Biography Series, ANU Press title
Photo by Tom Hermans on Unsplash
In response to the current popularity of biography, the Biography Series was established by the National Centre of Biography in conjunction with ANU Press in 2008 (originally under the title ANU.Lives). It aims to publish lively, engaging and provocative biographies and memoirs and nurture best practice in biographical scholarship. Books published in the series will engage critically with issues and problems in historiography and life writing.
The books are published online by ANU Press and are also available in hardcopy.
Editorial committee
- Professor Melanie Nolan (chair), Director, National Centre of Biography
- Dr Malcolm Allbrook, Managing Editor, Australian Dictionary of Biography
- Dr Patrick Mullins, Canberra-based writer and academic
- Professor Melanie Oppenheimer, Emeritus Professor, University of Flinders; Honorary Professor, School of History, ANU
- Dr Stephen Wilks, Research editor, National Centre of Biography
Submitting a manuscript
Authors wishing to submit a manuscript for consideration by ANU Lives should first contact Professor Melanie Nolan at melanie.nolan@anu.edu.au.
A Bridge Between: Spanish Benedictine Missionary Women in Australia
Author/editor: Massam, K.
Year published: 2020
A Bridge Between is the first account of the Benedictine women who worked at New Norcia and the first book-length exploration of twentieth-century life in the Western Australian mission town. From the founding of a grand school intended for ‘nativas’, through links to Mexico and Paraguay then…
People and Place
Author/editor: Richardson, L.
Year published: 2020
People and Place traces the enduring relationship between history, people and place that has shaped the character of a single region in a manner perhaps unique within the New Zealand experience. It explores the evolution of a distinctive regional literature that both shaped and was shaped by the…
‘True Biographies of Nations?’
Author/editor: Fox, K.
Year published: 2019
'True Biographies of Nations?': The Cultural Journeys of Dictionaries of National Biography brings together practitioners from around the English‑speaking world to reflect on national biographical dictionary projects’ recent cultural journeys, and the challenges presented to them by such…
Clio's Lives: Biographies and Autobiographies of Historians
Author/editor: Doug Munro and John G. Reid (eds)
Year published: 2017
Including contributions from leading scholars in the field from both Australia and North America, this collection explores diverse approaches to writing the lives of historians and ways of assessing the importance of doing so.
Quick Link: clio_book_poster.pdf(737.32 KB)
The Histories of Raphael Samuel: A Portrait of a People's Historian
Author/editor: Sophie Scott-Brown
Year published: 2017
This book situates British historian Raphael Samuel (1934–1996) in relation to his distinctive form of activist politics as they developed from youthful Cold War communism to the first British New Left, 1960s radicalism to the 1980s history wars.
Family Experiments: Middle-class, professional families in Australia and New Zealand c. 1880–1920
Author/editor: Shelley Richardson
Year published: 2016
Family Experiments explores the forms and undertakings of ‘family’ that prevailed among British professionals who migrated to Australia and New Zealand in the late nineteenth century. Their attempts to establish and define ‘family’ in Australasian, suburban environments reveal how the Victorian…
The Seven Dwarfs and the Age of the Mandarins: Australian Government Administration in the Post-War Reconstruction Era
Author/editor: Samuel Furphy (ed)
Year published: 2015
This book looks at the powerful group of talented (but short) university graduates who entered the public service, rose to senior levels, and exerted great influence over the affairs of the Commonwealth in the postwar years. With the secure tenure of being permanent heads of departments,…