It is not so much that Ryan damages our sense of Manning the man as that he strives so spiritedly to do so.Peter Craven (1994) 1Today you cast the pebble[,] tomorrow comes the ripple. Dymphna Clark (1960) 2 Nearing the end of their 25-year professional relationship, when making the final revisions to his final volume of A History of Australia, Manning Clark wrote to Peter Ryan in heartfelt terms, thanking him 'for all you have done. No words of mine could ever do justice of my debt to you. But I will try to say something'. To which Ryan responded: As to 'thanks'-in the first place, as far as I'm concerned, they are not needed, and would embarrass me. I did nothing beyond what a publisher ought to have done; but may I say, just between us, it has been my amazing good fortune to have been associated with such a project, and to have it span virtually my entire time at MUP. 3