Leyden Publishing

Peter Leyden Publishing was an independent Australian educational publishing firm specialising in primary school resources. The firm has been associated with progressive issues since its inception. Peter and Elsie Leyden ran the company until Peter's death, when it was taken over by their daughter Ashleigh and her husband, until their retirement. Their son Michael Leyden launched a branch of the company in New Zealand. The firm is one of the few examples of a successful enterprise run by a Communist family.

Origins

As an officer in the British Naval Reserve Special Branch during World War II, Peter Henry Leyden (1915-1978) was required to open letters from servicemen. Startled to find that a very poor level of literacy was commonplace, he determined to try to correct the situation. Immediately after the war he emigrated to Sydney and was appointed as a primary school teacher in 1952. That year he was speaking on the radio about "the Story Path to Reading". In 1954 he established a company, Australian Education Foundation Pty Ltd, and an imprint Australian Visual Education, to "carry on the business of booksellers, publishers and printers".

In 1957 Leyden resigned as a teacher to concentrate on printing and distributing educational material, which initially consisted of posters for schoolrooms and larger-format comics or illustrated stories about Australian history. His wife Elsie Leyden managed day-to-day operations. Several dozen soft-cover pictorial social studies books for children covered the more exciting tales of European exploration and development of Australia, including "The Riddle of the Rivers", Eyre's crossing of the Nullarbor Plain, the story of Federation, the Eureka Stockade, and the death of Burke and Wills. These products were sold widely throughout primary schools in Australia, so that most Australian schools today have some Leyden publication.

Leyden had been a member of the Communist Party of Australia and he was Treasurer of the leftist Sydney Realist Writers group. Both he and Elsie were determined long-term campaigners for Leftist and peace causes. In 1957 the Leydens employed Dorothy Hewett who wrote the text of several illustrated books. Hewett's first solo book of poetry, Windmill Country, was published in 1968 by Overland magazine with Peter Leyden Publications.

In the early 1960s, the Leydens added a small sound studio to their Crows Nest premises. Their son Michael Leyden had written tunes to several poems from Hewett's book What About the People? most significantly the union anthem Weevils in the Flour. The first recording of this song was made in the Leyden studio in 1963, on an EP with songs by other singers including teenagers Jeannie Lewis and Mike McClellan - the first recording by either artist.

By 1969, the earlier companies were discontinued and products were issued under the imprint of Peter Leyden Publishing.

After 1970

From 1970 as curricula changed and the focus of progressive issues moved, the Leyden product range moved away from exploration and economic development to indigenous culture, the environment and music.

Peter Leyden died in 1976 and the company was taken over by his eldest daughter Ashleigh Leyden, who had also been a member of the CPA, and her husband Bob Gallagher. Gallagher had been a Freedom Rider in New South Wales in the mid 1960s. Later products of the firm included

• Peter Leyden's Australian percussion band and recorder series
• Peter Leyden's Music, mime and movement
• Peter Leyden's space and the earth
• Caring for the environment
• Aborigines today
• Australian government

and about 30 others.

Music, mime, movement and percussion became an important part of the product range. It increasingly featured indigenous Australians: 12 units included lesson plans, teacher information notes and classroom and individual activities including arts, crafts, traditional drawings, audio dreaming stories, colouring in, crosswords, word searches,and a phonics component with flash cards.

In the 2000s, it became possible to distribute products online rather than through a network of sales people. In 2012 with the trend towards delivering resources online, the firm undertook a major reworking of their back catalogue for online access. Since the retirement of the couple, the online classroom resources have been provided free of charge.

Michael Leyden Publications

In the late 1980s, Michael Leyden established an offshoot of the firm in Auckland New Zealand, and published educational resources on more than a dozen subjects including

• Michael Leyden's music appreciation. Cassette.
• Michael Leyden's New Zealand in Change. Charts and handbook.
• Celebrating New Zealanders; a social studies resource consisting of twelve colour charts.
• Michel Leyden's Maori achievers. Audiobook.
• Going for Gold, a celebration of participation in the Olympic games.
• Michael Leyden's people of the Pacific, Samoa. A kit with sound cassette.
• Michael Leyden's New Zealand Birds. Prints and handbook.

External links

• Leyden Publishing

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