The Conditions of Fame: Literary Celebrity in Australia between the Wars.

Fame; Celebrities; Literature; War; Radio (Medium)

Modern celebrity is typically associated with metropolitan centers and with the new media of radio and cinema. But Australian cultural institutions and markets were thoroughly engaged in the transnational networks of modernity. New forms of authorial fame emerged alongside the star systems of radio and cinema, largely through the operations of the commercial periodical press. Australian magazines of the 1920s and 1930s register the impact of modernity and celebrity. Personality and celebrity become dominant there, and artists and writers are among those featured. Yet Australia's "provincial" relations to Britain and the US meant that attaching celebrity to Australian authors remained problematic, despite editorial investments in representing local books and writing as aspects of a modern life or personality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]