Frank Woods: Archbishop of Melbourne 1957-1977
Australian History Memoir Social History Biography Religious History Political Activism Christian Theology
Frank Woods: Archbishop of Melbourne 1957-1977 is the only full-length biography of the man who reshaped Australia’s Anglican landscape. In this scarce first-edition paperback, Brian Porter draws on private papers, diaries and more than a hundred interviews to trace Woods’ journey from wartime chaplain to the outspoken prince of the church who marched beside anti-Vietnam protesters, welcomed Pentecostal worship into liturgy and campaigned for Aboriginal land rights. The result is a fast-moving narrative that reads like insider history rather than official hagiography, giving collectors and researchers an unfiltered look at how faith and politics collided in twentieth-century Melbourne.
What makes this copy especially appealing is its condition: a clean, tightly-bound first printing from Trinity College (2007) that has clearly been shelved rather than thumbed, yet still prices well below the $120-$150 asked for the few hardbacks that surface. Students of Australian social history, theology undergraduates and vintage paperback hunters all hunt for this title, so a very-good copy in English-language paperback is genuinely hard to find. No prior owner marks, no smoke or mildew odours—just the original matte cover bright and uncreased.
For anyone fascinated by Melbourne’s post-war boom years, the book is packed with local colour: the building of St Paul’s Cathedral spire, the 1956 Olympic Games ecumenical services, the fiery debates over conscription and apartheid. Porter balances these grand public scenes with intimate glimpses of Woods the man—his love of jazz piano, his struggles with depression, his friendship with future Governor-General Zelman Cowen—so readers finish with a sense of having met, rather than merely read about, Australia’s most charismatic archbishop.
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