Austrália

1897 · ref. 144087 — Adelaide: Hussey & Gillingham 1897. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Adelaide Hussey & Gillingham 1897. Octavo viii 504 pages with 13 illustrations and numerous head- and tail-pieces plus a frontispiece portrait. Gilt-decorated tan cloth a little flecked and lightly sunned on the spine; endpapers and frontispiece lightly foxed with a few minute tears to the leading margin of the latter; a very good copy. Inscribed dated 17 December 1915 and signed by the author's nephew Geo. F. Hussey. Henry Hussey 1825-1903 'evangelist millenarian printer and historian' arrived in South Australia in 1839 and by 1850 was established as a printer. He later became a successful publisher and bookseller so his autobiography is not least an account of printing in colonial Adelaide. He was George Fife Angas's secretary from 1865 and compiled his biography which was edited by Edwin Hodder and published in 1891 under Hodder's name as was the 1893 two-volume 'History of South Australia'. 'Hussey's achievements in history and biography though somewhat filtered were more enduring than his adventism though his evangelical career was long and enthusiastic' and the work highlights 'the remarkable religious climate in South Australia in the nineteenth century'. If put off by the title read Gerald Fischer's engaging account of Hussey in the 'Australian Dictionary of Biography' first - it may change your mind. Bibliographers may be interested to learn that we have identified slight variations in copies. This copy with the posthumous inscription is overall 194 mm high with the publisher's name in sans serif type with all letters of uniform size. We have also handled a copy with a contemporary inscription by the author; it was 190 mm tall with the publisher's name in much smaller serif type using both large and small capitals on the first line. Both copies contained the paper binder's label of Hussey & Gillingham so presumably this is the sort of thing that can be done when the family firm prints binds and publishes one's autobiography. Provenance: Captain Samuel Albert White 1870-1954 South Australian ornithologist and conservationist not identified as such but we purchased the book from the White estate 'Weetunga' in suburban Fulham many years ago. Hussey & Gillingham hardcover