Backblock Ballads and Later Verses
By C.J. Dennis
Illustrated by Hal Gye (endpapers only)
Published by Angus & Robertson Ltd: Sydney 1918 1st Edition
"First published by Angus & Robertson in Sydney in 1918, Backblock Ballads and Later Verses gathers the characteristically Australian poetry of C.J. Dennis, one of the country's most popular and distinctive writers of vernacular verse. Many of the poems had first appeared in contemporary newspapers and journals, including The Bulletin, Melbourne's Weekly Times and Adelaide's Critic and Evening Journal, before being brought together in this important first edition.
Written with Dennis's keen ear for Australian speech, the collection portrays life in the bush, on the farm and among the ordinary working people of early twentieth-century Australia. Poems such as "An Old Master," "The Builders," "Wheat" and "Got-a-Fag" combine humour, sentiment and lively observation, while other pieces address love, family, wartime experience and the small triumphs and frustrations of everyday life. Dennis's use of colloquial language gives the verses an immediacy and authenticity that helped establish him as a defining popular voice of his generation.
This first edition is presented in its original green cloth binding, decorated and lettered in black with an Australian bushman design to the front board. The volume includes pictorial endpapers by noted Australian illustrator Hal Gye, Dennis's celebrated collaborator on The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke and other works. Published during the closing year of the First World War, it is an appealing early collection from the golden age of Australian bush verse and a desirable work for collectors of C.J. Dennis, Hal Gye and classic Australian literature."
Light wear to the cover and spine. No inscriptions. Light spotting to prelims otherwise pages clean and well presented. A nice copy in good condition overall. Please study photos to further understand condition.
Size 19cm x 15cm x 2cm - 150 Pages
