| While the Billy Boils | |
| Author: | Henry Lawson |
| Country: | Australia |
| Language: | English |
| Genre: | Short story collection |
| Publisher: | Angus and Robertson |
| Release Date: | 1896 |
| Media Type: | |
| Pages: | 333 pp |
| Preceded By: | Short Stories in Prose and Verse |
| Followed By: | In the Days When the World was Wide and Other Verses |
While the Billy Boils is a collection of short stories by the Australian writer Henry Lawson, published by Angus and Robertson in 1896. It includes "The Drover's Wife", "On the Edge of a Plain", and "The Union Buries Its Dead".[1]
The collection consists of 52 short stories from a variety of sources. Some are published here for the first time.
A reviewer in The Queenslander found much to like about the book but also noted its limitations: "..most of the sketches can best be described as Bulletinesque, the evidence of their having been written with a view to appearance in that popular weekly being unmistakable. There is plenty of variety in the book; fun and pathos, and the two commingled, with running through nearly all a note of cynicism - not altogether spontaneous in the author, but rather inspired by his associations — which one has come to expect in the writings of Henry Lawson."[2]
Similarly the reviewer in The Australian Town and Country Journal: "They are just such anecdotes and snap-shots of general conversation which would be in keeping with the time for rest and jest around camp-fires, and of course the author picked up his materials under such circumstances. They can scarcely all be denominated "stories" - inasmuch as many of them are merely impressions of men and things, and are no more tales than the descriptive writing of a journalist. These impressions give anything but a cheerful view of Australian life up country, The stranger who knows not Australia will doubtless apply Mr. Lawson's description to the whole country outside the towns, but the stories do not deal with the country as a whole, but with that part of it referred to as "out back.""[3]
Several of the stories in this collections were adapted for the screen in a 1921 film. It was written, directed and produced by Beaumont Smith.[4] It is considered a lost film.
The State Library of New South Wales holds the correction drafts of this title. They are available online.[5]