Jim Anderson was born in England, his family moving to Australia when he was one year old. He spent his childhood on farms in the Orange and Cowra districts and then Sydney, where he studied law. After graduating from the University of Sydney he went to London where he joined Richard Neville and Felix Dennis as a co-editor of Oz magazine in 1969. In 1971, the three were jailed for publishing ‘obscene material’ – convictions that were quashed six months later. After Oz folded in 1973, Anderson travelled in Africa and the USA, eventually settling in Bolinas in northern California. His novel, Billarooby, was published in 1988. Since returning to Australia in 1993, Anderson has continued his career as a writer and photographer. The Tin Sheds Gallery at the University of Sydney mounted a retrospective of his work in 2011.
