Dictionaries for a nation: The making of the Macquarie Dictionary (1981) and the Australian National Dictionary (1988)

This article examines the production and publishing history of two major Australian dictionaries: the Macquarie Dictionary (first edition, 1981) and the Australian National Dictionary (1988). It addresses why they were made, who made them, and what their publishing histories were. In particular, it shows how the dictionaries were part of a long tradition of dictionary-making and debates over the nature of Australian English as well as the commercial and cultural nationalism of the 1970s and 1980s. Their story is insightful of the broader anxieties about national identity that has marked intellectual and cultural projects such as these. In addition, the story of the making of these two dictionaries also illuminates the history of publishing in Australia during a key period.