Editor of the weekly literary "Red Page" of the Sydney Bulletin from its inception in 1896 until 1906 and responsible for the newspaper publisher's book ventures, A. G. Stephens presided over the reception of most of the writers who emerged in the years immediately preceding and following Federation in 1901. This period, later referred to as "the Nineties," was marked by an assertive "literary nationalism" comparable to that of the mid-nineteenth-century American literary renaissance (which provided an influential model for another "new" literature in another "new" land). From early in his career, Stephens was recognized as the most discerning and influential literary critic in the country--a reputation he has retained for many readers. More-recent connotations of "literary critic" are too restrictive to convey the range and nature of his contributions to the national literary culture, however. His activities as a newspaper, magazine, and book editor and literary agent who published, reviewed...