SOURCE: Barnes, John. “Discovering Australia: Commentary.” In The Writer in Australia: A Collection of Literary Documents 1856 to 1964, edited by John Barnes, pp. 65-70. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1969.

In the following excerpt, Barnes remarks on the influence of A. G. Stephens as editor of the Bulletin's literary Red Page in the 1890s.

To move from Desmond Byrne to A. G. Stephens writing in the same year—1896—is to alter sharply the perspective in which Australian writing is viewed. Stephens writes from within a new movement, hopeful of its future, and confident in his assessment of its importance … / [was] Stephens—the first significant critic in Australian writing—especially in relation to three major creative figures of the period: Lawson, Furphy, and Brennan. Because of his prominence and his unique position, Stephens provides a focus for any account of the condition of the writer during the period of intense nationalism...