Part 1 of the book offers general bibliographical information with sections on reference works, literary history and criticism and an interesting and imaginative inclusion on Australian English (the first item in which is Cornelius Crowe's 1895 compilation The Australian Slang Dictionary, Containing' The Words and Phrases of the Thieving Fraternity. Together With Unauthorised, Though Popular Expressions Now in Vogue With All Classes in Australia). The authors also devote some attention to specialised areas of interest such as Children's Literature, Publishing and Bookselling, Theatre History etc., and identify three themes in Australian Literature — Aborigines and Immigrants, The Colonial Literary Tradition, Literary Nationalism and the Australian Legend — for which they provide a range of information sources. Part 2, the major part of the book, consists of sections on individual authors: sixty-six writers are. covered, each entry involving a brief introduction, bibliographical. information and a guide to selected critical commentaries. Part 3 contains a selection of 'Non-Fiction Prose of significance to the development: and understanding of Australian literature.

The author pre-empt some criticisms in their Introduction where they also not only explain and defend their methodology but also show clearly they are not slaves to it: departures from the central plan are quite numerous but always dictated by common sense and the desire above all 'to inform readers, as sensibly and as simply as possible, who each author was, what he wrote, and what has been written about him'.

In a work of such detail only much usage over a reasonable period of time can properly gauge the extent to which that aspiration has been realised, but first impressions, test samplings and cross referencing all suggest that Australian Literature to 1900 will be an invaluable and generally reliable aid to scholars and general readers.