Frank Cheshire

Frank Cheshire
Frank Cheshire
Born(1896-06-06)6 June 1896
East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Died19 November 1987(1987-11-19) (aged 91)
Balwyn, Victoria, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Occupation(s)Bookseller, publisher
Known forFounder of F. W. Cheshire Pty. Ltd.

Frank Cheshire (1896–1987) was an Australian bookseller and publisher.[1][2][3] His bookshop in Little Collins Street, Melbourne was described as a "gathering place for all interested in books and literature"[4] in the mid-twentieth century. His publishing firm, F. W. Cheshire Pty. Ltd. published school textbooks and dominated that market in the state of Victoria for many years. It "began a new era in publishing"[5] when it published Australian text books for Australian schools instead of importing them from Britain. The firm also published a number of general trade bestsellers such as Alan Marshall's I Can Jump Puddles, Robin Boyd's The Australian Ugliness and Joan Lindsay's Picnic at Hanging Rock and "gave many Australian writers their first start".[3]

  1. ^ John Hetherington, "Publishing Venture Born Out of 1939 Upheaval: Australia's Publishing Houses (2)", The Age, 23 February 1963, p. 18.
  2. ^ Cheshire: History, austlit.edu.au. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
  3. ^ a b Rod Usher, "Gentle man who nurtured authors: Obituary, Frank Cheshire 1896-1987", The Age, 21 Nov 1987, p. 16.
  4. ^ John Arnold, Cheshire, Frank Walter (1896–1987), Australian Dictionary of Biography, anu.edu.au. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  5. ^ "Censor 'filthy' books': Cheshire", The Age, 2 Apr 1975, p. 2.