Non-fiction

My Amazon Adventure – Sebastian Snow

A super Readers Book Club, Melbourne edition of Seb Snow’s adventure in the Amazon.

No date but 1955. Octavo, 285 pages plus index. Illustrated well from photographs taken on the adventure .. so they have that home grown feel that we find truly authentic.

Snow was only 21 when he set out on what would become a 3,500 mile journey. He travelled from the source of the Amazon in Peru to the mouth of the Para River in Brazil.

Super, in the moment writing, again an authentic trademark. We love it.

Snow did not melt in the heat of the Amazon.

$25.00

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Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley – Autobiographies – edited by Gavin De Beer.

A first edition published by the Oxford University Press in 1974. Octavo, 199 pages, plus useful index, illustrated. Very nice condition.

Darwin and his bulldog together in condensed highly readable form. What better pairing – like peaches and cream.

The editor was one of the many Darwin admirers, wrote a good biography and several other Darwin related works. So it was appropriate that he took the editorial pen to Darwin’s lengthy account of himself … adding Huxley from a far more obscure personal rendition was a masterstroke of compare and contrast

Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley – gold plated “Two for One”

$30.00

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Adam in Plumes [New Guinea] – Colin Simpson.

A first edition published by Angus and Robertson, Sydney in 1954. Octavo, 268 pages, many illustrations, great condition albeit small piece missing from free end paper. Dust jacket to die for.

This is Simpson’s fourth book and third non-fiction work, and the second time in New Guinea.

An often overlooked account of the Wahgi Valley, an astonishing place, so immense in New Guinea. And, the Leahy brothers who following an expedition set out to live among, exploit and integrate (they certainly did that) with the local people.

Very nicely illustrated with some quite special images … we particularly like the Wahgi man brandishing his stone axe at Jim Taylor … some passion there.

Adam in Plumes – Well among the Wahgi.

$30.00

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The Chairman’s Guide and Secretary’s Companion – New edition Revised by Frank Shackleton.

Published by Ward, Lock & Co, London and Melbourne – a popular help book this edition 1957.

Octavo, 132 pages, a fine copy, unmarked except for a large tick on the page “Duties of the Chairman” obviously reflecting the agreement of some pinstriped owner.

Modern reporting, views and means of communication may make some of this obsolete you may think. NO SO. Such elements as tenure; impartiality; dilatory motions; defamatory statements; toasts; relationship with Press; status; disorderly conduct etc all seems, in Voyager’s mind, stuff needing some consideration of late.

A final Chapter on “Typical Speeches” could improve things especially at a Social Dinner, A Bazaar or indeed a Popular Lecture.

Enlighten and educate your Boardly Friends – what better gift.

$25.00

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The Silence Calling – Australians in Antarctica 1947-97 – The ANARE Jubilee History – Tim Bowden – Signed First Edition

A substantial book published by Allen & Unwin in 1997. Signed and dated by the author on the title likely at the official book launch given the date.

Quarto, 593 pages, illustrated throughout. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. A heavy book that may require a significant Overseas supplement.

ANARE started with the planting of a flag at Atlas Cove on Heard Island on Boxing Day 1947. It was down to Tim Bowden to write this superior record of what was to come. It took him four years – just as well he started early!

A straight forward Forward by the great Phillip Law leads into other useful preliminaries (including a healthy listing of acronyms which litter Antarctic going on) before a chronological history taking us from the Beginning at Heard then Macquarie and the push further south. To the exploration era (1954-1966) and “filling in the map”. Some difficult times for ANARE in the late sixties and seventies before a change to its modern progressive format. The final pages list Wintering Expeditioners; Medal Winners and Voyage Leaders. Useful obligatory bibliography.

Bowden’s even bigger work on the Australian’s in Antarctica – Signed nicely.

$60.00

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Nugae Canorae Medicae – Sir Andrew Douglas Maclagan – First edition 1850 – With Additional Contemporary Manuscript Content

Translates literally “Silly Medical Songs” and they are. Andrew Douglas Maclagan (1812-1900) was an eminent Scottish surgeon and toxicologist. In his lifetime he was President of five of the mots distinguished Societies in Scotland. As a toxicologist he was called to Court to give evidence … as a young man he supported the prosecution in the Burke and Hare affair.

Printed by Thomas Constable, Edinburgh in 1850 – a first edition (it was reprinted in 1873). Effectively self published. Maclagan vaguely covered his identity as the author is names as “The Poet Laureate of the New Town Dispensary”. Octavo, bark brown embossed cloth covered boards with gilt titling to front, 82 pages with manuscript additions to rear end paper. Remnant seal to back paste down.

Given the period any reader will be pleasantly surprised how amusing the said poem/songs are … and much fun must have been had with them. Footnotes have been provided which explain the circumstances and sometimes individuals at fault or lampooned. No punches held.

What makes this copy more charming is the manuscript addition. Internally they sometimes correct the events suggested. At the rear we have in neat manuscript further ditties by Maclagan that are not in the published work. Clearly someone who knew the great man very well. 19thC press clipping re Maclagan affixed front free end.

Silly Songs by a most distinguished physician.

$180.00

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My Amazon Adventure – Sebastian Snow

Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley – Autobiographies – edited by Gavin De Beer.

Adam in Plumes [New Guinea] – Colin Simpson.

The Chairman’s Guide and Secretary’s Companion – New edition Revised by Frank Shackleton.

The Silence Calling – Australians in Antarctica 1947-97 – The ANARE Jubilee History – Tim Bowden – Signed First Edition

Nugae Canorae Medicae – Sir Andrew Douglas Maclagan – First edition 1850 – With Additional Contemporary Manuscript Content

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