Popular Verses
By Henry Lawson
Published by Cornstalk Publishing Company: Sydney 1927 3rd Platypus Edition
With Stunning Original Unclipped Dustjacket
"A particularly attractive early Australian edition of Henry Lawson's Popular Verses, published in Sydney by the Cornstalk Publishing Company in 1927 as the Third Platypus Edition. The printing history is stated within the volume: First Platypus Edition, March 1924; Second, November 1925; and this Third Edition, November 1927. Published only five years after Lawson's death, the collection belongs to the period in which his reputation as one of Australia's defining literary voices was becoming firmly established.
The volume brings together a substantial selection of Lawson's best-known Australian verse, encompassing the bush, mateship, hardship, working life, humour and the developing national character. Among the many pieces are "To an Old Mate," "Song of the Old Bullock-Driver," "The Song of the Darling River," "The New Chum Jackeroo," "The Bush Fire," "The Battling Days," "Farewell to the Bushmen," "The Three Kings," "The Old Jimmy Woodser," "Eurunderee" and "The Christ of the Never." Lawson's writing was grounded strongly in lived experience and became celebrated for its direct portrayal of ordinary Australian life and the people of the bush.
The outstanding feature of this copy is the survival of its stunning original pictorial dustjacket, featuring a wonderful colour Australian bush scene of a stockman and saddled horse and bearing the distinctive Platypus Series device. Beneath it, the original bright red cloth remains extremely attractive, lettered in black to the upper board and spine. The jacket is substantially complete with both original advertising flaps and publisher's advertisements to the rear, despite the expected edge wear and small losses of a jacket now approaching a century old. Early Australian pictorial dustjackets are very often the first component to disappear, making its survival here an important part of the book's desirability and a superb presentation of one of Australia's most enduring poets."
General wear and some staining to dustjacket protected with a clear plastic sleeve. Small prior owner name only. Light spotting to prelims otherwise pages clean and well presented. A nice copy in very good condition overall. Please study photos to further understand condition.
Size 18cm x 12cm x 2.5cm - 185 Pages + Index To First Lines
