In his lifetime, Alan Rowland Chisholm was widely regarded as an Australian national treasure, and the new biography by Stanley John Scott is compelling evidence that he deserves to remain recognised as one today.

This is a book that might have languished as an unpublished typescript, or indeed simply disappeared. Its author died in 2014, having twice withheld it from publication. The first time was due to frustration with MUP, which had promised to bring it out in 1983, then dithered. Later, when a different publication opportunity arose, Scott felt it needed reworking but lacked sufficient motivation to do so. In the months before his death, he was persuaded to change his mind. Thanks to the perseverance of Wallace Kirsop, the publisher of Ancora Press at Monash University, and editor Meredith Sherlock, it is finally available.