Overland began life as the Realist Writer – the magazine of the Melbourne Realist Writers’ Group, sponsored by the Communist Party of Australia (CPA). Stephen Murray-Smith edited seven issues of the Realist Writer before Overland was officially born, with Murray-Smith as its chief steward.
For much of its life, Overland has endeavoured to ‘aim high… [and to] make a special point of developing writing talent in people of diverse backgrounds’.
The official connection with the CPA ended in 1958, but the magazine has always remained the ‘most radical of Australia’s long-standing literary magazines’.
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This audio tour is narrated by Ramona Koval, who hosts The Book Show on ABC Radio National every weekday at 10am and 8pm. Ramona Koval has written several books and her many interviews with leading writers have been broadcast on ABC Radio and published in books.
Illustration
Overland vol 1, no. 1 (detail), 1954, edited by Stephen Murray-Smith, SLT 819.905 OV2
Transcript
This is the first issue of the progressive literary magazine Overland. It was released in the spring of 1954. The front cover features a drawing by Noel Counihan, Off to the Diggins, 1854. The magazine's editor and founder was Stephen Murray-Smith.
Historian, public intellectual and environmental activist, Murray-Smith has been described by Manning Clark as one of 'Australia’s great native sons'. The founding motto of Overland was 'Temper democratic; bias Australian'. It set out to talk of books and writing in a way that ordinary people would enjoy and to popularise Australian literature. Murray-Smith remained its editor until his untimely death in 1988.
He was born in Melbourne in 1922, attending Geelong Grammar, and after serving in the Second World War, enrolled in an Arts degree at the University of Melbourne, where he studied with Geoffrey Serle and Ian Turner under Manning Clarke. He was a member of the Communist Party for 13 years, and prior to establishing Overland, edited several issues of the Realist Writer, a magazine sponsored by the Communist Party. The official connection with the Communist Party ended in 1958, but the magazine has always remained the 'most radical of Australia's long-standing literary journals.'
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