Introduction

Vintage magazines and periodicals have the best stories. Some provide social and political commentary through modernist design and literary ambition; others give voice to marginalised communities or offer a glimpse into a world of celebrity and party.

In this Gift Guide you’ll find design-rich issues from the 20th and 21st centuries – publications that wanted their own world reflected back at them, from Cecily Crozier’s Comment, agitating for a more liberal and literate Australia, to Michael Glynn’s The Sydney Star, a vital contribution to the gay movement and the growth of gay consciousness.

Each magazine here is a little time capsule, a glimpse into a past that still speaks to our visions of what a future could look like. If art and literature are an attempt to deliver us from the mundane, these are the niche worlds and private agendas that made the attempt worthwhile.

Sorted by date from earliest to latest. Enjoy these conversation starters.

Dimity

The Bookfellow: A Monthly Magazine for Book-Buyers and Book-Readers, 1899.

The first five issues of The Bookfellow, published between 7th January and 31st May 1899 by A.G. Stephens of The Bulletin. Scarce full run before this publication was folded back into ‘the Red Page’, the inside cover of The Bulletin.

Art in Australia, published between 1916 and 1942, became the preeminent art magazine in Australia for showcasing the work of Australian artists to the public.

The use of printing with original woodblocks, tipped-in colour plates, and modern layouts contributed to its reputation as a modern art object of itself. Its authors included some of Australia’s most respected artists such as Norman and Lionel Lindsay, Margaret Preston, Thea Proctor, and Hugh McCrae, often writing of the European arts scene or reviewing exhibitions they had seen in their travels, bringing a wider sense of the world to Australian readers.

Art in Australia: Third Series, Number Seventeen. A New Vision of Australian Landscape, 1926.
Art in Australia: Third Series, Number Thirteen. Etching Number, 1925.

The Pacific, Volume IV. Two Issues, 1925.

Scarce pair of magazines published by Colin Barclay Smith (1893–1957), an Australian journalist and editor of the Sydney-based newspaper The New Era, which he founded in 1932 to advocate for Douglas Social Credit policies and financial reform. No known copies held in institutions. Barclay Smith’s archives are held in NLA and start only in 1932.

The Pacific, Volume IV. Two Issues, 1925.
The Pacific, Volume IV. Two Issues, 1925.

Advertising in Australia, Published Monthly. Vols 2 to 5, 1927–1929.

One of the early advertising periodicals of Australia’s 1920s boom years of print media, Advertising in Australia “was established by the Victorian Advertising Club in 1921, and taken over by William Mitchell in 1926. They promoted the benefits of advertising to retailers, distributors and manufacturers, and carried news about advertising agencies and new techniques in copywriting and art direction.”

Advertising in Australia, Published Monthly. Vols 2 to 5, 1927–1929.
Advertising in Australia, Published Monthly. Vols 2 to 5, 1927–1929.
Advertising in Australia, Published Monthly. Vols 2 to 5, 1927–1929.

“The Art Student.” Sydney Art School Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1 and No. 3, 1930 and 1932.

Pair of early numbers produced by students of The Sydney Art School, also known as the Julian Ashton Art School. With original linocuts.

“The Art Student.” Sydney Art School Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1 and No. 3, 1930 and 1932.
“The Art Student.” Sydney Art School Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1 and No. 3, 1930 and 1932.

Paris Sex-Appeal, 1934 and 1950.

Paris Sex-Appeal was a monthly erotica magazine published in Paris between 1930–1939 with several full-page nudes. Text in French.

Paris Sex-Appeal, 1934 and 1950.
Paris Sex-Appeal, 1934 and 1950.

Paris Magazine, Seven Issues, 1932–1934.

Paris Magazine was a monthly erotica magazine published in Paris during the 1930s and 1940s. It featured photographers such as Man Ray, Bertram Park, and Brassai, alongside fiction, illustrations, and celebrities such as Mae West.

Paris Magazine [Erotica]. Seven Issues, 1932–1934.
Paris Magazine [Erotica]. Seven Issues, 1932–1934.
Paris Magazine [Erotica]. Seven Issues, 1932–1934.
Paris Magazine [Erotica]. Seven Issues, 1932–1934.
Paris Magazine [Erotica]. Seven Issues, 1932–1934.
Paris Magazine [Erotica]. Seven Issues, 1932–1934.

Cecily Crozier’s “Comment”, with signatures, 1940–1947.

Cecily Crozier’s Comment, later aComment, was an Australian neo-bohemian magazine of art, poetry, and social literature, that launched in 1940 and ran for 26 issues until 1947. The magazine printed modernist poetry and avant-garde ideas that were “free from the traditional pruderies”, especially during wartime. Here are fourteen of the twenty-six issues published, many signed by James Gleeson, Max Harris, and Alister Kershaw.

Cecily Crozier’s “Comment”, with signatures, 1940–1947.
Cecily Crozier’s “Comment”, with signatures, 1940–1947.
Cecily Crozier’s “Comment”, with signatures, 1940–1947.
Cecily Crozier’s “Comment”, with signatures, 1940–1947.

Three Standalone “Comment” Publications, c1941–1943.

Three small and scarce booklets published by Cecily Crozier under the “aComment” banner, with original linocuts.

Three “Comment” Standalone Publications, c1941–1943.
Three “Comment” Standalone Publications, c1941–1943.
Three “Comment” Standalone Publications, c1941–1943.

EROS Magazine. Vol. 1, No. 1 to No. 4, 1962.

“Devoted entirely to the joys of love and sex.”

EROS Magazine ran for only four issues in 1962, at the dawning of the sexual revolution. It ceased publication at the end of the same year, partly due to production costs, but primarily because editor Ralph Ginzburg was prosecuted and jailed.

EROS Magazine. Vol. 1, No. 1 to No. 4, 1962.

“Art and Australia” Volume 1 to Volume 36, 1963–1999.

“The most significant continuing publication on Australian art.”

A near-complete run to 1999 of Art and Australia, the successor to the fine art magazine Art in Australia published by Sydney Ure Smith between 1916 and 1942. The magazine was reborn as Art and Australia under Ure Smith’s son, Sam Ure Smith, in 1963.

This collection comprises Volume 1, Issue 1, through to Volume 36, Issue 3. Most volumes contain a full run of issues: 1 to 4.

“Art and Australia” Volume 1 to Volume 36, 1963–1999.
“Art and Australia” Volume 1 to Volume 36, 1963–1999.

Ubunews: News from the Underground, Nos. 12 to 15, 1969.

Ubunews was Australia’s first self-consciously avant-garde film paper, published by three Sydney University students: Albie Thoms, Aggy Read, and David Perry. They used Ubunews as “a propaganda sheet for the underground, & a weapon in UBU’s fight against censorship.”

The newsletter-come-magazine ran for only 16 issues, from 1968 to 1970.

Ubunews: News from the Underground, Nos. 12 to 15, 1969.
Ubunews: News from the Underground, Nos. 12 to 15, 1969.

POL Magazine. 16 Issues, 1969–1972.

One of the early standout publications of Australia’s magazine scene, POL pushed the boundaries for a magazine with mainstream appeal. Growing out of the spirit of the 1960s revolution, it had Richard Walsh of OZ Magazine as its founding editor, great photographers for its editorial shoots, and a new voice aimed at the intellectual and stylish Australian woman.

POL. Vol. 4, No. 5 [The Germaine Greer Issue], 1972.

Sheila Magazine. Five Issues, 1979–1982.

Sheila was an Australian magazine dedicated to women’s fashion. Its regular feature “Sheila at the Parades” showed the newest designer fashions as well as the social circuit in attendance. An attempt to glamourise the WAG lifestyle, now scarce.

Sheila Magazine. Five Issues, 1979–1982.
Sheila Magazine. Five Issues, 1979–1982.

“The Sydney Star” Gay Community News Early Issues, 1980–1983.

The Sydney Star, later The Star, was launched in 1979 as “a contribution to the building of the gay movement and the growth of gay consciousness.” The paper became a gay business entertainment guide – covering parties, bath house events, and Mardi Gras – as well as a rallying political advocate and voice of the LGBT+ community.

These fourteen issues fall three months short of the AIDS crisis taking hold in Australia, illustrating a “golden age of the gay/lesbian print media.”

“The Sydney Star” Gay Community News Early Issues, 1980–1983.
“The Sydney Star” Gay Community News Early Issues, 1980–1983.
“The Sydney Star” Gay Community News Early Issues, 1980–1983.
“The Sydney Star” Gay Community News Early Issues, 1980–1983.

The Sydney Star Observer, Three Issues, 1990–1993.

Renamed the Sydney Star Observer in 1987, The Observer doubled its circulation from 9,427 in 1990 to 19,603 in 1993, as the AIDS crisis in Australia deepened, and pages became dedicated in memoriam sections.

The Sydney Star Observer, Three Issues, 1990–1993.

Andy Warhol’s “Interview” Magazine. Six Richard Bernstein Covers, 1986–1987.

Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine started in 1969 and billed itself as “intimate conversations between the world’s most creative people.” Editor Bob Colacello said “We wanted every issue of Interview to be like a great dinner party, where you have a grande dame, an important political figure, a rock star, an up-and-coming actress, and some model.”

Andy Warhol’s “Interview” Magazine. Six Richard Bernstein Covers, 1986–1987.

SKIN TWO Fetish Magazine. Six Issues, 1997–2005.

A legendary fetish magazine showcasing latex, leather, rubber, and all aspects of BDSM culture. Full of book recommendations aligned with the fetish lifestyle.

SKIN TWO Fetish Magazine. Six Issues, 1997–2005.
SKIN TWO Fetish Magazine. Six Issues, 1997–2005.

DUKE Magazine. Complete Run, 2005–2009.

Founded in Sydney in 2005 by artists Raquel Caballero and Emily Hunt, DUKE was a maximalist, anti-fashion magazine that ran for five issues until 2009, capturing a distinctly Sydney sense of irony, op-shop aesthetic, and celebrity-trash satire at a moment in the city’s independent art and publishing scene.

DUKE Magazine. Complete Run, 2005–2009.
DUKE Magazine. Complete Run, 2005–2009.

Thanks for looking!
“The Sydney Star” Gay Community News Early Issues, 1980–1983.

The Sydney Star