As part of the 30th anniversary of Eureka Street, I’ve been speaking with the team who first started the publication in 1991, alongside various people who have played a part in the Eureka Street story.
In these (digital) pages, Morag Fraser AM needs no introduction. An editor, writer and legend in Australian literary commentary, Morag was editor of Eureka Street for its first thirteen years of existence. In the intervening years, Morag has been an adjunct professor in Humanities and Social Sciences at La Trobe University, Chair of Australian Book Review, and a judge for some of Australia’s most prestigious literary prizes including the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 2004, she was made a Member of the Order of Australia for services to journalism.
Morag Fraser is an entertaining and erudite conversationalist and according to founding publisher Michael Kelly SJ, it was Morag who gave Eureka Street its distinctive voice. In this interview, it’s that unique voice our discussion keeps returning to.
The tone for Eureka Street was — and is — witty and irreverent in a way that acknowledges human dignity, and avoids descending into satire. ‘It is a fine line,’ Morag admits. ‘You take your material seriously, you don't take yourself seriously at all, all the while treating people with dignity and respect.’
The Eureka Street voice is, much like the founding team, complicated. And a proper understanding of the voice requires an understanding of the magazine’s formation.
‘Eureka Street was established by a very particular group of men at a particular moment in church history,’ Morag says, referring to Peter Steele SJ, Jesuit provincial and professor of English at the University of Melbourne; Michael Kelly SJ, the entrepreneurial spirit behind the magazine; and Bill Uren SJ, a professional ethicist who happened to be the next provincial after Peter Steele. Add to that list Adrian Lyons SJ, Andrew Hamilton SJ, Michael McGirr, Frank Brennan SJ and you have an intellectual powerhouse of gifted individuals. ‘These men believed that the Church, particularly the Jesuit tradition, had something to bring to public debate.’
But what they created could not be easily categorised as simply a ‘Catholic’ magazine, and was never a publication that shied away from publishing challenging ideas. ‘All those men were broad thinkers and I don’t think they wanted a Catholic silo magazine. We wanted a magazine that explored issues deeply.’
‘Intellectual integrity, wit, seriousness and an understanding of your audience and a love of people. It’s just a good formula.’
‘The New Yorker was one of the magazines that I often thought about because it had that wonderful blend of current affairs and deep thinking. But we didn't want to imitate anything,’ Morag says. ‘We wanted an Australian magazine that came out of a whole Jesuit way of being.’
The former Eureka Street editor recalls a lunch meeting with the then Jesuit provincial Peter Steele SJ in the magazine’s formative days. ‘Peter’s instructions to me were very complicated. He said, “you’ve got to publish the best writing you can lay your hands on.” That’s all he ever said. Peter himself was ironic and saw the complexity of the world. And that’s what the magazine tried to do. It was meant to be both deep thinking and worldly at the same time and to keep people engaged and entertained. The tone had to be complex. The world is complex.’
The resulting voice was an amalgam reflecting the diverse set of influences behind its creation. ‘Intellectual integrity, wit, seriousness and an understanding of your audience and a love of people. It’s just a good formula.’
Morag stresses that at no point was this a one-person show, and the strength of the publication lay in the quality of the team who put together the publication each month. And yet while conversing with Morag, I realise this is a person who is possessed of those same qualities that have been descriptors of Eureka Street: magisterial, entertaining, witty and deeply committed to the idea of informed public debate. It’s a voice that continues to echo through the magazine to this day.
View more Eureka Street 30th anniversary interviews on our YouTube channel.
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David Halliday is editor of Eureka Street.