Chester Eagle: author, editor, publisher

Over the past forty years author, editor and publisher, Chester Eagle has had the pleasure of working with some of Australia’s most influential publishing figures, including Max Brown, Vane Lindesay, Diana Gribble, and Hilary McPhee. Born in the 1930s, young Chester attended Finley State School for six years, then had another six in Melbourne. Chester studied for four years at Melbourne University, then accepted a teaching appointment in the Victorian town of Bairnsdale. It was there that Chester befriended the writer-extraordinaire Hal Porter, and decided that writing was to be the centre of his life. After he married, Chester moved back to Melbourne where he continued teaching at Preston TAFE College (now Melbourne Polytechnic) until his retirement at age fifty-five. He was now able to at last devote himself to writing full-time.

When asked what fascinates or draws him to the world of books, Chester replied, ‘I think language is one of the most important human functions. We couldn’t think very well without language; we’d be left reacting to external stimuli, whereas, with language turned into thought, we can take charge of our lives to at least some extent.’ Chester continued, ‘Language is the most democratic thing, linking all types and all classes. We all use the same language … or, if we’re from different parts of the world, we don’t use the same language, which puts us in the fascinating position of having to work hard to understand each other, and sometimes we can and do. Once having grasped the importance of language, it’s only another step to wanting to see it used richly, fully, and surpassingly well. This is where writers are supposed to lead!’

Having had the a long association within the Australian publishing scene, as both a writer and editor, has given Chester a unique insight into the current health of the industry. Said Chester, ‘Publishing lags in importance far behind television and indeed most other aspects of the media. Yet publishing will always be important because it’s where new ideas of significance usually get their first airing. Commercial publishing, however, is lagging in another way. Like morning newspapers, it’s a product of the pre-electronic age and its time is passing. I see little sign that commercial publishers realise this, though I may well be wrong. So my answer would be that commercial publishing is far advanced into old age but still thinks it’s a nice virile thirty-five or thereabouts.’

In 1984 Chester published his first novel under his own imprint, Trojan Press. In 2006 he launched TrojanPress.com.au where readers can download free of charge numerous novels, memoirs and librettos in PDF format. While many at his age may have trouble tuning a radio, Chester has embraced this emerging technology with an exuberance rarely seen in people half his age. ‘It’s the most prominent and visible form of the future that’s currently available,’ said Chester. ‘It’s a major feature of a revolution at least as important as the invention of printing in the 15th century. Printing changed the world and the Internet is part of a change at least as big which is happening now. It’s beyond most of us to imagine where the electronic revolution will take us, so the best we can do is to keep watching and keep speculating.’

Chester began working with Network Creative Services in 2005, offering his editorial expertise in the rerelease of Max Brown’s Australian Son – the story of Ned Kelly. Mindful of the impact the original book had on the Australian publishing landscape, Chester was keen to see Max’s words retain their significance. ‘I loved working on Max’s book because I loved Max, he’d had a huge influence on me when I was a young man.’ said Chester. When asked about the process involved in editing such a work Chester replied, ‘Now that he (Max) was dead it was my job, undertaken with commitment and passion, to bring his revision of that book to the public. I took it for granted that Max, a really fine writer, knew exactly what he was doing when he wrote things down, so my job (a) was a matter of getting together the text that he wanted to put before the public – no easy matter, this, I can tell you – and then (b) ensuring that the text lived up to Max’s expectations of it.’ Luckily for all concerned Chester, by this stage, knew Max well and had made many suggestions to him, down the years. Said Chester, ‘Because I think I am/was a little more conscious of the surface effects of prose than he was. This meant, however, that I mustn’t annoy his spirit hanging over my shoulder by doing anything that would have displeased him. This may sound like a conflict inside my mind but it really wasn’t because of the great love I felt for Max, then and now.’

A couple of years later Network Creative Services engaged Chester’s services in editing an entirely different manuscript. Marcie Jones’s book Runs in the Blood was a challenge because it was essentially ‘a lot of talk written down’. When asked his thoughts on the project Chester replied, ‘Marcie Jones isn’t/wasn’t a writer at all, but a talker (and singer) onto paper. Her book was going to appear with lots of pics, lots and lots of “presentation”, so I saw myself as having the contradictory jobs of making her prose look like something you would want to READ, while at the same time preserving her own voice, that of a very spontaneous chatterer on paper.’