Biography/ autobiography

Port Arthur – The Journal of Charles O’Hara Booth – Commandant of the Port Arthur Penal Settlement.

A hard to find Tasmanian production. Published by the Tasmanian Historical Research Association in 1981.

Slightly larger octavo, 298 pages, illustrated and a super fine copy

Booth kept his almost daily diary for 23 years so there is so much about Port Arthur to make it the fundamental record of the goings on in the penal establishment.

Real diary makes for interesting reading

$60.00

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The Life of George Bass – Surgeon and Sailor of the Enlightenment – Miriam Estensen

Published by Allen & Unwin in 2005. Octavo, 259 pages, nicely illustrated and in fine condition.

A thorough account by the meticulous researcher Miriam Estensen .. the endnotes and references take up the last 35 pages.

Bass the surgeon, and a good one seemingly, more at home on the waves as an explorer adventurer. Later after much accomplished his adventures turned to money making and off he set for South America only to disappear. And throughout all this his beloved Bess … who he left following his primary passion. Estensen explores all of this and provides insight regarding his whereabouts at the end.

George Bass a truly adventures medic.

$25.00

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Marion Dufresne – An Officer of the Blue – South Sea Explorer 1724-1772 – Edward Duyker

The French Explorer who was the first to encounter Tasmanian Aborigines and was a precursor to the voyages of La Perouse, d’Entrecasteaux, Baudin and Dumont d’Urville.

This book is traces his life in incredible detail, as one would expect from author Duyker. Chronologies, references, bibliographies make this a first source.

Dufresne from start to finish

$70.00

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Seven Pillars of Wisdom – a triumph – T.E. Lawrence (Of Arabia) – August 1935

Published by Jonathan Cape London 1935 – Seven Pillars of Wisdom a triumph – “The Sword also means Clean-ness + Death”. First trade edition second impression August after the July first.

The Trade Edition preceded by the incomplete “Oxford” edition of 1922 (8 copies only were printed) and the very rare privately printed “Subscribers Edition” of 1927 (170 copies).

Thick quarto, 672 pages, original brown cloth covered binding with gilt titles to spine and device to front. Carries the bookplate of Eric Ambrose on front paste down and his discrete personal label on the end papers. Eric Ambrose was a distinguished British architect and a Fellow of his Professional Body. Avery good copy

Frontispiece portrait of a bust of Lawrence, 4 folding maps as called for, 2 facsimiles and a total of 54 illustrations – 46 of which are dramatic portraits of men who appear in the book. Albeit without the rare dust jacket this is the cleanest we have seen of this edition. The boards clean and unmarked and only the slightest bit of foxing limited to the rough cut paper edges.

Lawrence “took pains to bring objects and artists together”. A classic book written by Lawrence after a very successful war leading

the Arabs against the Turks, considered one of the most important books on war especially political and guerrilla warfare.

Churchill called it “One of the greatest books ever written in the English language”

Lawrence of Arabia’s great book. First trade great condition – 1935

We simply have to give you some of Chapter 1 … “The everlasting battle stripped from us care of our own lives or of others’. We had ropes about our necks, on or heads prices which showed that the enemy intended hideous tortures for us if we were caught. Each day some of us passed; and the living knew themselves just sentient puppets on God’s stage: indeed, our taskmaster was merciless, merciless, so long as our bruised feet could stagger forward on the road. The weak envied those tired enough to die; for success looked so remote, and failure a near and certain, if sharp, release from toil. We lived always in the stretch or sag of nerves, either on the crest or in the trough of waves of feeling ..

$290.00

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The Story of Charles Francis Hall, Explorer – Weird and Tragic Shores – Chauncey Loomis 1972

The writer a Professor and arctic adventurer himself was well qualified to pen this thorough biography of the great and somewhat unusual American Polar explorer, Charles Francis Hall. His research included access to key papers at the Scott Polar Institute; the Stefansson Collection and unique documents held by descendants of Paul Fenimore Cooper.

Published by MacMillan, London in 1972 a first UK edition. Octavo, 367 pages, plus index etc. Illustrations from early images and a useful map. A very good copy.

Hall was a successful printer who out of the blue had a urge to become an explorer. His first venture was in the path of Eliza Kane to search for evidence of the lost Franklin expedition. He essentially set off by himself having tagged along on a whaling expedition. Fame a support followed and he was to go back several time before succumbing himself possibly like Franklin from food poisoning of sorts. He is said to be the first to live with the Eskimo and had good and bad vies on their approach to life.

Charles Francis Hall devoted a large part of and his life to Arctic exploration.

$40.00

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Sailing with Flinders: The Journal of Seaman Samuel Smith – Peter Monteath (Hardback version one of 200 Copies)

First edition, readily available as a softcover but rare as a hardback due to the tight limitation. Numbered 154 of 200 copies thus.

Published by the super Corkwood Press, Adelaide in 2002. Professor Peter Monteath [descendant of Gidley King] of Adelaide University a well published historian. This book marries well with his “Encountering Terra Australis” of which Voyager usually has a copy.

Fine condition, xiv, 86 pages, maps in text numerous other illustrations, notes and bibliography.

Monteath edits the extant journal and provided his sizeable introduction. Apart from Flinders writings this is the only journal kept during the Voyage of the Investigator 1801-1803 during which Flinders circumnavigated Australia proving undisputedly its island form and filling in many parts of the then “Unknown Coast”. The writer of the journal [It was more like an exercise book] , Samuel Smith, was from Manchester and joined Flinders’ crew below decks as low a rank as could be got. Nevertheless, Flinders had a small tightly bound crew and Smith’s account makes for good and full reading.

An important historical account one of the tightly held hardbacks.

$80.00

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Port Arthur – The Journal of Charles O’Hara Booth – Commandant of the Port Arthur Penal Settlement.

The Life of George Bass – Surgeon and Sailor of the Enlightenment – Miriam Estensen

Marion Dufresne – An Officer of the Blue – South Sea Explorer 1724-1772 – Edward Duyker

Seven Pillars of Wisdom – a triumph – T.E. Lawrence (Of Arabia) – August 1935

The Story of Charles Francis Hall, Explorer – Weird and Tragic Shores – Chauncey Loomis 1972

Sailing with Flinders: The Journal of Seaman Samuel Smith – Peter Monteath (Hardback version one of 200 Copies)

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