Cover subtitle: Security surveillance of Australian authors and intellectuals 1920-1960. Includes index. History which examines the files kept by the Australian security force on Australian authors and intellectuals such as Frank Hardy, Dorothy Hewett, Katharine Susannah Prichard and Manning Clark. Analysis of the files, available for the years to 1963, reveals the almost obsessive nature of the security force's surveillance of certain literary figures, particularly in the years during the 'cold war'. Focuses on the files held on writers who made a significant contribution to the intellectual life of the time and examines the motives behind Security's preoccupations with writers and intellectual dissent. Includes references, a time-line, a bibliography and an index. The author is a former journalist with the Melbourne 'Age' and is currently a researcher and tutor in the English department at La Trobe University.