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Come and explore distant galaxies with our new exhibition of science fiction publications and artwork taken from the Library’s Graham Stone Collection.

Graham Stone's interest in science fiction as a teenager led to a lifetime of documenting and preserving works and information relating to Australian science fiction. He was considered among the foremost authorities and collectors of the genre in Australia. Stone contributed stories to numerous zines, journals, and magazines; oversaw the running of several fan societies (including the Futurian Society of Sydney and the Australian Science Fiction Society); and played a significant role in establishing Australia's first national science fiction convention.

In 1968 he published the first comprehensive bibliography of Australian science fiction ( Australian Science Fiction Index 1925-1967 ), and in the mid-1980s started methodically combing through newspapers and periodicals, discovering hundreds of long-forgotten stories by Australian science fiction authors. In 1990 he began to assemble his findings into a book attempting to trace the science fiction genre's development in Australia. The result, Notes on Australian Science Fiction, was self-published in 2001, followed by his Australian Science Fiction Bibliography (2004, revised 2011). In addition to publishing his own works, Stone's small press also republished rare but historically significant Australian science fiction.

Stone’s contribution to the genre was acknowledged by his peers when he became the recipient of the 1999 A. Bertram Chandler Award for Outstanding Achievement in Science Fiction.

Stone worked at the Public Library of NSW and The National Library of Australia film division during his long career as a librarian and bibliographer from 1954 to 1976, before retiring to sell second-hand books and concentrate on his science fiction literature research.

The University Library obtained a large selection of publications from Stone’s personal archives in 2007 and 2008 to form the Graham Stone Collection.

Each exotically illustrated magazine contains at least one story by an Australian author (in many cases by the prolific A. Bertram Chandler), as well as pieces from several other internationally renowned science fiction writers, including Isaac Asimov, Anne McCaffrey, Arthur C. Clarke, and Philip K. Dick.

Visit this stunning collection in the Reid Library, Ground Floor.

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University Library +61 8 6488 7425