Smiley by Raymond, Moore (Neville Ernest) - 1945

London: Sylvan Press, 1945. 183pp. Here's the synopsis and information >>> Smiley was a young Australian boy, William Thomas Greevins, who was constantly falling into adventures & mischief in the Australian outback town where he lived and attended Murrumbilla State School. To many Australians (Neville Ernest) Moore Raymond's book "Smiley" is eponymous with a time of simple bush-town naivete, but when it hit the bookshops to great acclaim it was hailed as an Australian Huckleberry Finn and film rights were bought immediately by Sir Alexander Korda. The book's success inspired two followups, Smiley Gets a Gun. London, Sylvian Press, 1947 & Smiley Roams the Road, Hulton Press, 1959. Both these titles fall into the "not too hard to find" category whereas the original is as scarce as can be imagined, eg: one currently listed in Ireland at 3X ours but a later copy. The book, though written for adults, was successfully adapted into a movie screenplay that had a very long gestation as its successive directors sought the ideal character to portray Smiley and an ideal film location. Raymond's brother asserted the three Smiley stories were inspired by memories of hot, dusty little towns of childhood. Moore Raymond was born in Queensland in 1903(4?) at Pimpama and educated at Toowoomba Grammar and then Queensland University. He worked as a freelance journalist, author, broadcaster and actor whilst working in Britain. In 1946 Korda sent Raymond to Australia to find a possible child actors and locations over a three month search. However Korda says he could not find an appropriate director and shelved it. Korda eventually assigned the project to Anthony Kimmins, who had served in Australia in World War Two. He arrived in Australia in March 1950 to begin preproduction and announced he would make the film near Augathella for £100,000. However after actually inspecting the site he doubted it would be useful and he was unable to find an actor he was happy with. Plans to make the movie were delayed again. Kimmins returned to Australia in September 1955 to begin again and after interviewing over 2,000 boys, he cast Colin Peterson as Smiley and Bruce Archer as Joey. Keith Calvert got the Smiley role in "Smiley Gets a Gun". Colin Petersen, the original Smiley, went on to become a drummer in the Bee Gees. Filming started in late October, with the township of Murrumbilla created on an estate at Camden Park. Roles went to Chips Rafferty, Ralph Richardson, John McCallum, Bud Tingwell & Leonard Teale amongst others...... . As part of our literary heritage this book will make a great heirloom gift as a valuable memento of our recent cultural past. Serious literature critics were quite right in their comparisons of the story with Twain's Huckleberry Finn. There's enormous scope to interpret Raymond's book as social commentary on our relationship with Britain, our treatment of the aborigines, class structure and business ethics/morals. This extract by essayist Emma Hamilton is an example of the interpretations put > At the macro-level. Smiley's journey can also be seen as a metaphor for nationhood. Smiley is introduced possessing distinctly adult qualities: he recites poetry and has a large vocabulary, he troubles himself with the romance between school teacher Miss Workman and Sergeant Flaxman, and promises that he will provide dinner for his mother. He is, as many scholars have suggested of Australia itself, 'born modern'. (Extract from the excellent Making Film and Television Histories: Australia and New Zealand edited by James E. Bennett, Rebecca Beirne). Raymond's writing credits >>> During the 1930s he wrote a number of plays for broadcast on the BBC (mostly for Midland) including the burlesque (in rhyme) The Marmalade Mystery (1935) and the series The House Next Door (1936), the Christmas revue Folly and Mistletoe (with others, 1936), the series How to Make the Best of... (1937), the comedy Twenty-one Days at Sea (1937), Seeing Life (1938), and This Week's Films (1943-44) for the Forces. Raymond was also the film and television critic for the Sunday Dispatch. Moore Raymond died in Barcelona on 13 June 1965, aged 62. A true classic of Australia literature & to find a first edition WITH a dustjacket is just amazing.. First Edition. Hardcover. Good/Poor. 18.5cm.