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Canberra Today 12°/16° | Saturday, March 30, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Courtenay launches book donation

Bryce Courtenay speaking

IN a whirlwind speech this morning at the ANU’s Menzies Library today, best-selling author Bryce Courtenay helped unveil the donation of a significant collection of signed and inscribed books to the University.

Emeritus fellow and former university librarian, Colin Steele, has donated a personal collection of signed novels by leading Australian authors, on show at the library now and destined for the RG Brissenden collection of signed books.

Among the works on show were a large range of novels by Courtenay and Colleen McCulloch, as well as works by Canberra writer Marion Halligan, who was present.

In introducing Courtenay to those present, Steele told the story of how the former vice chancellor of the ANU, Ian Chubb, had once cajoled Courtenay into signing one of his books “To Ian, the best vice-chancellor in Australia”. In light of that it was a bit embarrassing that one of the hosts for the day was the present-day vice chancellor, Prof Ian Young.

When it came to storytelling, Steele was no match for the invited guest, as Courtenay launched into a dramatic account of how he had come to live in and love Australia. Abandoning the microphone to pace up and down the floor, he told those present, “I see words as people… I see them all as individuals… little creatures”. And to his words, which had personalities of their own, he was just “Mr Tap Tap”.

It was a hard act to follow, but Prof Young praised the donation as a major addition to the ANU Library’s signed book collection.

“Mr Steele spent over 20 years as the university librarian and has always been a prolific writer of chapters and articles on books and publishing,” he said, adding that Steele had played “a significant role in both the ANU and Canberra community by organising the ANU literary events since their inception in the 1980s”, events which had allowed thousands of Canberrans to hear their favourite authors speak on campus each year.

Selected books from the Steele donation will be exhibited in the foyer of the RG Menzies Library until April 30.

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