City of Letters

In addition to having a plethora of independent bookshops (including The Little Bookroom, which specializes in children's books written by Australian authors - many of which I happen to own), the State Library Victoria is a must-see! Located at 328 Swanston Street, it is Australia's oldest public library and sets the bar high for what a public library can and should strive to be.

Highlight is the La Trobe Reading Room. Built in 1913, it is dominated by a magnificent dome that is 100' in both height and diameter with 15' oculus.

Original issue study desks are now fitted with Internet. 

Two upper floors feature 360-degree gallery of displays, including rare books and magnificent calligraphy. We saw a wonderful historical exhibit called "The Changing Face of Victoria" and watched vignettes from a video called "Writing the War: Personal Stories from WWI" - enacted a la Ken Burns-style via photographs, personal letters, and diaries from a nurse, bank clerk, farmer, artist and activist - among others.

Best of the day was the "Mirror of the World: Books and Ideas" exhibit with an illustrated first edition of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. 

The greatest authors and texts act as literary milestones, signposts marking the collective journeys of imagination.  

There also was a delightful exhibit on pulp fiction in Australia featuring Australian authors Marc Brody and Carter Brown. Apparently tales of tawdry affairs and crime dramas burst onto the literary scene in the 1930s, with American imports dominating the Australian market. Conservative forces wanted them banned, and forged an unlikely alliance with Australian publishers who took the position, "Why do we need to buy this mental rubbish from America, when we can produce perfectly good mental rubbish here in Australia." In the 1940s and 1950s American imports were banned, so Australian publishers had the opportunity to fill the void. Covers, as you can see from the photo below, employed bold colors. Women were portrayed as buxom stereotypes who were either quintessential damsels in distress or femme fatales. We've come a long way, baby?