Optometry books by Australian authors

Textbooks play an important role in the undergraduate training and ongoing professional education of optometrists. The most important and influential optometry books are evidence-based, and are generally written to distil and summarise complex information enshrined in the scientific literature, and learnings from clinical experience, into easily digestible and useful material suitable for educating and informing students and practising optometrists. Some books are written for other reasons, such to provide accounts of aspects of vision science that discuss complex issues and are designed primarily for researchers, to assemble information for the lay public about ocular disorders, and to make available illustrative material to assist optometrists explaining eye disorders to their patients.

In this editorial, I have sought to assemble a list of all optometry books that have been published by Australian optometrists. Such a list does not appear to have been published previously. I will deal with this topic in a historical context.

Search strategy

The starting point of my search was the on-line catalogue of the Kett Museum of the Australian College of Optometry (www.museum.aco.org.au), which has in recent years attempted to assemble a collection of all ophthalmic books by Australian authors. I entered ‘Australian authors’ as a keyword and the category ‘book’. It quickly became apparent that assembling a list of books by Australian optometric authors derived from this catalogue would be challenging. First, not all the listed books were by optometrists; many were written by ophthalmologists, vision scientists and other experts, so these needed to be identified and excluded.

A greater challenge was to decide what should be classified as an ‘optometry book’, because aside from what most would recognise as conventional textbooks, the catalogue included extraneous items that could be categorised as: (a) clinical manuals distributed without charge to undergraduate optometry students; (b) technical reports to government agencies; (c) unedited compilations of published journal papers; (d) autobiographies peripherally related to optometry; (e) data compendiums (e.g. listings of contact lenses or ophthalmic drugs); (f) books about eyecare written for the lay public; and (g) commercially-driven product manuals. I made the perhaps arbitrary decision to exclude categories (a) to (d) and include categories (e) to (g).

The initial list derived from the Kett Museum catalogue was cross-checked by searching the on-line curriculum vitae of leading Australian optometry academics and clinicians, and obtaining a full list of published books from Australian optometrists who I know have authored books. Further general searches on the internet revealed the existence of other books that were not in the Kett Museum catalogue, primarily through ‘other books that may interest you’ links on bookstore catalogues.

My search revealed a total of 60 optometry books.^1–60 Of course, it is possible that some books have been missed despite my extensive searches. If anyone reading this editorial is aware of any optometry books authored by Australian optometrists that are not included in the reference list at the end of the editorial, please send me the details so that a complete listing can be maintained in the interests of historical accuracy.

The 60 optometry books have been written and/or co-authored by 28 Australian optometrists, 4 (14%) of whom are female. Of the 28 authors, 12 (43%) are full-time academics and 16 (57%) primarily work in optometric clinical practice.

The number (and percentage) of books, published in eight broad subject categories, is presented in Table 1. It can be seen that most books have been published on the topic of ‘contact lenses’ (33 books; 55%), with the next most popular topic being ‘eye disease and ocular therapeutics’ (8 books; 13%).

Table 1. Categorisation of topics of books by Australian optometrists

Category	Number	%
Contact lenses	33	56
Eye disease and ocular therapeutics	8	13
General optometry and refraction	5	8
Eyes and vision (for the lay public)	4	7
Optics and optical instrumentation	3	5
History of Australian optometry	2	3
Optometric practice management	2	3
Vision Science	2	3
Optometric law and ethics	1	2
Total	60	100

In general, Australian optometry has ‘pulled its weight’ in terms of optometric book publishing, especially considering the small size of the profession in Australia compared to the other leading optometric nations – the USA, UK and Canada.

Lean beginnings (1942–1976)

This first optometry book by an Australian author was published in 1942 and is entitled ‘The therapeutics of ocular refraction’.¹ The book was essentially a rambling diatribe against the conventional practice of optometry by eccentric Melbourne-based optometrist Victor Brumer, known for his controversial views, including the use of plus powered lenses to control myopia and cure senile cataract. The central thesis of his book is that ‘ … the accommodative and convergence functions hold the key to all the mystery and contradictions that beset refraction … ’.¹ Brumer followed this up with a second, similarly themed and equally controversial book in 1953.²

Two books were published in the 1940s. ‘Essentials in the practice of optometry’,³ published in 1944, was perhaps the first ‘proper’ optometry book. It was written by Bertram Adcock, a leading optometrist in New South Wales. Adcock was an instructor in both the Fellowship course of the State association and the optometry course at the Sydney Technical College. He was serving as president of the New South Wales Optometrical Association when the Optician’s Registration Act was passed in that state in 1930.

Joseph Lederer – later professor in optometry at the University of New South Wales – wrote a book entitled ‘Co-ordinascope manual’ (1946).⁴ Labelling this as a ‘book’ is perhaps generous; it was a 16-page pamphlet describing an advanced orthoptics training instrument known as a ‘co-ordinascope’, manufactured in Australia by the Australian Optical Company. This manual was apparently written to promote and support its use.

Three books were published in the 1950s and 1960s by Sydney optometrist Penrhyn Thomas, a prominent and influential pioneer of contact lens practice in Australia. He established a contact lens manufacturing company – Corneal Lens Corporation – through which he designed, produced and marketed his own lenses. His books were essentially fitting manuals for these lenses – the Thomas multiband microlens (1956)⁵ and the conoid lens (1967⁶ and 1970⁷) – and were published by Corneal Lens Corporation. The latter two books were provided without charge to clients of Corneal Lens Corporation and essentially were used as commercial vehicles for promoting and selling lenses manufactured by this company.

The books described above were the only titles published by Australian authors between 1942 and 1976. If we set aside Brumer’s two books that sought to denigrate conventional optometry,^1,2 the promotional books of Lederer⁴ and Thomas,^5–7 and the 1971 book by then-British optometrist Anthony (Tony) Phillips AM (see below), this essentially leaves Adcock’s book³ as the only conventional, non-commercial optometric textbook published by an Australian optometrist until the dawn of the modern era of Australian optometric book publishing in 1977.

The modern era (1977–present)

Australian authors commenced writing books in earnest in 1977. Among these was then-Victorian optometrist David Atchison, who teamed up with a fellow academic at the University of Melbourne – optical physicist George Smith – to write a highly acclaimed book ‘The eye and visual optical instruments’ (1997).⁹ Atchison and Smith followed up with a second, equally authoritative book in 2000, entitled ‘Optics of the human eye’.¹⁰

As noted above, the greatest number of Australian optometry books have been published in the field of contact lenses. The first and most widely distributed contact lens book was that by Adrian Bruce and Noel Brennan, entitled ‘A guide to clinical contact lens management’.^11–14 This small, chair-side manual appeared in five editions and was published and produced by CIBA Vision (now Alcon). The book was translated into six languages, and it has been estimated that 50,000 copies were distributed world-wide, free of charge. Adrian Bruce is a prolific Australian optometric author, having published two other contact lens books,^15,16 as well as books about anterior^17,18 and posterior¹⁹ eye disease.

Another hugely influential contact lens book is that by British-Australian optometrist Tony Phillips, simply entitled ‘Contact Lenses’, and co-authored by Janet Stone (editions 1-3)^20–22 and Lynn Speedwell (editions 4-6).^23–25 This title has been published in 6 editions. Tony Phillips came to Australia from the UK in 1982, meaning that the first edition of his book (1977)²⁰ was published while he was in the UK and editions 2-6^21-25 while he was in Australia. He has also written a useful manual to facilitate the explanation by optometrists of eye conditions to their patients.²⁶ Tony Phillips was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2021 ‘for significant service to optometry, and to professional optical societies’, primarily in the field of contact lenses.

I have written/edited 15 books, 14 of which are on the topic of contact lenses.^27–40 These contact lens books have been published in a total of 22 editions and foreign translations. I have also published one book on general optometry.⁴¹

Other contact lens books written by Australian authors in the modern era (post-1977) include a description of contact lenses written for the lay public by John Nathan,⁴² accounts of silicone hydrogel lenses by Deborah Sweeney,^43,44 a compendium of available contact lenses and their parameters,⁴⁵ and a book about orthokeratology co-authored by John Mountford.⁴⁶

Prolific authors

Eleven Australian optometrists have written multiple books, ranging in number from 2 to 15; these authors are listed in Table 2. The most prolific authors are myself (15 books), Adrian Bruce (9) and Tony Phillips (7). These three authors have written 31 of the 60 books (52%) published by Australian optometrists.

Table 2. Australian optometrists who have authored multiple books

Author	Location^a	Books	Translations
Nathan Efron	UK/QLD	15	8
Adrian Bruce^b	VIC	9	8
Anthony Phillips	UK/SA	7	1
Noel Brennan^b	VIC	3	4
Penrhyn Thomas	NSW	3	2
David Atchison	VIC	2	1
Maurice Brumer	VIC	2	0
Barry Collin	VIC	2	0
Tony Hanks	NSW	2	0
Robert Hess	CAN	2	0
Deborah Sweeney	NSW	2	0

^aLocation at the time the books were published.

^bBruce and Brennan were co-authors of three books.

CAN, Canada; NSW, New South Wales; QLD, Queensland;

SA, South Australia; UK, United Kingdom; VIC, Victoria.

Twenty books by Australian optometrists have been translated^{7,9,11,13,14,16,26,31,32,37,39} or primarily published⁴⁰ in 13 different languages – Cantonese, Chinese, Czechoslovakian, French, German, Korean, Mandarin, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese.

The majority of optometry books by Australian optometrists (32 out of 60; 53%) have been published by Elsevier, or companies purchased by Elsevier such as Butterworths, Churchill Livingstone, Heinemann, Mosby and Saunders. The remainder were produced by other (non-Elsevier) academic book publishers (11), ophthalmic lens, contact lens and ophthalmic equipment suppliers (10) and professional associations (4). Three books were self-published.^47–49

The future of Australian optometry book publishing

I am always in awe of the beautiful production, layout, page-setting, colour reproduction, cover design and other attributes of books that are produced by my publisher. I consider these books to be a work of art, and I am sure other authors feel the same. However, the days of beautifully produced paper books may be numbered …

In the field of book publishing, the future is digital. A range of electronic devices is now available on which books can be read, such as e-book readers, computers, tablets, or smart phones. Most academic books written since the mid-2000s have been published in both paper and electronic form. Furthermore, information that might otherwise be included in textbooks can now be accessed from a variety of sources in many different formats from the internet, such as web pages, company and association websites, web logs (blogs) video logs (vlogs), Facebook groups, podcasts, on-line ophthalmic magazines, etc. Printing in digital formats, as distinct from classical offset paper printing, facilitates ‘print on demand’ in short runs, and is amenable to self-publishing paper and/or electronic books.

Thus, although Australian optometrists will continue to generate information that is summarised and distilled for the use of students and clinicians (a ‘book’ in the traditional sense), this material will not always be disseminated in the form of a classic paper book. Just as academic journals have almost totally transitioned from paper magazines into electronic websites, the same might happen to academic books. As a result, the bibliography of books by Australian optometrists that appears below is likely to look very different in the future – not so much in terms of the subject matter covered (although this may well change), but rather the format in which the information is disseminated.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.