The Dictionary of Australian Biography, published in 1949, is a reference work by Percival Serle containing information on notable people associated with Australian history. With approximately a thousand entries, the book took more than twenty years to complete. Published by Angus and Robertson, the dictionary was compiled as two volumes, Volume 1: A–K; and Volume 2: L–Z.
The book contains 1,030 biographies of Australians, or people who were closely connected with Australia, who died before the end of 1942. According to Serle in his preface:
Format
The average length of the biographies is about 640 words. Serle classified them roughly into the following twelve groups:
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:left;"
|-
! scope="col" colspan="2" | Group
! scope="col" rowspan="2" | No. of<br/>profiles
|-
! scope="col" | No.
! scope="col" | Name
|-
| align=center| 1 || Army and navy || align=center| 10
|-
| align=center| 2 || Artists, including architects, actors and musicians || align=center| 130
|-
| align=center| 3 || Governors and administrators || align=center| 50
|-
| align=center| 4 || Lawyers || align=center| 69
|-
| align=center| 5 || Literary men and women || align=center| 137
|-
| align=center| 6 || Notorieties || align=center| 17
|-
| align=center| 7 || Pioneers, explorers, pastoralists, men of business || align=center| 161
|-
| align=center| 8 || Politicians || align=center| 174
|-
| align=center| 9 || Scholars, philosophers, clergy || align=center| 76
|-
| align=center| 10 || Scientists, including physicians, surgeons and engineers || align=center| 140
|-
| align=center| 11 || Social reformers, philanthropists, educationists || align=center| 53
|-
| align=center| 12 || Sporting men (cricketers and athletes) || align=center| 13
|}
Of the above profiles, the number of women included was 42 or 4 percent of the biographies. Forty-seven percent of those included in the book were born in England, 27 percent in Australia, 12 percent Scotland, 8 percent Ireland, 1 percent Wales and remaining 5 percent were from the rest of the world which included twelve from the United States, nine from Germany, and six from New Zealand.
Awards
- 1949 ALS Gold Medal, winner
Publication details
Notes
In a letter published in The Age newspaper following the announcement of the awarding of the Als Gold medal, critic Nettie Palmer pointed out that the book was not a "biography of Australian literature" but rather a dictionary of Australian biography.
See also
Prior to its publication similar Australian reference works included:
- Later editions were published as Who's Who in Australia.
Subsequently, other Australian biographical dictionaries have been released including the Australian Dictionary of Biography from 1966 and Who's Who in Australia.