Australian Rare

The White Stone – The Story of a Boy From the Bush – Herbert MacIlwaine – Illustrated by Rowlandson – First Edition c1900

A very good copy of a scarce and impressive book but much published MacIlwaine. Published by Wells Gardner etc, London c1900. Large octavo, pictorial cloth cover, images to spine and rear. Top edge gilt. 408 pages, illustrated throughout by Gardner who was much known for his paintings of horse.

White Stone is a symbol for optimism and that underlined the contents, albeit given the period narrative there are a few tears, and hugs, along the way.

Australian Bush Stories from 1900 in a super presentation

$90.00

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Australian Poetry – Apocalypse in Springtime – Lex Banning – 1956

A first edition of what we believe is Lex Banning’s final published collection

Arthur Alexander [Lex] Banning (1921-1965) had a difficult upbringing. He has cerebral palsy to an extent that he had little control over his arms. His studies could only be completed by dictation. Thoughtful and thought provoking and some hard reality.

Slim octavo, published by Edwards and Shaw, Sydney in 1956. 34 pages. Top of decorative dust jacket a tiny bit damaged as it is cut just too large for the book. Otherwise, a very good copy.

Lex Banning had something to say …

$25.00

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Australian Poetry – Light -Margaret Diesendorf – 1981

A first edition of Margaret Diesendorf’s first published collection of poetry. A very special collection by a special person.

Margaret Diesendorf (1912-1993) escaped Austria in 1938 and made her way to Australia. Her Jewish partner, an engineer, left separately and they came together and made a life first in Sydney. She was a highly respected translator … she taught languages and did translations for the likes of the ABC. Later in life she concentrated more of original poetry and was to write upwards of six hundred poems.

An unusual, interesting and exciting style drawing on her understanding of the arts and the World outside Australia. She had a passion for writing poems stimulated by great art works and great artists. This book is set out in two section – the first “On Canvas” represents this them with poems about works by Monet, Picasso, Modigliani, Klimt [the Kiss] and also Australian artists Brett Whiteley [soup Kitchen] and Lloyd Rees [the Pinnacle Mount Wellington].

Slim octavo, published by Edwards and Shaw, Sydney, 1981. 79 pages. A very good copy of another nice production.

Gift worthy poetry and a Voyager favourite

$30.00

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Australian Poetry – The Walk along the Beach – R.A. Simpson – 1960

A first edition of Ronald Albert Simpson’s first published book of poetry. He would go on to published ten collections over the next couple of decades.

Simpson (1929-2002) was a member of what was to be called the “Melbourne Group” his and their style being focused on Australian suburban themes. He was awarded the Christopher Brennan prize for his poetry.

Slim octavo, published by Edwards and Shaw, Sydney. 45 pages, a poem per page. Decorative but understated dust jacket. A very good copy of a very nice production.

Gift worthy poetry Simpson’s first collection.

$25.00

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Happy Valley – Patrick White

Nobel Laureate Patrick White had Happy Valley published in the UK in 1939. During his life he refused to allow the book to be re-published. So, it took to this issue published by the unusual Text Publishing of Melbourne in 2012 for it to appear as a second edition.

Octavo, 407 pages plus catalogue, decorative endpapers. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket.

White had spent time at a station in New South Wales as a jackaroo. He was not cut out for it. Nevertheless, the experience provided rather useful in writing this book … he had lived a colourful life to that stage and that would continue. Drawing on writers he had met and admired – Joyce, Woolf, DHL etc this is a complex novel of an exceptional standard.

Patrick White and his Happy Valley full of character and intrigue.

$40.00

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The Men That God Forgot – Richard Butler

First edition published by Hutchinson’s London in 1975. Octavo, 254 pages plus bibliography, end paper maps. Very good condition.

The most remote penal colony in the world was Sarah Island on the west coast of Van Diemen’s Land. In 1833 after eleven years of misery it was decided to close it down and move the convicts to Port Arthur. Ten convicts were commissioned with the task of constructing a Brig to make the voyage around the coast. They saw their chance and seized the vessel and made their escape … but as always there is more to the story.

A well researched highly fact backed novelisation – super read.

The story of the final escape form Sarah’s Island through the Gates of Hell

$30.00

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The White Stone – The Story of a Boy From the Bush – Herbert MacIlwaine – Illustrated by Rowlandson – First Edition c1900

Australian Poetry – Apocalypse in Springtime – Lex Banning – 1956

Australian Poetry – Light -Margaret Diesendorf – 1981

Australian Poetry – The Walk along the Beach – R.A. Simpson – 1960

Happy Valley – Patrick White

The Men That God Forgot – Richard Butler

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