert Tucker, Cedric Flower, Peter Cowan, Gordon Thomson, Neil Douglas, Dal Stivens, Bernard Smith, Alister Kershaw, John Tallis, Colin Thiele, Barrie Reid, Elizabeth Galloway, Frank Kellaway, Harry Roskolenko, Geoffrey Dutton, John Reed, an illustrated article on Australian Aboriginal Art by Leonard Adam, candid photographs of Arthur Boyd, John Perceval, Eric Schimmer, Danila Vassilieff, Joy Hester, Max Harris, Sunday Reed, John Reed, Ivor P. Francis,
The famous Ern Malley issue, with a run of 900 copies, is regarded as a rare Australian literary icon. The hoax was explained in full for the first time in Michael Heyward's book ,published by University of Queensland Press.
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