*A Little Bush Maid* (1910)
May. 21st, 2011 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
emma_in_dreamI have just read a fascinating article - Robyn Emerson's *Requiem for A Little Bush Maid*, published in *Southerly* in 2008.
She talks about the different editions of *A Little Bush Maid*, beginning with the serialisation from 1905 and 1907 in Melbourne's *Leader* newspaper.
There were, roughly speaking, a series of major editions - 1910, a new edition with a more grown up Norah around 1950, new editions in the 1970s, in 1981 and a final edition in 1996. The copyright was handed back to her estate by Ward Lock in the noughties, a surefire indication that they don't think it's worth another edition.
Beginning with the 1981 edition, racial issues began to be edited in the book. This is the first time since 1905 that Noral didn't call Black Billy 'a lazy young n****' (in 1905 she called him a 'lazy young darky' and it got changed for the English publishing).
The final 1996 edition more changes were made. He became a 'general helper' rather than a 'general flunkey' and was no longer 'that black image' but a 'young man'.
She talks about the different editions of *A Little Bush Maid*, beginning with the serialisation from 1905 and 1907 in Melbourne's *Leader* newspaper.
There were, roughly speaking, a series of major editions - 1910, a new edition with a more grown up Norah around 1950, new editions in the 1970s, in 1981 and a final edition in 1996. The copyright was handed back to her estate by Ward Lock in the noughties, a surefire indication that they don't think it's worth another edition.
Beginning with the 1981 edition, racial issues began to be edited in the book. This is the first time since 1905 that Noral didn't call Black Billy 'a lazy young n****' (in 1905 she called him a 'lazy young darky' and it got changed for the English publishing).
The final 1996 edition more changes were made. He became a 'general helper' rather than a 'general flunkey' and was no longer 'that black image' but a 'young man'.
