Anthony Trollope has two distinct claims to fame – one literary and one not.

The literary claim to fame is clear: during his career as a novelist and essayist he produced 47 novels and numerous non-fiction works. But before becoming the eminent Victorian writer he was, for many years, an official with the Post Office. Without Trollope, Britain might never have had its distinctive red pillar boxes.

The bicentenary next year of Trollope’s birth has seen a resurgence of scholarly interest in his life and works.  Adelaide academic and author Dr Nigel Starck’s The First Celebrity (Lansdown Media, $29.95) focuses on the time Trollope spent here in Australia, enabling us to see our colonial selves through Trollope’s unwavering gaze.

Frederick Waddy’s caricature of Anthony Trollope. Photo: Wikipedia commons

Though British through and through, Trollope visited Australia twice in the 1870s and became a keen observer of life in the colonies.  Not that his frank observations won him many friends Down Under.  While in Adelaide, he commented:

“Anything in the guise of a river more ugly than the Torrens it would be impossible to either see or to describe.”

And after 18 months away from home, Trollope had clearly had enough antipodean hospitality: “I am reduced to the vilest tobacco out of the vilest pipe, and drink the vilest brandy and water – often in very vile company.”

Dr Starck has penned an engaging account of a literary visit that was greeted initially with the interest and excitement accorded to a royal tour.  Trollope was, says Dr Starck, the first identity of popular fame to visit these shores. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm waned and by the time of Trollope’s death, the Australian press was distinctly cool in its summations of his life.

The Adelaide Observer said rather unkindly that Trollope’s work made “very dreary reading”, but the same cannot be said of The First Celebrity: Anthony Trollope’s Australasian Odyssey.  Dr Starckwrites with an intuitive understanding of Trollope’s milieu and a clear affection for his subject.  There is also a charming foreword by popular novelist Joanna Trollope.

The Australian connection continues to this day.  Sir Anthony Trollope, the 17^th baronet and the author’s great-great-grandson, is a former rugby player living in rural New South Wales.  Sir Anthony will launch the book with Dr Starck at the Barr Smith Library, 6pm, tomorrow (September 25).