Biography/ autobiography

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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Skinner Prout in Australia 1840-48

If you want to collect Skinner Prout you may be too late his works are fetching big prices.

This is the best “get to know him” book put together by Tony Brown and Hendrik Kolenberg to accompany a tour of Prout’s work held in 1987.

Squarish format, perfect bound, 80 pages, with many illustrations of the works … super biographical outline of the master. Very good if not better condition.

Sought after reference to Skinner Prout.

$38.00

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James Fenton of Forth – A Tasmanian Pioneer 1820-1901 – One of 100 special bound, signed and numbered copies.

This magnificent and substantial book was complied and edited by the subjects descendant Paul Fenton as a celebration of the 100th year of the great man’s death. Effectively self published with no cost spared.

Limited overall to 800 copies. This part of a special first 100 copies specially quarter bound in Buckram with Brillianta spine and signed and numbered by Paul Fenton – this number 48.

Folio, 454 pages, profusely illustrated. A fine, as new copy, in a fine protected dust jacket. A heavy book that will require a distance postage supplement.

James Fenton was not only a pioneer and traveller through unmapped territory in Tasmania he penned some interesting accounts of his travel and one of the few dependable histories of Tasmania, still very much collectable and referenced by all serious historian.

Signed limited numbered edition – we cannot find another one.

$160.00

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Exchange of Letters between Sir Leslie Orme Wilson and the Maharaja of Gondal on the former’s appointment as the Governor of Bombay – 1923. Subsequently Wilson to become Governor of Queensland

An official exchange along with a corrected draft from the Maharaja so clearly from the files of his office.

Military man and parliamentarian Leslie Orme Wilson (1876- 1955) was appointed Governor of Bombay (1923-1926). His formal advice to His Highness Sir Bhagwatsinhji Sagramji – Thakor Saheb of Gondal ((1865-1944) was sent dated 13 December 1923 on the rather striking elaborately bordered paper of the day and regime. It is framed with a “Friendly disposition”.

The delightful response was not made until 5th February the following year and I have no doubt there may have been an underlying message despite the responses carefully crafted words “great pleasure to receive the assurance of the friendly disposition”. We also like the fact that the Maharaja’s similarly elaborate paper has retained far more gold over the years than his British counterpart.

There relationship did in indeed prove friendly and Wilson was “sent on” to Brisbane to become it’s longest serving Governor from 1932 through the war years to 1946. He was the head honcho in the Queensland masons and did a lot of tress planting including sone of the nice ones down around the beginning of Coronation drive – have they survived the continuous development?

An unusual and friendly piece of history with a Queensland connection

$80.00

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The Convict King (Jorgen Jorgenson) – James Francis Hogan – Rare Walch of Hobart issue 1891.

Rather scarce and no wonder given the paper wrappers. The long title worth detailing

The Convict King being The Romantic Life and Adventures of Jorgen Jorgenson who was for a time Monarch of Iceland, helped to Discover Bass Strait, was at the Founding of Hobart etc etc. and Closed His Extraordinary Career in the Hobart Hospital in 1845.

Published by J Walch & Sons, Tasmania. No date but 1891. Authority Ferguson 104889.

Interestingly for a book published by the famous Hobart printing firm – this book was actually printed by Kelly of London and Kingston on Thames, England.

Octavo, 235 pages, with advertisements for other contemporary Walch publications in the ends and on the back cover. Splitting a bit down the spine edge, now repaired and secured with acid free archival Japan paper.

Published as part of Walch’s Series of Books on Old Van Diemen’s Land – No 3. A very good copy despite any deficiencies given its rarity and obvious vulnerability.

The story of Jorgen Jorgenson is a full and strange one – at first hid life appears surely a fiction … but no this man was out for adventure and mixed with many who were making their own mark on the World and its History.

The Convict King a scarce edition for sure.

$180.00

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The James of George Town – Signed Copy – Graeme Broxham

Subtitled .. A colonial Maritime, Mercantile and family Correspondence 1813-1857.

Soft cover published by the Navarine Press as one of the historic Roebuck Society publications – number 56. Limited to 500 copies and this one signed by the Editor compiler.

All up 64 pages, with numerous relevant illustrations, map at rear. A total of 72 correspondences follow a lengthy historical introduction.

Captain Joseph James first operated out of Sydney from 1811. He then became the first merchant of George Town, Van Diemens Land in the year 1820. He died penniless in 1844 but his son Captain William James rebuilt the family fortunes.

Early Tasmanian History from the letters of the seafaring James’s of George Town.

$25.00

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

Skinner Prout in Australia 1840-48

James Fenton of Forth – A Tasmanian Pioneer 1820-1901 – One of 100 special bound, signed and numbered copies.

Exchange of Letters between Sir Leslie Orme Wilson and the Maharaja of Gondal on the former’s appointment as the Governor of Bombay – 1923. Subsequently Wilson to become Governor of Queensland

The Convict King (Jorgen Jorgenson) – James Francis Hogan – Rare Walch of Hobart issue 1891.

The James of George Town – Signed Copy – Graeme Broxham

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