Overland

One of Australia's major contemporary literary magazines, began publication in Melbourne in 1954. It originally incorporated the Realist Writer, a left-wing journal which had begun publication under editor Bill Wannan in 1952 but severed its connection with the Realist Writers groups after the Hungarian uprisings of 1956. The original role of Overland was, in Ian Turner's words, 'to develop a radical tradition, including within that the Marxist tradition; to encourage a working-class audience and working-class writers ... and to take part in polemics against the Right'. Overland's successful struggle to survive the factional difficulties and lack of government patronage in its early years was largely due to the energy and devotion of its original and long-standing editor, Stephen Murray-Smith, and Ian Turner. Others involved in its continued existence have been John McLaren, Barrett Reid, Nancy Keesing, Leonie Sandercock, Ken Gott, Gwen Harwood and Martin Duwell. Overland gives expression to a diversity of literary and social attitudes and opinions but its overall tone and spirit reflect its motto, 'Temper democratic, bias Australian', derived from Joseph Furphy's description of Such is Life (1903). An Overland Muster (1965), an anthology of writing from the pages of Overland between 1954 and 1964, was edited by Murray-Smith. Barrett Reid took over as editor with no. 112, October 1988, following Murray-Smith's death in that year. The same issue contained tributes to Murray-Smith.

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