From its initial appearance, Wild Cat Falling was recognised as a profoundly important work. Mudrooroo first published it under the name Colin Johnson. And when it was released by Angus & Robertson in 1965, Aboriginals were not considered Australian citizens, did not have the right to vote, and no novel written by an Aboriginal Australian had made it to print.

In telling the story of a symbolically nameless young Aboriginal man, and of his re-entry into society after a period of incarceration, Mudrooroo offered insights into an Aboriginal's sense of isolation, his literal and metaphorical imprisonment, and his estrangement from his own people and culture. The young man belongs neither to the white society that shuns him nor to the Aboriginal fringe dwellers who inhabit the white society's periphery. While he can 'talk the talk' of the subversive white 'bodgies', they offer no more clue to his identity than do the university students he charms with his parodic existential angst.

This fiftieth anniversary edition of Mudrooroo's Wild Cat Falling, including an updated introduction and autobiography by Mudrooroo, highlights this writer's importance to Australian literature. Wild Cat Falling has been in print continuously since its initial publication in 1965. It is frequently read as a school and university text, and it has helped to establish Mudrooroo as a writer recognised widely throughout the world.