Text below is from an article in today's Age,
the full text is on the Age website
www.theAge.com.au

and it gives a link to the biography
the most controversial chapter of which is # 16
Anguish & Robbery

By JASON STEGER
LITERARY EDITOR
Tuesday 25 July 2000




The controversial biography of poet Les Murray, which was withdrawn from
publication last year after threats of legal action, has been published on
the Internet.

Les Murray: A Life in Progress by Peter Alexander, a professor of English at
the University of New South Wales, was due to be published last November by
Oxford University Press. But publication was postponed after threats of
legal action by ETT Imprint publisher Tom Thompson.

Mr Thompson objected to chapter 16, Anguish & Robbery 1978-1992, which
chronicled the time when he and Mr Murray worked at publisher Angus &
Robertson. The book suggested that when Mr Thompson became literary
publisher at A&R in 1989, the two men clashed over the poetry that the
company would publish.

It is believed that Drusilla Modjeska, author of the prize-winning
Stravinsky's Lunch, and poet Alan Wearne also contacted Oxford University
Press last year about how they had been portrayed in Professor Alexander's
book. The book has been posted, without OUP's permission, on aussiepoet.com,
a site created earlier this month. The registrant and administrative
contact, who is listed as Singapore-based, was unavailable yesterday.

An OUP spokesman said the move was in breach of the publisher's copyright
and the company would take legal action.

Mr Thompson said yesterday that he was "shocked and appalled" that the book
had been published on the Net.

He confirmed that as a result he had written to OUP's legal advisers saying
that he would brief lawyers in Australia and Britain.

Professor Alexander said he was unhappy that the book was on the Net. "My
reaction is one of complete exasperation - I can't get it published until
it's out of the hands of the lawyers and yet someone's managed to publish it
on the Net," he said.

Murray said that he didn't know who had put the book on the site, but " it
was whispered to me that it was someone who didn't like censorship".

He reiterated his anger at the original postponement of publication.

"It was censorship by threat of legal action," he said. "The publisher was
completely gutless.





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