Publications

John Curtin: Guide to archives of Australia's Prime Ministers

By David Black and Lesley Wallace

A National Archives of Australia and John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library joint publication, 2004.

This guide describes records on John and Elsie Curtin held by the National Archives, the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library and other institutions in Australia and overseas.

The guide is available for downloading (2.5 mbyte pdf file) or purchase via the National Archives of Australia online shop.

251pp, ISBN 1 920807 12 8

'Friendship is a sheltering tree': John Curtin's letters 1907 to 1945

Author David Black, political commentator and author, provides a sensitive presentation of John Curtin's most intimate letters, placing the correspondence within three distinct periods of Curtin's life and setting the letters within finely rendered historical and personal contexts.

For the first time the letters chronicling the personal story of Curtin's five year courtship with Elsie, previously only revealed in fragments, have now been published in full.

In addition to the letters to his wife, the book includes correspondence to colleagues, close friends and political allies, providing revealing insights into a man who gave all that he had to life and improving the lot of his fellow human beings and for whom love and affection remained constant from beginning to end.

Published by the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library with the assistance of the Library & Information Service, Curtin University of Technology.

ISBN 1 74067 040 X, pb., illus. RRP $29.70 inc.GST

Special price for ordering direct $25.30 including GST and posting and handling within Australia.

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John Curtin's legacy: A series of public lectures from the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library

This book features the speeches delivered during the first three years of public programs at the John Curtin Prime ministerial Library. The distinguished lecturers include David Day, Michelle Grattan, Hazel Hawke, Geoffrey Serle and Gough Whitlam, discussing a range of issues from political democracy to the power of the press.

The book also features John Curtin's own words selected from his editorial writings between 1917 and 1932 and drawn from the collection of the JCPML.

Published by the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library with the assistance of the Library & Information Service, Curtin University of Technology.

ISBN 1 86342 8577, pb., illus.
Cost $11 inclusive of GST

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In his own words: John Curtin's speeches and writings

Edited and narrated by David Black

'...brooding, lonely man'
'he was...what might be called a crying drunk'
'...a forgotten hero'
'He was the great of the Earth.'

Epithets to Australia's World War II Prime Minister, John Curtin, are resonant of the enigma he represents for historians, soldiers and fellow socialists alike.

The story of Curtin's rise from humble origins to lead his country at a time of crisis is the stuff of which heroes are made. Using Curtin's writings and speeches, editor and narrator David Black offers a rare insight into the life of the young socialist agitator and avowed pacifist who rose to unify and govern Australia in its time of greatest peril. Illustrated with fifty photographs and contemporary cartoons, In His Own Words also traces the history of the labour movement in Australia to which Curtin devoted the greater part of his life.

David Black, as Professor in History and Politics at Curtin University of Technology, has lectured and written extensively on Australian and Western Australian history and politics. He is also a regular media commentator on electoral and current political affairs.

Published by Paradigm Books Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, 1995. ISBN 1 86342 422 9
Cost $20 inclusive of GST

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For Australia and Labor: Prime Minister John Curtin

By Geoffrey Serle

This book on John Curtin provides a glimpse into the life and times of Australia's wartime prime minister by distinguished historian, author and Curtin biographer, Dr Geoffrey Serle, AO. His books have won several presitgious awards including the Age Book of the Year.

For Australia and Labor: Prime Minister John Curtin contains photographs drawn from the JCPML's collection, several of which have rarely been seen. The book also contains a helpful glossary of names, a list of further reading and an index.

Contents

Foreword by Elsie Macleod, daughter of John Curtin
Acknowledgements: Mrs Jessie Serle
1885-1917: Early Years
1917-1935: Editor and Parliamentary Apprenticeship
1935-1941: Leader of the Opposition--Uniting the Party
1941-1943: Saviour of the Nation
1943-1945: Prime Minister--Finale
Curtin: The Man and the Leader
Glossary of Names
Further Reading
Index

Published by John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library with the assistance of the Library & Information Service, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia, 1998, pb, illus. ISBN 1 86342 655 8
Cost $11 inclusive of GST

More about Geoffrey Serle

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