140 Years of BooksDisplay cartoon by Zig Kapelis

Exhibition 11 August – 28 September 2014
Rare Books & Special Collections
Level 1, Barr Smith Library
University of Adelaide

Books educate, enlighten and entertain. They are the record of changing culture, science and thought. They provide witness to historic turmoil and human progress, and in turn can influence the future.

In celebration of the University of Adelaide’s 140th anniversary, Rare Books & Special Collections present ‘140 Books: 1874-2014’, an exhibition of books published in each year of the University’s history.

Since 1874, the University Libraries have built substantial collections to support research and teaching, providing access today to more than 2.3 million print and over 260,000 electronic items.

All the items on display are from the Library’s collections and most remain available for borrowing.

The selected works were either best sellers in their time, had a considerable impact on society, or reflected significant historical events. Some will be the subjective choices of the curators, and many will be controversial.

Let us know via the Special Collections Facebook page or via email what you think.

Cheryl Hoskin
Special Collections Librarian

1874
His Natural Life / Marcus Clarke
Clarke’s novel was originally published in the Australian Journal between 1870 and 1872 and printed as a novel in 1874, changing title in later editions to For the Term of His Natural Life. A tale of the survival of the human spirit in the face of cruelty and violence, it is the best known novelisation of life as a convict in early Australian history

Also published in 1874:
Far From the Madding Crowd / Thomas Hardy
The Dieyerie Tribe South Australian Aborigines / Trooper Samuel Gason

1875
Insectivorous Plants / Charles Darwin
Part of a series of works by Darwin related to his theory of natural selection, this book is a study of carnivorous plants with specific attention paid to the adaptations that allow them to live in difficult conditions

Also published in 1875:
Roderick Hudson / Henry James (Henry James' first novel)

1876
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer / Mark Twain

Also published in 1876:
Daniel Deronda / George Eliot
A Classification and Subject Index for Cataloguing and Arranging the Books and Pamphlets of a Library / Melvil Dewey (1st edition of the Dewey Decimal Classification scheme for libraries)

1877
The American Senator / Anthony Trollope
Novel of rural English life and an unscrupulous woman search of a husband

Also published in 1877:
Trois contes / Gustave Flaubert
Black Beauty / Anna Sewell

1878
The Haunted Hotel: a Mystery of Modern Venice. To which is added My Lady's Money / Wilkie Collins
Collins was a ‘superstar’ of Victorian literature, writing 60 short stories, 14 plays and 30 novels. This supernatural detective saga is an unusually horrific tale

Also published in 1878:
The Europeans / Henry James
An Inland Voyage / Robert Louis Stevenson (his earliest book and a pioneering work of outdoor literature)

1879
A Treatise on the Mathematical Theory of the Motion of Fluids / Horace Lamb
The first Elder Professor of Mathematics at the newly founded University of Adelaide, Lamb was an gifted mathematician and wrote several influential works on physics

Also published in 1879:
A Doll’s House / Henrik Ibsen
A Dictionary of Music and Musicians / edited by George Grove (later known as Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians)

1880
A Grammar of Japanese Ornament and Design / T. W. Cutler
Comprehensive survey of Japanese art and ornamentation following the opening of Japan to the West in the mid-19th century

Also published in 1880:
Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S.Challenger during the years 1873-76

1881
The Portrait of a Lady / Henry James
A young, spirited American woman affronts her destiny in Henry James’ enduring masterpiece

Also published in 1881:
History of Woman Suffrage / Elizabeth Cady Stanton

1882
The Revolt of Man / Walter Besant
Novel in which the traditional roles of sexes are reversed with disastrous effects - a critique of the New Woman ideology

Also published in 1882:
Ghosts / Henrik Ibsen

1883
Treasure Island / Robert Louis Stevenson
Stevenson’s classic children’s adventure novel

Also published in 1883:
Also Sprach Zarathustra / Friedrich Nietzsche

1884
Flatland: a Romance of Many Dimensions / by... A Square [Rev. Edwin Abott Abbott]
Novella depicting a two-dimensional world satirising the social hierarchy of Victorian culture. Adapted as a feature film in 2007

Also published in 1884:
The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State ... / Friedrich Engels

1885
A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian nights' Entertainments ... / Richard F. Burton
Celebrated English translation of One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of stories and folk tales
 compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age 8th −13th centuries

Also published in 1885:
King Solomon’s Mines / H. Rider Haggard

1886
The Mystery of a Hansom Cab / Fergus Hume
Mystery fiction novel set in Melbourne, the book was successful in Australia and internationally selling over 500,000 copies worldwide, outselling the first of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novels

Also published in 1886:
Little Lord Fauntleroy / Frances Hodgson Burnett

1887
South Australia in 1887: a Handbook for the Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition / compiled by H.J. Scott

Also published in 1887:
She / H. Rider Haggard

1888
A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles / founded mainly on the materials collected by The Philological Society
First book edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, originally published in 1884-1923 in 125 fascicles

Also published in 1888:
A Week in the Future / Catherine Helen Spence
Robbery Under Arms / Rolf Boldrewood

1889
Australia Twice Traversed: the Romance of Exploration ... Compiled from the Journals of Five Exploring Expeditions into and through Central South Australia and Western Australia from 1872 to 1876 / Ernest Giles

Also published in 1889:
Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) / Jerome K. Jerome

1890
The Golden Bough: a Study in Comparative Religion / Sir James George Frazer
A monumental study in comparative religion, folklore and magic which greatly influenced contemporary European literature

Also published in 1890:
The Picture of Dorian Gray / Oscar Wilde
Hedda Gabler / Henrik Ibsen

1891
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: a Pure Woman, Faithfully Presented ... / Thomas Hardy
Hardy’s great tragedy of a woman wronged

Also published in 1891:
The Story of the Glittering Plain / William Morris (fantasy novel, the first book of Morris’ Kelmscott Press)

1892
Finger Prints / Francis Galton
Galton was the first to study fingerprints on a scientific basis providing statistical proof of the uniqueness of individual prints. He also developed the first workable fingerprint classification system, enabling their use in criminal cases

Also published in 1892:
The Yellow Wallpaper / Charlotte Perkins Gilman

1893
Keynotes / George Egerton
One of the most important of the "New Woman" writers of the nineteenth century fin de siecle, supporting the right of women to expect and experience sexual freedom and fulfilment

Also published in 1893:
Lady Windemere’s Fan / Oscar Wilde

1894
Seven Little Australians / Ethel Turner
A classic Australian children's novel, the only book by an Australian author to be continuously in print for over 100 years

Also published in 1894:
The Jungle Book / Rudyard Kipling

1895
The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses / by A.B. Paterson
The title-poem established the bushman in the national consciousness as a romantic and archetypal figure. This collection sold out in the first week of publication and 7,000 copies were sold within a few months

Also published in 1895:
The Time Machine / H.G. Wells

1896
The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer / [edited by F.S. Ellis; ornamented with pictures designed by Edward Burne-Jones] Kelmscott Press [1975 facsimile by Basilisk Press]
A triumph of Morris’ private press, established to revive excellence in printing

Also published in 1896:
While the Billy Boils / Henry Lawson (Lawson's first major short-story collection)

1897
Deeds That Won the Empire: Historic Battle Scenes / by W.H. Fitchett ("Vedette)
An Australian clergyman, journalist and educator, Fitchett’s work enjoyed extraordinary popularity throughout the British Empire in over 35 editions

Also published in 1897:
Dracula / Bram Stoker

1898
The Turn of the Screw / Henry James
Ghost story novella still on the first-year English syllabus

Also published in 1898:
Spinifex and Sand: a Narrative of Five Years Pioneering and Exploration in Western Australia / David Carnegie

1899
The Native Tribes of Central Australia / Baldwin Spencer and F.J. Gillen
Major anthropological study which remains an invaluable cultural archive of Aboriginal culture unaffected by European contact

Also published in 1899:
On Our Selection / “Steele Rudd”

1900
London to Ladysmith via Pretoria / by Winston Spencer Churchill
Churchill’s personal record of the Second Boer War including an account of his capture and dramatic escape from the Boers

Also published in 1900:
Lord Jim / Joseph Conrad
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz / Frank L. Baum

1901
The Annotated Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth / by John Quick ... and Robert Randolph Garran
The Commonwealth of Australia became an independent nation on 1 January 1901

Also published in 1901:
My Brilliant Career / Miles Franklin
The Psychopathology of Everyday Life / Sigmund Freud

1902
The Hound of the Baskervilles / Arthur Conan Doyle
The most loved of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novels

Also published in 1902:
The Tale of Peter Rabbit / Beatrix Potter
The Heart of Darkness / Joseph Conrad

1903
Such Is Life: Being Certain Extracts from the Diary of Tom Collins / Joseph Furphy
Australian classic novel of rural life in southern New South Wales and Victoria during the 1880s

Also published in 1903:
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm / Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Story of My Life / Helen Keller

1904
The Native Tribes of South-East Australia / A.W. Howitt
A skilled bushman who discovered the fate of Burke and Wills, Howitt’s works are considered landmarks of modern anthropology

Also published in 1904:
Radio-Activity / Ernest Rutherford
The Cherry Orchard / Anton Chekov

1905
Night Fall in the Ti-Tree / woodcuts by Geraldine Rede and Violet Teague
The earliest example of colour relief printing in Australia, showing the influence of Japanese woodblock techniques on Australian printmaking

Also published in 1905:
The House of Mirth / Edith Wharton
The Scarlet Pimpernel / Emma Orczy

1906
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens / J.M. Barrie
First novel devoted to Peter Pan, highly collectable edition illustrated by Arthur Rackham

Also published in 1906:
The Man of Property / John Galsworthy (first novel in The Forsyte Saga)

1907
The Lone Hand (first issue)
A monthly Australian magazine of literature and poetry founded as a sister magazine to The Bulletin

Also published in 1907:
Scapegoats of the Empire / George Witton (the story of Breaker Morant)

1908
We of the Never-Never: a Novel / Mrs. Aeneas Gunn
Autobiographical novel of the author's experiences at Elsey Station near Mataranka, Northern Territory

Also published in 1908:
Aurora Australis: published at the winter quarters of the British Antarctic expedition, 1907… (the only book ever printed in Antarctica)
The Wind in the Willows / Kenneth Graham
Scouting for Boys: a Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship / Robert Baden-Powell

1909
Jane's All the World's Aircraft
First year of publication

Also published in 1909:
Satyrs & Sunlight / Hugh McCrae; with pictures and decorations by Norman Lindsay

1910
Traité' de radioactivité / Marie Curie
Marie Curie's principal writing on her discoveries in radioactivity, one of the most important books of 20th century science

Also published in 1910:
Studies and Executed Buildings ... /  Frank Lloyd Wright

1911
The Closed Door and Other Verses / Dorothea Mackellar
MacKellar's first anthology of poems, including her iconic ‘My Country’

Also published in 1911:
The Secret Garden / Frances Hodgson Burnett
Zuleika Dobson, or, An Oxford love story / Max Beerbohm

1912
Le ballet contemporain / V. Svetlow; ouvrage edite avec la collaboration de L. Bakst
A splendid overview of the dance world from a period of intense creativity, featuring the Ballets Russes, Diaghelev and Nijinsky

Also published in 1912:
Psychology of the Unconscious ... / C.G. Jung

1913
Sons and Lovers / D.H. Lawrence
Third published novel the earliest masterpiece of D.H. Lawrence

Also published in 1913:
À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time) / Marcel Proust

1914
The Great War / speech delivered by David Lloyd George at the Queen's Hall, London on Sept 19th 1914
Landmark speech in support of war fought on behalf of national honour and Liberal values, including the rights of the ‘little nations’

Also published in 1914:
Tarzan of the Apes / Edgar Rice Burroughs

1915
The Home of the Blizzard: Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914 / Douglas Mawson
Mawson’s epic tale of scientific exploration, endurance and survival

Also published in 1915:
Songs of a Sentimental Bloke / C.J. Dennis
The Metamorphosis / Franz Kafka

1916
The ANZAC Book / written and illustrated in Gallipoli by the men of ANZAC
An instant bestseller, The ANZAC Book was the finest “trench publication” of the Great War. Intended as a Christmas and New Year diversion, these stories, Illustrations and poems were created by soldiers under enemy fire and in extreme hardship

Also published in 1916:
The Moods of Ginger Mick / C. J. Dennis (Pocket edition for the trenches)
Art in Australia (first issue)

1917
Prufrock and Other Observations / T.S. Eliot
At first considered shocking and offensive, Prufrock represented the shift from late 19th century Romantic and Georgian verse to Modernism and the beginning of Eliot's influence on modern poetry

Also published in 1917:
Australia Felix / Henry Handel Richardson (first volume of The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney)

1918
The Magic Pudding / Norman Lindsay
A classic Australian children's book

Also published in 1918:
The Physical Chemistry of the Proteins / T. Brailsford Robertson (a pioneer in the field, he established the discipline of Biochemistry at the University of Adelaide)
Married Love / Marie C. Stopes

1919
‘Digger’ Book / Daryl Lindsay; introduced by C.E.W. Bean
The youngest son of the creative Lindsay family, Daryl served for two years in France, sketching war characters and scenes. He later captured the tours of the Ballets Russes Australian tours 1936-1940

Also published in 1919:
The Economic Consequences of the Peace / John Maynard Keynes
(Keynes predicted that the stiff war reparations imposed on Germany would lead to its financial collapse and would have serious economic and political repercussions on Europe and the world)

1920
The World of Sound / W. H. Bragg
Children’s science book by Nobel Prize winner and Adelaide’s Professor of Mathematics and Experimental Physics

Also published in 1920:
Native Legends / by David Unaipon (First book by an Aboriginal author)
The Mysterious Affair at Styles / Agatha Christie (first Poirot novel)

1921
The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918 / edited by Charles Bean. Vol. 1.
Charles Bean wrote official war histories for non-military audiences and detailed individual deeds and contributions

Also published in 1921:
R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) / Karel Capek (first usage of ‘robot’)

1922
Ulysses / James Joyce
Limited first edition printed in Paris after being banned in England

Also published in 1922:
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom / T.E. Lawrence
The Meaning of Relativity / Albert Einstein (English)

1923
Tutankhamen and the Discovery of his Tomb by the late Earl of Carnarvon and Mr Howard Carter / G. Elliot Smith

Also published in 1923:
The Green and Gold Cookery Book
The Prophet / Kahlil Gibran

1924
The Constant Nymph / Margaret Kennedy
‘Bohemian’ novel, the most popular bestseller of the time by one of the 20th century’s most successful British novelists

Also published in 1924:
When We Were Very Young / A. A. Milne (first appearance of Winnie the Pooh)

1925
Statistical Methods for Research Workers / R.A. Fisher
One of the 20th century's most influential books on statistical methods determining statistical significance in experiments

The Great Gatsby / F. Scott Fitzgerald
Mrs Dalloway / Virginia Woolf

1926
The Sun Also Rises / Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway's first novel on a group of post-war expatriates who travel from Paris to Pamplona to watch bullfights and the running of the bulls. Came to be seen as an iconic modernist novel

Also published in 1926:
The Wandering Jews / Joseph Roth (about the plight of displaced Jews in the mid-1920s)

1927
The Bridge of San Luis Rey / Thornton Wilder
Pulitzer Prize winning novel on the deaths of interrelated people who die in the collapse of an Inca rope bridge in Peru

Also published in 1927:
The Magic Mountain / Thomas Mann (English)
Being and Time / Martin Heidegger (English)

1928
The Well of Loneliness / Radclyffe Hall
Lesbian novel of the life of Stephen Gordon, an upper-class Englishwoman who finds love but whose happiness is marred by social isolation and rejection

Also published in 1928:
Decline and Fall / Evelyn Waugh
Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation / Margaret Mead
Lady Chatterley's Lover / D.H. Lawrence

1929
Marriage and Morals / Bertrand Russell
Nobel Prize winning book questioning Victorian notions of morality regarding sex and marriage

Also published in 1929:
Goodbye to All That / Robert Graves
All Quiet on the Western Front / Erich Maria Remarque

1930
The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection / R.A. Fisher
The first major work to provide a synthesis of Darwinian selection and Mendelian genetics

Also published in 1930:
The Maltese Falcon / Dashiell Hammett
Swallows and Amazons / Arthur Ransome

1931
Lasseter's Last Ride: an Epic of Central Australian Gold Discovery / Ion Idriess
Idriess’ first best-selling novel of Lasseter's relationship with and shunning by Aboriginals

Also published in 1931:
The Conquest of Space / David Lasser

1932
The Adventures of the Black Girl in her Search for God / Bernard Shaw
Short stories. The title story is a satirical allegory of a freshly converted black girl who literally attempts to "Seek and you shall find [God]"

Also published in 1932:
Brave New World / Aldous Huxley
The Camels are Coming / W.E. Johns ( first collection of Biggles stories)

1933
My Life and Hard Times / James Thurber
Bestselling autobiography featuring the eccentric goings on of his family including Muggs ‘The Dog That Bit People’

Also published in 1933:
The Autobiography of Alice B Tokias / Gertrude Stein 
Love on the Dole / Walter Greenwood

1934
Tropic of Cancer / Henry Miller
Banned book whose publication in 1961 in the U.S. led to obscenity trials that tested American laws on pornography

Also published in 1934:
Mary Poppins / P.L. Travers
I, Claudius / Robert Graves

1935
The first Penguin book. Ariel: a Shelley romance / André Maurois

Also published in 1935:
It Can't Happen Here / Upton Sinclair
How to Play Cricket / Donald Bradman

1936
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money / John Maynard Keynes
Credited with the reshaping of modern macroeconomics

Also published in 1936:
Gone With the Wind / Margaret Mitchell
How to Win Friends and Influence People / Dale Carnegie
An Autobiography / Jawaharlal Nehru

1937
The first Pelican Book. The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism / George Bernard Shaw

Also published in 1937:
Of Mice and Men / John Steinbeck
The Hobbit / J.R.R. Tolkien 
And to Think I saw it on Mulberry Street / Dr Seuss (first Dr Suess book)

1938
The Passing of the Aborigines: a Lifetime Spent Among the Natives of Australia / Daisy Bates
A highly influential international bestseller by the amateur anthropologist and linguist Daisy Bates, criticised for its claims regarding the 'doomed' fate of the Aboriginal race

Also published in 1938:
The Sword in the Stone / T. H. White
Rebecca / Daphne du Maurier
Larousse gastronomique / Prosper Montagné

1939
Mein Kampf / by Adolf Hitler; translated and annotated by James Murphy
First full English edition

Also published in 1939:
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty / James Thurber
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats / T. S. Eliot
The Grapes of Wrath / John Steinbeck

1940
Angry Penguins [journal] First issue
Modernist journal edited by Max Harris and D.B. Kerr, published by the Adelaide University Union

Also published in 1940:
For Whom the Bell Tolls / Ernest Hemingway
The Man Who Loved Children / Christina Stead

1941
The Bibliography of Australia / by John Alexander Ferguson. Vol. 1
The definitive listing and description of early Australian literature

Also published in 1941:
The Timeless Land / Eleanor Dark
Put Out More Flags / Evelyn Waugh

1942
Bombs Away: the Story of a Bomber Team / written for the U.S. Army Air Forces by John Steinbeck
Steinbeck's experiences with several Bomber crews of the US Army Air Forces during the Second World War

Also published in 1942:
Five on a Treasure Island / Enid Blyton

1943
Investigation of War Wounds: Penicillin: a Preliminary Report to the War Office and the Medical Research Council on Investigations Concerning the Use of Penicillin in War Wounds / H.W. Florey and Hugh Cairns
Successful field trials successfully conducted in North Africa by Sir Howard and Hugh Cairns, both South Australians who had worked at Oxford

Also published in 1943:
The Fountainhead / Ayn Rand
Bound for Glory / Woody Guthrie

1944
The Horse’s Mouth / Joyce Cary
One of the finest novels about artists featuring the talented but ne’er do well Gulley Jimson

Also published in 1944:
The Glass Menagerie / Tennessee Williams
Gigi / Collette

1945
Animal Farm / George Orwell
Satirical novel against Stalinist dictatorship
 
Also published in 1945:
Brideshead Revisited / Evelyn Waugh
A History of Western Philosophy / Bertrand Russell (the best-selling philosophy book of the 20th century)

1946
The Moving Image / Judith Wright
Wright’s first book of poetry, celebrating the Australian landscape

Also published in 1946:
The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care / Benjamin Spock
The Stranger / Albert Camus (English)
Adventures in Time and Space / edited by Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas

1947
The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture / Ruth Benedict
Study of Japan written for the U.S. Office of War Information, and influential in shaping American ideas about Japanese culture during the occupation

Also published in 1947:
The Diary of a Young Girl / Anne Frank
Tales of the South Pacific / James A. Michener

1948
Sexual Behavior in the Human Male / Alfred C. Kinsey, Wardell B. Pomeroy, Clyde E. Martin
Controversial report which challenged conventional beliefs about sexuality discussed taboo subjects. The companion report Sexual Behavior in the Human Female was published in 1953

Also published in 1948:
The Plague / Albert Camus (English)
Cry, the Beloved Country / Alan Paton

1949
Death of a Salesman / Arthur Miller
Pilitzer Prize play of failed American dreams

Also published in 1949:
1984 / George Orwell

1950
I, Robot / Isaac Asimov
A collection of science fiction short stories introducing Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics

Also published in 1950:
A Town Like Alice / Nevil Shute
Power Without Glory: a Novel / Frank J. Hardy

1951
The Sea Around Us / Rachel Carson
Best-selling book by marine biologist which launched her second career as a writer and conservationist

Also published in 1951:
The Day of the Triffids / John Wyndham
The Catcher in the Rye / J.D. Salinger

1952
A Pattern of Islands / Sir Arthur Grimble
Memoir of his time in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands as a cadet officer and Resident Commissioner in the 1920s

Also published in 1952:
Charlotte's Webb / E.B. White
The Old Man and the Sea / Ernest Hemingway
The Power of Positive Thinking / Norman Vincent Peale

1953
Go Tell It on the Mountain / James Baldwin
A semi-autobiographical novel which examines the role of the Christian Church and racism in the lives of African-Americans

Also published in 1953:
Casino Royale / Ian Fleming (first James Bond book)
The Second Sex / Simone de Beauvoir (English)
Fahrenheit 451 / Ray Bradbury

1954
Under Milkwood / Dylan Thomas
Radio play of the dreams and innermost thoughts of the inhabitants of a fictional small Welsh fishing village Llareggub

Also published in 1954:
The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book
Lord of the Flies / William Golding
Lord of the Rings / J.R.R. Tolkien
 
1955
I Can Jump Puddles / Alan Marshall
First of a three-part autobiography of a polio-afflicted childhood

Also published in 1955:
The Quiet American / Graham Greene
The Guinness Book of Records (first edition)

1956
Howl, and Other Poems / Allen Ginsberg
One of the principal poems of the Beat Generation

Also published in 1956:
Peyton Place / Grace Metalious
My Family and Other Animals / Gerald Durrell
Waiting for Godot / Samuel Beckett (English)

1957
On the Road / Jack Kerouac
A defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations

Also published in 1957:
Doctor Zhivago / Boris Pasternak
The Cat in the Hat / Dr Suess
They’re a Weird Mob / Nino Culotta

1958
The Lost World of the Kalihari / Laurens van der Post
A search for the Kalahari bushmen

Also published in 1958:
Things Fall Apart / Chinua Achebe
Breakfast at Tiffany's / Truman Capote

1959
Naked Lunch / William S. Burroughs
Controversial and banned ‘episodic’ novel by postmodernist and innovative author

Also published in 1959:
Lolita / Vladimir Nabokov (English)
The Longest Day / Cornelius Ryan (story of D-Day
Kings in Grass Castles / Mary Durack

1960
The Australian Ugliness / Robin Boyd
Influenced Australian aesthetic in regard to architecture,  design and urban planning

Also published in 1960:
To Kill a Mockingbird / Harper Lee
Born Free / Joy Adamson

1961
Ern Malley's Poems
Ern Malley was the pseudonym of James P. McAuley and Harold F. Stewart who fabricated poetry to hoax Max Harris and the modernists

Also published in 1961:
Catch-22 / Joseph Heller
A House for Mr Biswas / V. S. Naipaul

1962
A History of Australia / Manning Clark. Vol. 1
First of a 6 volume history which examined the relationship between the harsh environment of the Australian continent and the European values of its settlers

Also published in 1962:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest / Ken Kesey
A Clockwork Orange / Anthony Burgess
Sex and the Single Girl / Helen Gurley Brown

1963
The Feminine Mystique / Betty Frieden
The work credited with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States

Also published in 1963:
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold / John le Carré
Careful, He Might Hear You / Sumner Locke Elliott

1964
The Lucky Country: Australia in the 60s / Donald Horne
“Australia is a lucky country, run by second-rate people who share its luck”

Also published in 1964:
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man / Marshall McLuhan
“The Little Red Book” Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung 1964-1976
My Brother Jack / George Johnston
Storm Boy / Colin Thiele

1965
Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile / Ralph Nader
Popular book which accused car manufacturers of resisting safety features like seat belts and reluctance to spend money on improving safety

Also published in 1965:
Dune / Frank Herbert
The Autobiography of Malcolm X / Malcolm X and Alex Haley
The Magus / John Fowles

1966
The Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 1
Pre-eminent reference work published by Melbourne University Press

Also published in 1966:
Human Sexual Response / William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson
The Tyranny of Distance: How Distance Shaped Australia's History / Geoffrey Blainey

1967
The Ghost in the Machine / Arthur Koestler
On the mind–body relationship

Also published in 1967:
Trout Fishing in America / Richard Brautigan
Picnic at Hanging Rock / Joan Lindsay

1968
The Art of Computer Programming / Donald Knuth v. 1
First and still the best comprehensive treatment of computer programming

Also published in 1968:
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test / Tom Wolfe
The Population Bomb / Paul R. Ehrlich
2001: A Space Odyssey / Arthur C. Clarke
Chocky / John Wyndham

1969
I'm OK, You're OK / Thomas Anthony
One of the best selling self-help books ever published

Also published in 1969:
The Godfather / Mario Puzo
The French Lieutenant's Woman / John Fowles
Portnoy's Complaint / Philip Roth

1970
Ideas for Australian Cities / Hugh Stretton
Landmark book which influenced a generation of urban policymakers

Also published in 1970:
The Female Eunuch / Germaine Greer
Jonathan Livingston Seagull / by Richard Bach
One Hundred Years of Solitude / Gabriel García Márquez

1971
In the Shadow of Man / Jane Goodall
Goodall’s relationship and study of chimpanzees, published in more than 48 languages

Also published in 1971:
Everywoman: A Gynaecological Guide for Life / Derek Llewellyn-Jones
Songs of Central Australia / T. G. H. Strehlow

1972
The Little Red School Book (Australian edition)
Originally a Danish publication which encouraged young people to question societal norms

Also published in 1972:
The Joy of Sex / Alex Comfort
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith / Thomas Keneally
Watership Down / Richard Adams

1973
The Eye of the Storm / Patrick White
Published in the year that Patrick White was the first Australian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature

Also published in 1973:
Small Is Beautiful: a Study of Economics As If People Mattered / E. F. Schumacher
Awakenings / Oliver Sacks
Rendezvous with Rama / Arthur C. Clarke

1974
The Gulag Archipelago / Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Exposure of the Soviet forced labour camp system

Also published in 1974:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an Inquiry into Values / Robert M. Pirsig
The Aboriginal tribes of Australia / Norman Tindale

1975
The Odd Angry Shot / William L. Nagle
Portrayal of the boredom, mateship, humour, and fear of Australian soldiers deployed to South Vietnam in the late 1960s

Also published in 1975:
Poor Fellow My Country / Xavier Herbert
Animal Liberation / Peter Singer

1976
Don Dunstan's Cookbook / drawings by Robert Ingpen
Bestselling cookbook by the then Premier of SA which encouraged a cultural shift in Adelaide's eating habits through introduction of ‘exotic’ recipes and home grown food

Also published in 1976:
Roots: the Saga of an American Family / Alex Haley
Interview with the Vampire / Anne Rice

1977
The Women's Room / Marilyn French
One of the most influential novels of the modern feminist movement

Also published in 1977:
Heart of the Country / J. M. Coetzee
The Complete Book of Running / Jim Fixx

1978
Illness as Metaphor /Susan Sontag
Sontag challenged the "blame the victim" mentality behind the language society often uses to describe diseases and those who suffer from them

Also published in 1978:
The World According to Garp / John Irving
An Imaginary Life / David Malouf
The Year of Living Dangerously / Christopher Koch

1979
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy / Douglas Adams
Comedy science fiction series which became an international multi-media phenomenon

Also published in 1979:
The Right Stuff / Tom Wolfe
Sophie's Choice / William Styron
Puberty Blues / Gabrielle Carey and Kathy Lette

1980
Midnight's Children / Salman Rushdie
Epic novel dealing with India's transition from British colonialism to independence and partition

Also published in 1980:
The Shock of the New: Art and the Century of Change / Robert Hughes
The Name of the Rose / Umberto Eco
The Transit of Venus / Shirley Hazzard

1981
A Fortunate Life / Albert Facey
Autobiography documenting his extraordinary life of hardship, loss, friendship and love

Also published in 1981:
101 Uses for a Dead Cat / Simon Bond (collection of cartoons)
Red Dragon / Thomas Harris (introduced Dr. Hannibal Lecter)

1982
Real Men Don't Eat Quiche / Bruce Feirstein
A bestselling tongue-in-cheek book satirizing stereotypes of masculinity

Also published in 1982:
Schindler's Ark / Thomas Keneally
The Color Purple / AliceWalker

1983
Lost Adelaide: a Photographic Record / Michael Burden

Also published in 1983:
The Colour of Magic / Terry Pratchett (first book of the Discworld series)
The Life and Loves of a She-Devil / Fay Weldon
Gorillas in the Mist / Dian Fossey

1984
The Periodic Table / by Primo Levi (English)
A collection of short stories named after the periodic table in chemistry. In 2006, the Royal Institution of Great Britain named it the best science book ever published

Also published in 1984:
The One Minute Manager / Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
Nights at the Circus / Angela Carter
Flaubert's Parrot / Julian Barnes

1985
Lake Pedder / Bob Brown
Published in support of the restoration of Tasmania’s Lake Pedder

Also published in 1985:
The House of the Spirits / Isabel Allende (English)
Oranges are Not the Only Fruit / Jeanette Winterson

1986
Henry and June: From the Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin
Details the author’s passionate involvement with the writer Henry Miller and his wife June Miller

Also published in 1986:
Forrest Gump / Winston Francis Groom, Jr
The Making of the Atomic Bomb / Richard Rhodes
The Well / Elizabeth Jolley

1987
25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy / Andy Warhol
Facsimile of Warhol’s 1954 privately printed, limited edition artist's book republished in the year of his death

Also published in 1987:
Spycatcher: the Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer / Peter Wright and Paul Greengrass
The Bonfire of the Vanities / Tom Wolfe
Beloved / Toni Morrison

1988
Oscar and Lucinda / Peter Carey
Booker Prize and Miles Franklin Award winning novel centred on a bet to transport a glass church down river

Also published in 1988:
A Brief History of Time / Stephen Hawking
The Satanic Verses / Salman Rushdie

1989
Maestro / Peter Goldsworthy
A bildungsroman on the themes of art and life

Also published in 1989:
The Remains of the Day / Kazuo Ishiguro
Clear and Present Danger / Tom Clancy
Cocaine Blues / Kerry Greenwood (first appearance of Phryne Fisher)

1990
Epistemology of the Closet / Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
One of the founders of ‘queer studies’ and geographical research on sexualities

Also published in 1990:
Possession: A Romance / A. S. Byatt

1991
American Psycho / Bret Easton Ellis
Graphically violent novel told in first person by a serial killer and Manhattan businessman

Also published in 1991
Cloudstreet / Tim Winton

1992
Sex / Madonna; photographed by Steven Meisel
Sex is a controversial and confrontational coffee table book written by Madonna which challenged society and cultural norms of sexuality

Also published in 1992:
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus / John Gray

1993
A Suitable Boy / Vikram Seth
Epic novel which follows the story of four Indian families in a mother’s search for a suitable boy to marry her daughter – one of the longest novels ever published

Also published in 1993:
The Shipping News / E. Annie Proulx
The Alchemist / Paulo Coelho (English)

1994
Long Walk to Freedom / Nelson Mandela
Autobiography of Mandela’s long struggle for freedom, including 27 years in prison, and the abolition of apartheid in South Africa

Also published in 1994:
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil / John Berendt

1995
The Road Ahead / Bill Gates, Nathan Myhrvold and Peter Rinearson
Outlines the implications of the personal computing revolution and describes a future profoundly changed by the arrival of a global information superhighway

Also published in 1995:
Sophie's World / Jostein Gaarder

1996
Joanna and Robert: the Barr Smiths' Life in Letters, 1853-1919 / edited by Fayette Gosse
First Barr Smith Press book featuring selected correspondence of the pioneer businessman and major philanthropist Robert Barr Smith and his wife Joanna

Also published in 1996:
Angela's Ashes / Frank McCourt
A Game of Thrones / George R. R. Martin
Bridget Jones's Diary / Helen Fielding

1997
New York Nowhere: Meditations and Celebrations, Neurology Ward, The New York Hospital / Geoffrey Dutton
The Barr Smith Library's 2 millionth volume. Epic poem of the poet’s devastating stroke and rehabilitation, with etchings by John Olsen and photographs by Robert Littlewood

Also published in 1997:
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone / J.K. Rowling
An Instance of the Fingerpost / Iain Pears

1998
Hiam / Eva Sallis
First novel published by a Creative Writing graduate of the University of Adelaide

Also published in 1998:
The Surgeon of Crowthorne: a Tale of Murder, Madness and the Love of Words / Simon Winchester (the making of the Oxford English Dictionary)
The Orchid Thief / Susan Orlean

1999
The Nameless Day / Sara Douglass
Historical fantasy novel written by Australian author and Alumni of The University of Adelaide

Also published in 1999:
Voices from Chernobyl: the Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster / Svetlana Alexievich
Girl with a Pearl Earring / Tracy Chevalier

2000
Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? / Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman

Also published in 2000:
Life of Pi / Yann Martel
The True History of the Kelly Gang / Peter Carey

2001
Stupid White Men ... and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation! / Michael Moore.
Book highly critical of U.S. government. Bestseller saved from pulping following 9/11 by librarians!

Also published in 2001:
Atonement / Ian McEwan
Stasiland / Anna Funder

2002
From White Australia to Woomera: The Story of Australian Immigration / James Jupp

Also published in 2002:
War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know / William Rivers Pitt and Scott Ritter
If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens ... WHERE IS EVERYBODY?: Fifty Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life / Stephen Webb

2003
Elizabeth Costello / J. M. Coetzee
Published in the year Coetzee won the Nobel Prize for Literature

Also published in 2003:
The Kite Runner / Khaled Hosseini
The Da Vinci Code / Dan Brown
Mao's Last Dancer / Li Cunxin

2004
The Shadow of the Wind / Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Novel by Spanish author, this is one of the best-selling books of all time

Also published in 2004:
Encountering Terra Australia / Jean Fornasiero, Peter Monteath & John West-Sooby
Kokoda / Peter FitzSimons

2005
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed / Jared M. Diamond
Reviews the causes of historical and pre-historical incidences of societal collapse, including the effects of climate change, and considers the responses different societies

Also published in 2005:
The Book Thief / Markus Zusak
The CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet
The Broken Shore / Peter Temple

2006
Things I Didn't Know / Robert Hughes
Memoir by the ‘world’s finest art critic’ including the story of his near fatal car accident and his recovery

Also published in 2006:
The Road / Cormac McCarthy
Carpentaria / Alexis Wright

2007
Ochre and Rust: Artefacts and Encounters on Australian Frontiers / Philip Jones

Also published in 2007:
An Antarctic Affair: a Story of Love and Survival ... / Emma McEwin
The Zookeeper's Wife / Diane Ackerman

2008
The Hobbit Trap: Money, Fame, Science and the Discovery of a 'New Species' / Maciej Henneberg & John Schofield
Controversial events surrounding the discovery of Homo floresiensis (nicknamed "hobbit"), an extinct small species discovered in 2003 on the island of Flores in Indonesia

Also published in 2008:
People of the Book / Geraldine Brooks
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / Stieg Larsson (English)

2009
Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature / edited by Nicholas Jose
Includes extracts from many works which are out of print

Also published in 2009:
Wolf Hall / Hilary Mantel
Dreams from My Father: a Story of Race and Inheritance / President Barack Obama
Piano Lessons / Anna Goldsworthy

2010
Australia Dances: Creating Australian Dance, 1945-1965 / Alan Brissenden and Keith Glennon
A record of an amazingly creative period in Australian ballet and dance history

Also published in 2010:
The Hare with Amber Eyes / Edmund de Waal
Celebrating 75 years: 1935-2010 / Penguin Books
Freedom / Jonathan Franzen
The Emperor of All Maladies: a Biography of Cancer / Siddhartha Mukherjee

2011
The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul / Deborah Rodriguez
Novel – friendship In a little coffee shop in one of the most dangerous places on earth

Also published in 2011:
The Sense of an Ending / Julian Barnes
Jamie’s 30-Minute Meals / Jamie Oliver (Australia's best-selling book in 2011)
Fifty shades of Grey / E.L. James
Adelaide / Kerryn Goldsworthy
Batavia / Peter Fitzsimons

2012
The Chemistry of Tears / Peter Carey

Also published in 2012:
Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking / Susan Cain
Gone Girl / Gillian Flynn
All That I Am / Anna Funder

2013
Kulurdu Marni Ngathaitya! = Sounds Good to Me!: a Kaurna Learner's Guide / written for Warra Pintyanthi by Rob Amery and Jane Simpson

Also published in 2013:
Ripping Open the Set / Ben McCann (on French film)
Burial Rites / Hannah Kent
In the Shadow of Gallipoli: the Hidden History of Australia in World War I / Robert Bollard

2014
The Waite: a Social and Scientific History of the Waite Agricultural Research Institute / by Lynette D. Zeitz

Also published in 2014:
The Trip to Echo Spring / Olivia Laing
Wonderland / Stacy D’Erasmo
Uprising: a New Age Is Dawning for Every Mother's Daughter / Sally Armstrong
The Sixth Extinction: an Unnatural History / Elizabeth Kolbert