Andrew Fabinyi
Andrew Fabinyi | |
|---|---|
| Born | 27 December 1908 Budapest, Hungary |
| Died | 25 July 1978 (aged 69) Hornsby, New South Wales, Australia |
| Occupation(s) | Publisher, bookseller |
| Known for | Promoting Australian literature and culture; Managing Director of F. W. Cheshire Publishing and Pergamon Press (Australia) |
Andrew Fabinyi (27 December 1908 – 25 July 1978) was a Hungarian-born Australian publisher and bookseller who began his career with Frank Cheshire in Melbourne before moving on to Pergamon Press in Sydney. He played a significant role in fostering public engagement with Australian culture and society while advocating for a broad international political outlook. Fabinyi became a prominent figure within Australia's literary circles and was honored with an Order of the British Empire for his services to Australian literature.
Early education and career
Born Andor Fabinyi in Budapest, Hungary, he was the son of Imre Fabinyi, a practicing lawyer, and Margit Nagel. His education included attendance at the Minta Gymnasium followed by advanced studies at Royal Hungarian Pázmány Péter University, where he completed a doctoral thesis focusing on the psychology of aesthetics.
Fabinyi’s entry into the publishing world began with the Budapest-based publisher Lauffer. In 1932, he launched an agency that distributed British publications throughout Hungary, representing notable houses such as Oxford University Press, Harrap, and Longman, Green.
Migration to Australia
As World War II loomed and Admiral Miklós Horthy’s fascist regime gained power, Fabinyi feared being conscripted to fight on behalf of Adolf Hitler. To avoid this, he left Hungary, initially relocating to New Zealand. After a short period in Sydney where his attempt to establish himself as a publishing agent was unsuccessful, he arrived in Melbourne in July 1939. There, through an introduction by Enid Moodie Heddle, the Australian representative for Longman, he secured employment at the F. W. Cheshire bookshop on Little Collins Street.
Deciding to settle permanently in Australia, Fabinyi obtained permanent residency and married Elisabeth Clare Robinson in October 1940. In 1941, he volunteered for the Australian army, but his Hungarian citizenship led to rejection. Subsequently, he enlisted in the Citizen Military Forces in 1942 and served initially in a labour battalion before transferring to the Australian Army Education Service. He became an Australian citizen in December 1944 and held the rank of Warrant Officer while managing libraries within the Education Service until his discharge at the conclusion of the war.
F. W. Cheshire
Upon returning to F. W. Cheshire, Fabinyi expanded the retail bookselling operations and rose to the position of Retail Manager. In 1954, as the company launched F. W. Cheshire Publishing Pty Ltd to oversee its expanding publishing ventures, he was appointed Publishing Director.
During the late 1960s, Fabinyi curated a varied and lucrative catalogue primarily focused on secondary school textbooks, which provided consistent financial stability. Beyond educational materials, Cheshire published literature that explored Australian identity through fiction, poetry, economics, politics, and sociology.
Among early trade titles were W. Y. Tsao's Two Pacific Democracies: China and Australia and Wilfred Burchett's Pacific Treasure Island: New Caledonia (1941), which became widely popular amid increased public awareness during the Pacific War.
Fabinyi was instrumental in promoting emerging writers whose works later received critical recognition, including Robin Boyd’s The Australian Ugliness (1960), Alan Marshall’s autobiography I Can Jump Puddles (1955), and Joan Lindsay’s novel Picnic at Hanging Rock (1967). His list also featured significant publications across arts, history, biography, and social sciences with strong Australian themes by authors such as Kenneth Cook, Bruce Dawe, C. P. Fitzgerald, Brian Fitzpatrick, Xavier Herbert, David Martin, Barry Oakley, Cyril Pearl, Clive Turnbull, and Judah Waten.
He published Peter Coleman’s seminal symposium Australian Civilisation (1960), which included essays from prominent intellectuals like Vincent Buckley and Robert Hughes; this volume influenced subsequent discussions about Australian society. Another notable success was Sol Encel’s Australian Society: A Sociological Introduction (1965), which reached its eleventh edition.
Fabinyi also oversaw publication of fiction by Hugh Atkinson, Vance Palmer, Neilma Sidney; poetry collections by Vincent Buckley, Geoffrey Dutton, Lionel Lindsay; as well as anthologies such as Australia Writes, Australian Signpost, and Span, which showcased both Asian and Australian authors.
In 1968 Fabinyi advanced to Managing Director of the Cheshire Group as it broadened its publishing reach across Australia.
Pergamon Press and Retirement
Following the acquisition of Cheshire by the British publisher Hamlyn/International Publishing Company in 1969, Fabinyi transitioned to Robert Maxwell's Pergamon Press (Australia) in Sydney, initially as Director and subsequently as Managing Director. He also managed Maxwell’s British Book Centre located in New York, seeing it as a strategic platform to elevate Australian literature on the global stage. Although there were apprehensions regarding the influence of British publishers on Australian companies, Fabinyi underscored the importance of sustained investment in the publishing sector, confident that Pergamon’s considerable financial resources could support this vision.
From 1970 until 1978, Fabinyi held a directorship role at the La Trobe University Bookshop. Starting in 1975, he undertook a research fellowship at the University of New South Wales and became a member of the editorial board for the University of New South Wales Press in 1976. He concluded his tenure at Pergamon in 1977 and continued to provide consultancy services to Longman Cheshire until his passing in 1978.
Publishing, Libraries, and Internationalism
Under the pseudonym "Peter Pica," Fabinyi actively promoted Australian cultural identity through his contributions to Meanjin and the Australian Book Review, where he analyzed publishing developments and book design trends. Between 1965 and 1967, he served as chairman of the Australian Book Publishers' Association (now known as the Australian Publishers Association) and participated in various committees focused on book export growth and design accolades. He was instrumental in founding Australian Book Week, drawing inspiration from Hungary’s Book Days.
His dedication to exemplary book design is evident in renowned F. W. Cheshire titles such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Australian Ugliness, and I Can Jump Puddles, all benefiting from the talents of acclaimed designer Alison Forbes.
A passionate supporter of libraries, Fabinyi played an active role within the Library Association of Australia, holding the presidency of its Victorian branch multiple times and earning its prestigious Sir Redmond Barry award in 1974. His efforts contributed significantly to the creation of the Australia Council. Together with Jean May Campbell and Lina Bryans, he helped launch Moomba Book Week, which has become a central event within Melbourne’s festival calendar.
Fabinyi was a proponent of cultural and political internationalism, chairing the Australian National Committee for UNESCO from 1973 to 1977 and serving on UNESCO’s International Advisory Committee of Documentation between 1971 and 1973. He led Australia’s International Book Year Committee and presided over both Victorian and New South Wales divisions of the Australian Institute of International Affairs. Since 1960, he was also involved with the Committee for Economic Development of Australia.
Personal Life
On 26 October 1940, Fabinyi married Elisabeth Clare Robinson (1912–2002), who worked as an administrative officer and librarian, at the Presbyterian Church in Toorak. The couple had five children: Margaret and Janet, both social workers; Gavin, a neurosurgeon; Martin, a film producer; and Jeremy, who became a consultant in the music industry.
Fabinyi passed away unexpectedly due to cardiovascular disease on 25 July 1978 in Hornsby, New South Wales.
Awards
- 1960: Order of the British Empire
- 1974: Redmond Barry Award (Library Association of Australia)
Books
- The Australian Literary Scene, Canberra: News and Information Bureau, 1960.
- Social and Cultural Issues of Migration, Canberra: Australian Citizenship Convention, 1970.
Articles and forewords
- "The State of Australian Publishing", Meanjin, Summer 1947, vol. 6, no. 4.
- "On the Book Front", Meanjin, Winter 1948, vol. 7, no. 2.
- "The Australian Book", Meanjin, Spring 1958, vol. 17, no. 3; later included in Image of Australia, University of Texas Press, 2012.
- "Australian Book Perspective", Meanjin Quarterly, July 1961, vol. 20, no. 2.
- Review titled "Australia's literary testing ground: ON NATIVE GROUNDS: Australian Writing from Meanjin Quarterly", published in The Age, 27 January 1968.
- "Books and adult education", featured in Derek Whitelock (ed.), Adult Education in Australia, Pergamon Press Australia, 1970.
- "More Promising, More Dangerous", included in Clive Turnbull (ed.), Hammond Innes Introduces Australia, London: Andre Deutsch; New York: McGraw-Hill; Melbourne: Hill of Content, 1971.
- Foreword to George Farwell’s Farwell Country: Selected Writings, 1946-1976, Melbourne, Thomas Nelson, 1977.
Works about Fabinyi
- John McLaren (ed.), A Nation Apart: Essays in Honour of Andrew Fabinyi: Personal Views of Australia in the Eighties, Melbourne, Longman Cheshire, 1983.
- John Hanrahan, review titled "Australia's sloppy slide downhill", The Age, 13 August 1983, p. 13 (covering A Nation Apart).
- Steve Kafkarisos, "Australian Books and Australian Libraries: The Views of Andrew Fabinyi", in Frank Upward and Jean P Whyte (eds.), Peopling a Profession: Papers from the Fourth Forum on Australian Library History, Monash University, 1989.
- John McLaren, "Andrew Fabinyi and Cheshire", found in Craig Munro and Robyn Sheahan-Bright (eds.), Paper Empires: A History of the Book in Australia, 1946-2005, University of Queensland Press, 2006.
External links
- Guide to the Papers of Andrew Fabinyi
- Interview with Andrew Fabinyi by Hazel de Berg
- Fabinyi Andor (Andrew Fabinyi), Magyar életrajzi lexikon (Arcanum) – text in Hungarian