The Hand that Signed the Paper

St Leonards, Allen & Unwin, [August] 1994 [first edition]. Octavo, x, 157 pages. Trade paperback; paper tanned, as ever; essentially a fine copy of this award-winning and controversial novel. 'Winner of the "Australian"/Vogel Literary Award' is printed above the author's name across the foot of the front cover. Offered together with fine copies of first printings of both the second and third editions of this work. The second edition ('This edition published in 1995') differs only by the ISBN and an additional line of text on the front cover: 'Miles Franklin Literary Award Winner 1995'. The third edition contains a number of variations, apart from a new ISBN and imprint details ('Second edition published in 1995 | Third edition published in 1995'). The author's name on the spine and front cover is now Helen Darville; the author's short biographical sketch beneath her frontispiece portrait now has some additional text, to the effect that 'the book was first published under the authorship of Helen Demidenko. The author's name, in fact, is Helen Darville'; and no longer present on the rear cover are the comments of high praise by David Marr ('astonishingly talented . with the true novelist's gift of entering into the imagination of those she is writing about'), and Jill Kitson ('A searingly truthful account of terrible wartime deeds that is also an imaginative work of extraordinary redemptive power'). Geoffrey Cains, in 'Access Denied. A Bibliography of Suppressed Australian Literature' (2021), states: 'As with many literary hoaxes in Australia this one involved complex issues of the nature of identity and the "I" of the narrative. It can be argued that in Darville's case the assumption by her of an ethnic identity was premeditated to deceive. Her motive has not been clearly determined. The heated debate that followed publication of the book said a lot about literary criticism in Australia. As with other literary hoaxes "the responses have either been dismissive of assumed stereotypical identities or celebrate the author for their fluid subjectivities'. He also quotes from a letter from the publisher, written on 25 August 1995, the day after the hoax was revealed: 'Like the author, we feel the book should continue to be judged on its literary merits. We will be reissuing this book as soon as possible with Helen Darville credited as author'. Cains 40. [3 items].…