{{Short description|Former periodical in Australia}} {{Use Australian English|date=February 2022}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}} {{italic title}} ''''' Nation ''''' was an Australian fortnightly periodical, published from 1958 to 1972, when it was merged with the ''Sunday Review'' to form the ''Nation Review''.

==Origins== Tom Fitzgerald was the Financial Editor of ''The Sydney Morning Herald''. Whilst retaining his post at the ''Herald'', in 1956 he developed the idea of an independent, liberal-minded journal, as an antidote to the general conservative stuffiness of Australian print media at the time.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.john.curtin.edu.au/fitzgerald/biography/nation1.html|title=The Life and Work of Tom Fitzgerald: Oral History|access-date=7 February 2022}}</ref> He established ''Nation'' in 1958, installing George Munster as editor.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.john.curtin.edu.au/fitzgerald/biography/nation.html|title=The Life and Work of Tom Fitzgerald: Nation|access-date=7 February 2022}}</ref> Fitzgerald and Munster were introduced by Barry Humphries.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120887665 |title=MAGAZINE: BOOKS Tribute to an independent cultural voice of the 1960s |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=64 |issue=20,069 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=24 March 1990 |accessdate=8 February 2022 |page=23 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

Fitzgerald launched ''Nation'' in the same year as Sir Frank Packer launched his fortnightly news magazine ''Observer''; they were published on alternate fortnights until 1961 when Packer merged ''Observer'' into ''The Bulletin''.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120887665 |title=MAGAZINE: BOOKS Tribute to an independent cultural voice of the 1960s |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=64 |issue=20,069 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=24 March 1990 |accessdate=8 February 2022 |page=23 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Both were printed by the quixotic Francis James's Anglican Press, for a time in the crypt of Christ Church St Laurence.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120887665 |title=MAGAZINE: BOOKS Tribute to an independent cultural voice of the 1960s |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=64 |issue=20,069 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=24 March 1990 |accessdate=8 February 2022 |page=23 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

==Publication history== The first edition was published on 26 September 1958.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://halloffame.melbournepressclub.com/article/tom-fitzgerald|title=Melbourne Press Club: Tom Fitzgerald|access-date=7 February 2022}}</ref> ''Nation'' published stories that the mainstream press was not prepared to print, such as Ken Inglis's 1959 article about Max Stuart, an Arrernte Aborigine who had been convicted of the murder of a nine-year-old girl and sentenced to death.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120887665 |title=MAGAZINE: BOOKS Tribute to an independent cultural voice of the 1960s |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=64 |issue=20,069 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=24 March 1990 |accessdate=8 February 2022 |page=23 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> ''Nation'' campaigned strongly against the White Australia Policy and Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://halloffame.melbournepressclub.com/article/tom-fitzgerald|title=Melbourne Press Club: Tom Fitzgerald|access-date=7 February 2022}}</ref>

Other contributors to ''Nation'' included economist G.C. Harcourt, film critic Sylvia Lawson, historian Hugh Stretton,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120887665 |title=MAGAZINE: BOOKS Tribute to an independent cultural voice of the 1960s |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=64 |issue=20,069 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=24 March 1990 |accessdate=8 February 2022 |page=23 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> theatre critic H. G. Kippax, columnist Peter Ryan, and social historian Cyril Pearl.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/fitzgerald-thomas-michael-tom-18613|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: Tom Fitzgerald|access-date=7 February 2022}}</ref> When ''The Australian'' began publication in 1964, a number of contributors to ''Nation'' moved to the new daily newspaper, including Brian Johns, Ken Gott, Robin Boyd, Robert Hughes, Maxwell Newton and Max Harris.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.john.curtin.edu.au/fitzgerald/biography/nation2.html|title=The Life and Work of Tom Fitzgerald: Oral History 2|access-date=7 February 2022}}</ref>

==Closure== Fitzgerald sold ''Nation'' to Gordon Barton in 1972, who then merged it with his ''Sunday Review'' to form the ''Nation Review''. The last edition of ''Nation'' was published on 22 July 1972.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.john.curtin.edu.au/fitzgerald/biography/nation.html|title=The Life and Work of Tom Fitzgerald: Nation|access-date=7 February 2022}}</ref>

An anthology of work from ''Nation'' was edited by Ken Inglis in 1989 under the title ''Nation: The Life of an independent journal of opinion, 1958-1972'', (1989: Melbourne University Press).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.john.curtin.edu.au/fitzgerald/biography/nation.html|title=The Life and Work of Tom Fitzgerald: Nation|access-date=7 February 2022}}</ref>

==In popular culture== Frank Moorhouse's ''Conferenceville'' (1976) mentions ''Nation'' and Vadim's Restaurant in Sydney's Kings Cross where the paper's contributors used to meet<ref>Donald Horne, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=UQWODwAAQBAJ&dq=nation+vadim%27s+kings+cross&pg=PT38 On How I Came To Write 'The Lucky Country']'', Melbourne University Press, 2016. Retrieved 16 May 2022.</ref> until it closed in 1969: <blockquote> "Were you a Vadim's person?" I asked. She was roughly my age. I always put Vadim's cafe before our time. But Cindy had started life pretty early. "Yes, yes, I belonged everywhere then," she put out a sigh. "All the good ideas in this country started at Vadim's. Fitzgerald. The ''Nation'' people."<ref>Frank Moorhouse, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=OCAhAQAAIAAJ&q=%22All+the+good+ideas+in+this+country+started%22 Conferenceville]'', Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1976, p. 118. Retrieved 16 May 2022.</ref><ref>Frank Moorhouse, [https://books.google.com/books?id=OCAhAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Fitzgerald.+The+Nation+people.%22 Conferenceville], Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1976, p. 119. Retrieved 16 May 2022.</ref><ref>Kate Fitzpatrick, [https://www.smh.com.au/national/engaging-host-of-the-place-to-be-20030906-gdhcg1.html "Engaging host of the place to be"], ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', 6 September 2003. Retrieved 16 May 2022. This article repeats this quote and discusses Vadim's Restaurant but cites the incorrect Moorhouse book.</ref> </blockquote>

In his memoir ''Things I Didn't Know'' (2007), art critic Robert Hughes describes Fitzgerald and Munster walking across Kings Cross, after Vadim's had closed for the night, "to take up a laminate table at a hamburger joint named Hasty Tasty... and finish their editing there".<ref>Robert Hughes, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=1_Lvfd0NptMC&dq=nation+vadim%27s+kings+cross&pg=PA172 Things I Didn't Know]'', London: Vintage Books, 2007. Retrieved 16 May 2022.</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-198877459/listen Tom Fitzgerald interviewed by Ken Inglis] at National Library of Australia - Fitzgerald speaks of the background to establishing 'Nation', the people involved in the first issue, of the journalists who wrote for the paper, the exclusions from the paper, etc.

Category:Defunct newspapers published in New South Wales Category:1958 establishments in Australia Category:1972 disestablishments in Australia