The book itself is divided into two parts: the first deals with Lindsay’s own writings, while the second shorter part (only three essays) is devoted to studies in areas of concern to Lindsay.

Orin Anderson’s opening essay ‘Introducing Jack Lindsay’ presents a compact biography in the form of a lively narrative tracing a visit to Lindsay at his Essex home interspersed with the facts of a more traditional biography. This dynamism captures Lindsay’s own astonishing life. John Arnold’s biography of early life in Australia fleshes out the influences of Norman Lindsay and Bohemian life in the nineteen-twenties, while Craig Munro’s essay on the relationship of Lindsay arid P.R. Stephenson in England charts the founding of the Fanfrolico Press. Laurie Hergenhan’s masterful essay on Brian Penton’s 1930s novels as Nietzschean reinterpretations of the Australian bush myth draws parallels with Lindsay’s reading of Nietzsche and throws considerable cross light on the Munro article.

The next two essays are devoted to Lindsay’s poetry. R.D. Fitzgerald’s judicious quotation should encourage wider reading of Lindsay’s excellent verse. Furthermore, he demonstrates Lindsay’s Marxist concern to maintain that the poetic tradition must bridge the gap between materialistic advance and aesthetics. Less happily James Borg comes to similar conclusions by way of a psychoanalytic reading of Lindsay’s verse.

In a most interesting essay on the neglected mass declamation of the nineteen-thirties Don Watson argues that Lindsay rediscovered the power of the oral tradition as a means of fusing high art and the speaking voice, thus regaining solidarity with the masses. In this and the following essays by Michael Wilding, Jeremy Hawthorn, N. Lopyrev and V.S. Vakrushev, Lindsay’s political maturity is charted in terms of his growing talents as a novelist. Wilding’s exposition of both Lindsay’s novel 1649 and his theory of the historical novel based on a radical dialectical theory of history should become essential reading for any theorist of this form. Continuing in this vein N. Lopyrev fills in more detail on the decades following Lindsay’s adoption of Marxism. Supporting Wilding’s views on Lindsay’s novels, Hawthorn and Vakrushev also stress the centrality of Lindsay’s humanism and his essential differences with the Marxist theory of the Twentieth Congress, Lindsay’s position remains firmly committed to the reality of existing humanity and its power to understand and act on political issues.

As a fitting conclusion to Lindsay’s creative work, Bernard Miles – actor and friend of Lindsay – provides a brief but wonderful portrait of their collaboration from the late thirties sketching Lindsay’s involvement in various projects and a long-lasting association with the Mermaid Theatre.

The next four essays move away from Lindsay’s strictly literary productions to his interest in cultural anthropology, history, and biography. In a second long essay James Borg exhaustively traces Lindsay’s reading and transformations of some highly influential works of cultural anthropology seeking not only to document when and what Lindsay read but to assess Lindsay’s adaptation and understanding (and occasional misunderstanding) of this material. This is a dense, heavily documented and stimulating essay; it is quite central to understanding Lindsay. Its placement after the more strictly literary assessments is very sensible. Much of what it has to say illumines those essays but also much of what it says is clarified by having that information to hand.

An almost Homeric list of publications begins Christopher Hill’s essay on Lindsay as historian and gives foundation to his praise of Lindsay’s pioneering work on Bruno, madness, counter cultural issues in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries, troubadours, Robin Hood and Byzantium; work which opened doors to more recent scholarship. Stephen Knight devotes more detailed attention to Lindsay’s innovative medieval work on Arthur and Byzantium.

Lindsay’s adoption of biography as the form most suited to a total understanding of the place of art within society is of a piece with the techniques of his medieval studies and his novels. Bernard Smith neatly summarises Lindsay’s Marxism as characterised by ‘humanism, vitalism and resistance to dogma’. Art is viewed as one particular mode of production, its explanation not confined to its social content alone but also to its form as ‘realised and resolved by the artist as he confronts the conflicts and contradictions of his situation in productive activity’. Lindsay’s biographies of artists explore this interplay of content and form.

The next three essays are devoted to topics of interest to Lindsay, neatly ranging over his concerns from the classics, art, and music. Robert Browning’s discussion provides a pleasurable insight into Byzantine Athens literally excavating some of Lindsay’s broader concerns about society by concentrating on one city. One of the finest essays in the volume is that of Robert Smith on ‘Dürer, sexuality, reformation’. It takes up the method of Lindsay’s biographies as explanations of the crises in the life of the artist which provoke the innovative formal resolutions of art. Smith’s article is an encapsulation of that technique applied to the crisis of marriage in the life of the young Dürer. The essay ranges widely over the contemporary issues of personal identity and freedom that grew out of the burgeoning Reformation and provides a Lindsay-like model for future explorations of Renaissance art. Humphrey McQueen’s essay ‘Wagnerism and the visual arts’ provides a considerable amount of information about the influence of Wagner’s themes and theories in the later art movements.

Last are two very fine and thorough pieces by John Arnold. The first is a bibliography to 1926, the second a checklist of books by Lindsay. They will provide great beginnings for future work on Lindsay. Just before these lists is a short note by Lindsay himself in which he outlines his dialectic method and gives a brief biography of its development through his reading. This is a good end-piece as it offers in lucid prose the man’s own assessment of his aims. What stands out in this note is his commitment to art as the means by which man can resolve the tensions and conflicts of the social system.

The hope of this book’s editor and contributors is for a much-enlarged interest in Lindsay’s works and ideas. The intellectual and emotional quality of the contributions to this book attest Lindsay’s status. It is to be hoped that this study will promote republication of many more of Lindsay’s works. The recent publication of The Blood Vote and the projected reprint by Chatto and Windus of 1649 are to be welcomed but this study makes it clear that in Australia there is much need for the neglect of Lindsay to be redressed. Let this be the outstanding first of many more books devoted to Lindsay.