Australian Rare

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

Updating cart…

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

Updating cart…

The Web of Time – Lee Harding – First Edition 1980

A very nice copy of the first edition of this Science Fiction offering by Australian writer Lee Harding.

Published by Cassell in1980. Octavo, 168 pages all in very good condition bar ownership signature at front ends. Perfect and glorious dust jacket the image of which gives a clue to the nature of the story or at least one of the key props.

Australian Science Fiction from a master of the craft.

$30.00

Updating cart…

A Queensland Pair – A Story of Forty Year Ago – Thomas Symon – First and Only 1912 – Extremely Scarce

A soft cover only published in this form. Printed at Brisbane at the Sapsford Printers Adelaide Street. Compact, perfect bound octavo, 184 pages, some foxing nearer the ends generally quite clean and a worthy copy as scarce as hen’s teeth. A few coloured pencil marks around chapter XXII when things get a bit amorous. A bit mind you – this is 1912.

We think effectively self published the authors only book – he was a teacher at Ipswich may have retired before this work.

The brief Preface … “The Following story is founded on personal experience; and, as far as possible, without exaggeration … The characters are real: and as true to life as I could make them …”

Scarce Queensland novel and a bit of a curiosity.

$60.00

Updating cart…

Australian Private Press: The Dying Stockman – A Ballad … with Notes by Hugh Anderson and Lino Cuts by Ronald Edwards – No 1 of The Black Bull Chapbooks from The Ram’s Skull Press – Signed Limited No 50 of 75.

This is quite a story. Ron Edwards would eventually be given an OAM for his lifetime of work preserving Australian bush heritage. The Rams Skull Press still exists and is run by Ron’s son out of the Brisbane Valley. Ron himself moved from Ferntree, Victoria to equally beautiful Kuranda behind Cairns before he packed his bags.

This first of firsts printed in hand set Baskerville on Tudor Antique paper by R.G. Edwards at the sign of the Rams Skull Press … Lording Street, Lower Ferntree Fully, Victoria … limitation .. February, 1954.

Comprising music score, illustrated with woodcuts, hand sewn with leather ties, preserved inside original goatskin covers. A few insect nibbles to goatskin, otherwise all in excellent condition.

The verses are The Dying Stockman; Rosin the Beau; The Tarpaulin Jack and The Dying Digger … a bit of dying but they seemed to have had a good life and needed few possessions.

Scarce wondrous Australian bush verses printed on a flat bed everything by hand – dressed in goat skin.

$190.00

Updating cart…

Norman Lindsay – Redheap – ABC Script to the 1972 Production – part of a theme “Norman Lindsay Theatre” broadcast in that year.

A distinguished cast was assembled including Kate Fitzpatrick as Hetty, Peter Flett as Robert Piper, John Waters, June Salter etc many who went on to have long television careers and also Pamela Stephenson (now Lady Pamela) as the raunchy Millie Kneebone.

Typescript foolscap – 138 pages, normal wear through use but in perfectly acceptable condition for its type. The odd note and doodle on the back of some pages …. Waiting in television can be a drain.

Adapted from Norman Lindsay’s famous novel Redheap. Famous for being banned in Australia – published in 1930 by Faber in London it was not allowed in Australia until 1958! A bit naughty seemingly but more so because Readheap is really the town of Creswick and the characters were well real people displaying their real lives and inhibitions. Seemingly, Norman used his bothers diaries for research – the family could well have been involved in the ban.

The “rehearsal script” here for sale makes for a good read with all the extra colour that is added from the flat novel. Front page described as EP 2 but content flips back and forward with scenes from episodes 1,2 and 3 maybe predominantly 2 – not sure. Makes for a lively reading with accidental flash back and forward – if you understand that process.

A most interesting and scarce piece of Lindsay ephemera that you are likely to come across.

Readheap – not for the town of Creswick – Lindsay at his most provocative.

$390.00

Updating cart…

Happy Valley – Patrick White

The Men That God Forgot – Richard Butler

The Web of Time – Lee Harding – First Edition 1980

A Queensland Pair – A Story of Forty Year Ago – Thomas Symon – First and Only 1912 – Extremely Scarce

Australian Private Press: The Dying Stockman – A Ballad … with Notes by Hugh Anderson and Lino Cuts by Ronald Edwards – No 1 of The Black Bull Chapbooks from The Ram’s Skull Press – Signed Limited No 50 of 75.

Norman Lindsay – Redheap – ABC Script to the 1972 Production – part of a theme “Norman Lindsay Theatre” broadcast in that year.

Product Categories