author
Anzac
A firsthand witness to World War I, this Australian writer helped shape how generations remembered the Anzac story. His work combines reporting, history, and a deep sense of national memory.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Charles E. W. Bean was an Australian historian, journalist, and official war correspondent during the First World War. He is especially known for documenting the experience of Australian soldiers and for becoming the principal author and editor of the 12-volume Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918.
Born in Bathurst, New South Wales, in 1879, Bean was educated in Australia and England, later studying at Oxford. His reporting from the war became hugely important to Australia’s understanding of Gallipoli and the Western Front, and he is widely associated with preserving the history and memory of the Anzacs.
Bean was also a leading advocate for the creation of the Australian War Memorial. His writing is valued not only for its detail, but for the way it tried to record the character, endurance, and everyday experience of the soldiers he followed.