This exhibition showcases many of the RARE, beautiful and historically significant books held in this library on behalf of the Victorian community. It celebrates the unique place of books in our hearts and minds, taking you on a journey through the history of book production, design and illustration, from the ancient past to the present day.

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Books and ideas

The history of ideas is mirrored in the history of the book. Books have altered the course of history itself, disseminating ideas that have changed how we think about the world and ourselves. Across cultures and eras, books have played a highly symbolic and iconic role.

Once, it was thought that the world’s knowledge could be collected between the covers of a book. The information explosion of recent times makes it impossible to contain the world’s knowledge within one library, let alone in one book. Yet books continue to be a powerful means of informing and inspiring new generations.

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Four leaves from a book of hours

France, c. 1480

RAREP 091 B7581 (item 2)

This fragment from a book of hours contains the prayers for the feast of St Barbara.

Four leaves from a book of hours

France or England, c. 1300

RAREP 091 B7581 (item 3)

A part of the Office for the Dead is recorded in this fragment from a book of hours.

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Book of hours

Paris, c. 1510–20

RARES 096 R66HO

Books of hours were private devotional works widely used during the medieval period. They detailed a program of prayers to be recited at set intervals throughout the day. Wealthy people usually commissioned these books from secular (as opposed to monastic) workshops, and they were often richly illustrated according to the owner’s preferences. The owner could also specify which saints were included. The special prayers to Mary Magdalene and Catherine of Alexandria in this book suggest its original owner was a woman.

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Book of hours

Paris, printed by Jehan Barbier, 1509

RARES 096 R66HV

This book of hours was produced very close in time to the small book next to it, but there is a key difference between them: this book is printed, while the other is handwritten. In the early 16th century, printing began to take over from the manuscript as the main method of book production. But the look and feel of manuscripts were maintained; this prayer book is printed on vellum not paper and its decorations are hand-painted metal-cut prints.

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Liber antiphonarius Romanus (Roman antiphonal)

Germany, copied by scribe Sister Judoca van Malsen, 1566

RARESEF 091 R66L

An antiphonal contains the text and musical notation of the Christian offices to be sung throughout the liturgical year. This example is handwritten on paper, although the method for printing musical notation was developed a century earlier. The decorated initials are prints that have been pasted in and coloured by hand. Somewhat unusually, scribe and illuminator Sister Judoca van Malsen has signed and dated her work (folio 395v); she would have produced this book for the use of her convent.

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The Birth of Print

The end of one epoch is the beginning of another. An elite society gave way to a mass society.

lucien febvre

Chinese scholars pioneered printing from woodblocks around 200 CE and from moveable ceramic and metal type in the 11th century. German metalworker Johann Gutenberg (c. 1400–1486), who, like all Europeans of his age, knew nothing of these inventions, is considered the founder of European printing.

Within a decade of Gutenberg’s famous 42-line Bible, German printers operated around Europe, including in Rome, Venice and Paris. The earliest printed books reflected the black-letter style of German Gothic script. In the 1470s, Venetian printerssuch as Nicolas Jenson developed typefaces based on Italian humanist scripts (themselves based on Roman scripts), leading to the ‘roman’ typeface still used today.

Books printed before 1500 are known as incunabula, from the Latin for ‘cradle’, referring to printing’s infancy. Manuscript production continued in Europe into the 16th century, but its high cost ensured printing became the pre-eminent technology of the book.

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Printers' device of William Caxton and Wynkyn de Worde

Facsimile produced c. 1863

RARESEF Sticht Coll. (England) 14b

Jacobus DE CESSOLIS

(Active 1288–1332)

A leaf from The Game and Play of Chess

[Westminster], William Caxton, [1483]

RARESEF Sticht Coll (England) 4

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Myrrour of the Worlde

London, William Caxton, 1490 (2nd edition)

RARES 093 C902C

Published by England’s earliest printer, William Caxton, this is one of England’s first illustrated books. It is an English translation of the French text L’image du monde (1464), derived from the medieval Latin text Imago mundi, a genre that conceived of the book form as a mirror of divine creation and human endeavour. Myrrour of the Worlde contains an introduction to the history of science, covering geography, economics, music, cosmography, zoology, meteorology and astronomy. These areas of knowledge are personified in the woodblock illustrations.

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Leaf from Infancia Salvatoris (The Infancy of Christ)

[Westminster, William Caxton], c. 1476–77

RARESEF Sticht Coll. (England) 1

This leaf comes from a ‘mystery play’ published by England’s first printer, William Caxton. Aside from this fragment, only one other copy of this work exists, held by the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. Mystery plays were dramatic performances of stories drawn from the Bible and other apocryphal sources. This Latin play used non-biblical sources to imagine the childhood of Christ. This was a subject in keeping with the medieval interest in the human aspect of Christ’s dual nature, about which there is little information in the four Gospels.

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Geoffrey CHAUCER

(Died 1400)

Leaf from The Canterbury Tales

[Westminster, William Caxton], c. 1476

RARESEF Sticht Coll. (England) 2

William Caxton (c. 1422–1492) was England’s first printer.
After a career as a merchant in Bruges, he became a diplomat for King Edward IV. Caxton likely learned the printing craft in Cologne, Germany, in the early 1470s. On his first press in Bruges, he published the earliest book in English. He returned to England in 1476 and established his press at Westminster. It was here that he produced the first English-language book printed in England, an edition of Geoffrey Chaucer’s 14th-century poem about pilgrims, The Canterbury Tales. Very few full copies survive, making this leaf a precious fragment.

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Myrrour of the Worlde

London, William Caxton, 1490 (2nd edition)

RARES 093 C902C

Published by England’s earliest printer, William Caxton, this is one of England’s first illustrated books. It is an English translation of the French text L’image du monde (1464), derived from the medieval Latin text Imago mundi, a genre that conceived of the book form as a mirror of divine creation and human endeavour. Myrrour of the Worlde contains an introduction to the history of science, covering geography, economics, music, cosmography, zoology, meteorology and astronomy. These areas of knowledge are personified in the woodblock illustrations.

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Erhard REUWICH

artist

(1445–1505)

Bernhard von BREYDENBACH

author

(c. 1440–1497)

Exhibition print of a woodcut illustration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, in Die heilige[n] reysen gein Iherusalem … (The Holy Journey to Jerusalem …)

Speier, Peter Drach, after 1502

RARESF 093 C953D

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Geoffrey CHAUCER

(Died 1400)

The Canterbury Tales, in The Workes of Geffray Chaucer

[Printed at Lo[n]don, by Thomas Godfray], 1532

RARESF 821.17 D32

Pilgrimage – the act of making a journey to a site of holy significance – is a practice found in religions around the world. In the medieval Christian European context, pilgrimage initially meant visiting sites in the Middle East associated with the life of Jesus Christ. However, not everyone could afford to make this expensive and dangerous journey. Local saints became increasingly important, and pilgrimages to their shrines were popular. In England, many people visited St Thomas Becket’s shrine at Canterbury Cathedral. Geoffrey Chaucer’s famous work, The Canterbury Tales, comprises the stories that a group of pilgrims tell each other on their journey to Canterbury.

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Bernhard von BREYDENBACH

author

(c. 1440–1497)

Die heilige[n] reysen gein Iherusalem … (The Holy Journey to Jerusalem …)

Speier, Peter Drach, after 1502

RARESF 093 C953D

In 1486, the Mainz politician Bernhard von Breydenbach published a Latin account of his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Peregrinatio in terram sanctam, which had taken place between April 1483 and January 1484. Such was its popularity that it was translated into German to attract an even wider readership. The work is famous for its detailed woodcut illustrations of the cities Breydenbach visited, and for this reason it is regarded by many as the first illustrated travel book. As well as helping hopeful pilgrims to plan their journeys, it enabled a mental pilgrimage to the Holy Land for those who could not travel.

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Hartman SCHEDEL

author

(1440–1514)

Michael WOLGEMUT

artist

(1434–1519)

Wilhelm PLEYDENWURFF

artist

(c. 1460–1494)

Liber chronicarum … (The Book of the Chronicle ...; known as the Nuremberg Chronicle)

Nuremberg, Anton Koberger, 1492

RARESEF 093 C933K

One of the most popular printed books of the 15th century, the Nuremberg Chronicle recorded the history of the world from its biblical creation to the date of writing, from the perspective of its compiler, Hartman Schedel. Its world map shows us the extent of the globe known to Europeans at the time.

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Cuneiform writing, developed by the ancient culture of Sumer, was one of the world’s first scripts. It was written on clay tablets using a wedged stick. The tablets were then sun-dried or fired in kilns. Since the 18th century, when successful efforts were made to decipher this lost system, scholars have called it cuneiform, from the Latin word cunea, meaning ‘wedge’.

It began as a pictographic script – using pictures to denote a word or phrase – and evolved to use a mixture of both phonetic and ideographic glyphs that could denote both sounds and words or phrases. Several significant ancient Middle Eastern cultures used adapted forms of cuneiform script to write in their own languages, including the Akkadians and the Assyrians.

The library thanks Dr George Heath-Whyte, Tyndale House, for his expert advice regarding the graphic above this case.

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Cuneiform tablet c. 2050 BCE

Southern Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq)

RARES 099 C89

The earliest examples of cuneiform script date to c. 3400 bce and record economic transactions. This clay tablet, written in Sumerian language in cuneiform script, records taxes paid in sheep and goats in the tenth month of the 46th year of Shulgi, second king of the Third Dynasty of Ur. Cuneiform was also used to record the oldest surviving epic poem in the word, The Epic of Gilgamesh, written c. 2100–1200 bce in Sumerian language.

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Religions of the Book

'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.' John 1:1.

Many religions are founded on books. The oldest, Hinduism, draws on the Vedas, texts dating back to 1400–1200 BCE. Judaism, Christianity and Islam are often referred to as the ‘religions of the book’, as each has a religious text at its centre: the Torah, the Bible and the Qur’an, respectively. The word Bible derives from biblia, the Greek word for ‘books’. Torah is translated as ‘teaching’ or ‘word’, while Qur’an means ‘to read’ or ‘to recite’.

The rise of new religions has coincided with key moments in the history of the book, such as the development of the codex around the time of the birth of Christianity. Its form assisted the early Church to distinguish itself from Judaism, which used the scroll form for its sacred texts.

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Unknown Mesoamerican

artist

(Active 1500s)

Agostino AGLIO

lithographer

(1777–1857)

London, Robert Havell and Colnaghi, Son and Co., [1831–48]

RARESEF 913.72 AG5

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Unknown Mesoamerican

artist

(Active 16th century)

Agostino AGLIO

lithographer

(1777–1857)

The Antiquities of Mexico …, vol. 2, pl. 17

London, Robert Havell and Colnaghi, Son and Co., [1831–48]

RARESEF 913.72 AG5

Commissioned by Edward King Viscount Kingsborough (1795–1837), this superbly illustrated book presents facsimiles of pre-Columbian illuminated manuscripts held in major libraries such as the Bodleian, the Vatican and the royal libraries in Paris and Berlin. Painter and lithographer Agostino Aglio produced 1000 lithographic plates for this nine-volume work. This plate shows Tonacātēcuhtli, an Aztec god of fertility and creation.

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Unknown Mesoamerican

artist

(Active 16th century)

Agostino AGLIO

lithographer

(1777–1857)

The Antiquities of Mexico …, vol. 3, pl. 3

London, Robert Havell and Colnaghi, Son and Co., [1831–48]

RARESEF 913.72 AG5

This plate features Aglio’s lithograph based on an illustration in a pictorial Mesoamerican manuscript created before the Spanish conquest of Central Mexico in 1521. The Codex Borgia is kept in the Vatican Library (Bibl. Vat. Borg.mess.1) and contains almanacs used in astronomy and divination. This image depicts the 20-day Tōxcatl festival dedicated to Tēzcatlipōca, a significant deity in Aztec religion. In the roundel at the centre is Xolotl, the god of lightning, fire and death. Standing above him is Tēzcatlipōca, representing the waning moon seen at the commencement of the festival.

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Michael RÖSLER,

artist

(Dates unknown)

Quarter-length copperplate portrait of printer Johann Mentelin, with a leaf from Mentelin’s Etymologiae, 1473.

c. 1526

RARESEF Sticht Coll. (Germany) 139

ST ISIDORE OF SEVILLE,

author

(Died 636 CE)

A leaf from the Liber ethimologiarum (Encyclopedia, with Emphasis on Word Origins)

[Strassburg, Johann Mentelin, c. 1473]

RARESEF Sticht Coll. (Germany) 138a

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Sefer Torah case

Silver alloy with an imitation jewel

Persia, mid-19th century

Jewish Museum of Australia, 5148.2

This case was made to house a miniature Torah scroll, but now contains a copy of the Megillah Esther (The Scroll of Esther). Inscribed on its exterior in Hebrew is the blessing of the Torah ­– the two prayers recited before and after being called to read the Torah. Sephardic Jews keep the Torah in an ornamental cylindrical case, with the scroll stored in the upright position. When it is time to read the Torah, they set it on a flat table and open the case.

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Megillah Esther (The Scroll of Esther)

Manuscript on vellum, Persia, 1948

Jewish Museum of Australia, 5148.1

The Scroll of Esther contains a near-contemporary account of the events celebrated during the Jewish festival of Purim, which may have occurred in 483–82 bce. Queen Esther, the wife of the Persian King Ahasuerus (understood by scholars to be Xerxes I), and her cousin Mordechai foil a plot by the viceroy Haman to kill all Persian Jews. Esther achieves this by revealing her own Jewish identity to the king and petitioning successfully for his mercy. The Megillah Esther is one of the Megillot (Five Scrolls) of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). It is read aloud annually at Purim celebrations.

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Sefer Torah, printed on paper and housed in a case

19th ­– 20th century

H.P. Witting and Bry-Mendelson Family Collection,

Jewish Museum of Australia, 2289

The Torah contains the five sacred texts of Judaism. As God’s covenant with the Jewish people, it is the basis for Jewish religious, political and social life. When used for public reading in the synagogue, the Torah is always handwritten on parchment made from the skin of a ritually killed animal. This example, however, is printed on paper and was commercially produced, likely for gift-giving at a Bar Mitzvah (the coming-of-age ceremony for Jewish boys). Its cover and binder feature the Star of David and two rampant lions flanking the Tables of the Law, with a crown above them.

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Child’s Sefer Torah, printed on paper and housed in handmade red mantle with stitched Star of David

19th ­– 20th century

Jewish Museum of Australia, 2289

This miniature Torah was likely produced for a child. It may have been used during special celebrations such as Simchat Torah (Rejoicing of the Torah), the religious observance held on the last day of Sukkot (Festival of Booths), when the yearly cycle of Torah reading is completed, and the next cycle commences. Torah scrolls are removed from the ark and carried through the synagogue seven times in a festive procession, sometimes followed by children waving flags. Simchat Torah expresses the joy that Jews feel in their possession and observance of the words of the Torah (divine law).

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Jean Frédéric BERNARD,

editor

(1683 – 1744)

Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses des peuples idolatres (Ceremonies and Religious Customs of Idolatrous Peoples)

Amsterdam, JF Bernard, 1723

RARESF 390 C33

This anthology of the ceremonies and religious customs of the world was published in seven volumes by book dealer Jean Frédéric Bernard, in collaboration with printmaker Bernard Picart. Despite its title, it includes sympathetic portraits of many religions, including Judaism. This engraving shows the interior of a synagogue. Bernard and Picart were French Protestants who sought refuge in Amsterdam following the persecution of Protestants in Roman Catholic France. In 1738 the Vatican placed the anthology on their list of prohibited books. Publication of the book continued regardless, and it was extremely popular.

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Antonio PUCCI

(Active 1519–1531)

Leaf from De corporis et sanguinis d[e] n[ostro] Iesu Christi sacrificio … (The Sacrificial Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ …)

Rome, Valerium & Aloisium Doricos fratres Brixienses, 1553

RARESEF Sticht Coll. (Italy) 267(4)

Rodrigo SÁNCHEZ DE ARÉVALO

(1404–1470)

Colophon leaf from De Monarchia Orbis … (On the Monarchy of the World)

Rome, Stephanu[m] Guillireti, 1521

RARESEF Sticht Coll. (Italy) 267

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Antonio PUCCI

(Active 1519–1531)

Leaf from De corporis et sanguinis d[e] n[ostro] Iesu Christi sacrificio … (The Sacrificial Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ …)

Rome, Valerium & Aloisium Doricos fratres Brixienses, 1553

RARESEF Sticht Coll. (Italy) 267(4)

Rodrigo SÁNCHEZ DE ARÉVALO

(1404–1470)

Colophon leaf from De Monarchia Orbis … (On the Monarchy of the World)

Rome, Stephanu[m] Guillireti, 1521

RARESEF Sticht Coll. (Italy) 267

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Qur’an

Arabic manuscript, probably produced in Pakistan or India,

18th–19th century

RARESEF 297.8 ARABI

This Qur’an was donated in 1948 by Major George Evans Bruce (1867–1949), husband of author Mary Grant Bruce (1878–1958). An Irish soldier, he served in the British Army in India, the North- West Frontier (modern-day Pakistan) and the Andaman Islands during the late 1880s and 1890s, and it is likely he acquired the volume in this period. Extremely rare British-Indian textile labels from Manchester companies are used as bookmarks. They feature text in English and Devanagari scripts, with occasional verso. They were produced in Britain and affixed to textile bales traded in India, primarily in Kolkata and Mumbai (then known as Calcutta and Bombay).

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Qur’an

Arabic manuscript, probably produced in India, unknown date

Michael Abbott Collection, State Library Victoria

This Qur’an is part of the internationally significant Michael Abbott Collection of South-East Asian manuscripts, which was donated to State Library Victoria in 2012. Comprising 50 volumes (the majority from Indonesia), the collection includes Qur’ans, commentaries, prayers, stories of prophets and other Islamic texts. They are written in a range of languages and scripts, including Arabic, Javanese and Malay. A number of the volumes are housed in hand-tooled leather bindings.

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Qur’an

Arabic manuscript, possibly from East or West Africa,

c. mid-19th century

RARESEF 297.8 AR

‘Read in the name of thy Lord …’ The first words of the Qur’an symbolise the central role of the book in Islam. Muslims regard the Qur’an as the sacred word of God (Allah), dictated to the Prophet Muhammad by the Archangel Gabriel in the 7th century. Calligraphic art venerated the sacred text; as a result, printed Qur’ans did not appear until the 18th century. This 19th-century manuscript copy was once housed in a portable leather satchel.

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Christabel PANKHURST,

editor

The Suffragette

Nº. 28, Friday 25 April 1913

Nº. 86, Friday 5 June 1914

Nº. 84, Friday 22 May 1914

Edinburgh, Scotswomen’s Publishing Society, 1912–15

RARESEF 324.623 P19/1-6

Acquired by the Women Writers Fund, with the generous support of the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust

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Mary WOLLSTONECRAFT

(1759–1797)

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

London, J. Johnson at St Paul’s Church-Yard, 1792

RARES 305.4 W83V (1792)

Acquired by the Women Writers Fund, with the generous support of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and family

This groundbreaking feminist manifesto caused a great stir when it was first published, in 1792. The copy shown here is a second edition, published in the same year as the first edition. Its passionate arguments for social and political reform shocked even some of Wollstonecraft’s radical friends. One prominent critic called her ‘a hyena in petticoats’, but the book was an immediate bestseller. During the 19th century, disapproval of Wollstonecraft’s unorthodox personal life caused many feminists to reject this book. From the 1890s, its ideas inspired the suffragette movement for women’s political equality.

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Mary ASTELL

(1666–1731)

A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the Advancement of Their True and Greatest Interest: In Two Parts. By a Lover of Her Sex

London, printed for Richard Wilkin, 1697

RARES 170 AS82

From the ancient world to the early modern period, few European women had access to the education regularly provided to men from middle- and upper-class families. Those who did were extremely wealthy and/or sequestered in nunneries. Radical English philosopher and feminist Mary Astell proposed a new system of female education that facilitated both religious and secular learning for all women, offering them career opportunities beyond those of nun and mother. Though never adopted, her system stirred the desire for equality in women of her generation and beyond.

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Susan B. ANTHONY (with others)

editor

(1820–1906)

History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 3

Rochester, NY, Susan B. Anthony, 1896

RARES 324.3 St26

The British colony of South Australia acknowledged settler and Indigenous women’s right to vote and run for office in 1895. For settler women, this right was extended across Australia after the federation of its colonies in 1902. The passing of the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902, however, disenfranchised Indigenous women and men in South Australia at the national level; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people did not have the right to vote in national elections until 1962. In 1902, leading American suffragette Susan B. Anthony sent this inscribed copy of her multi-volume work on women’s suffrage to Australian activist Vida Goldstein, congratulating her on Australia’s achievement.

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T. HUMPHREY & CO.

photographers

Vida Goldstein selling Votes for Women newspaper 1912

Silver gelatin photograph

Manuscripts Collection, 11749/PHO1

Vida Goldstein (1869–1949) contributed significantly to improving human rights in Australia and beyond. Born in Portland, Victoria, she was a vocal campaigner in global movements for women’s rights, pacifism and socialism. After helping Australia achieve women’s suffrage in 1902 (though this excluded Indigenous women), she ran for office several times (unsuccessfully), an expression of her passionate, lifelong dedication to improving society. She is pictured here selling Votes for Women, the official paper of Emmeline Pankhurst’s Women’s Social and Political Union.

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Emmeline and Frederick PETHICK-LAWRENCE

editors

(1867–1954 and 1871–1961)

Votes for Women, vol. 4, Oct. 1910 – Sept. 1911

London, The Reformer’s Press, 1918

RARESF 324.62305 V9417 (Vol.4)

Acquired by the Women Writers Fund, with the generous support of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and family

In 1907, Emmeline and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence founded the Women’s Social and Political Union’s newspaper, Votes for Women. It ran between 1907 and 1918. The bindings of its collected volumes bear the famous colours of the suffragettes, explained by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence: ‘Purple ... stands for the royal blood that flows in the veins of every suffragette ... white stands for purity in private and public life ... green is the colour of hope and the emblem of spring’.

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E. Sylvia PANKHURST

(1882–1960)

The Suffragette: The History of the Women’s Militant Suffrage Movement 1905–1910

London, Gay & Hancock, 1911

RARES 324.623 P19S (1911)

Acquired by the Women Writers Fund, with the generous support of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and family

This is the first London edition of Sylvia Pankhurst’s history of the Women’s Social and Political Union’s campaign for women’s votes. The publisher’s purple cloth binding features the design Sylvia Pankhurst created for the Holloway Prison brooches awarded to imprisoned suffragettes: a gilt portcullis on the upper cover, which represents the House of Commons. The arrowhead in the suffragette colours of purple, white and green symbolises the movement’s intent to gain access to parliamentary democracy through the vote.

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Raichō HIRATSUKA (and many others),

editor

(1886–1971)

Seitō (Bluestocking)

Tōkyō: Tōundō Shoten, Seitōsha, Taishō 2 [1913]

RARES 305.420952 SE455

Acquired by the Women Writers Fund, with the generous support of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and family.

The fight for women’s equality was and remains a global one. This is a scarce original issue of the Japanese feminist literary journal, Seitō. Its title, ‘Bluestocking’ in English, refers to an educated woman. Its origins lie in the 18th-century European salons of women and men who met in informal dress (e.g., blue woollen stockings) to discuss intellectual matters. The journal includes many contributions from pioneers of the Japanese women’s liberation movement.

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Florence CLAXTON

(1838–1920)

The Adventures of a Woman in Search of Her Rights

Boston; New York, Lee & Shepard, [1871?]

RARESEF 305.409 C618A (1871)

Acquired by the Women Writers Fund, with the generous support of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and family

This volume is a RARE example by significant feminist English artist Florence Claxton, an early suffragist who spent part of her adolescence in Sydney in the 1850s. Claxton largely withdrew from professional artistic life after her marriage in 1868, and she died in 1920. Until recently, her work has been near neglected. The Adventures of a Woman in Search of Her Rights, first published in London in 1870, is a satirical story told in captioned illustrations (like a graphic novel). This is the only known copy of this title held in Australia.

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Panko or Votes for Women. The Great Card Game. Suffragists v. Anti-Suffragists

London, Peter Gurney Ltd, c. 1909

RARES 324.623 P1943

Acquired by the Women Writers Fund, with the generous support of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and family

Named after the matriarch of the English women’s suffrage movement, Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928), this card game is an iconic piece of pro-suffrage propaganda. Panko, printed in the suffragette colours of white, purple and green, was distributed by the Women’s Social and Political Union to promote its cause within the home. The 48-card deck comprises eight suits of six cards, four of which are suffragists and four anti-suffragists. The aim of the game was to collect a full suit through swapping cards, like in gin rummy. The artwork by e.t. Reed of Punch magazine lent the game a familiar satirical tone.

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Marya CHÉLIGA-LOEVY,

editor

(1854–1927)

Almanach féministe 1900

Paris, Édouard Cornély, Éditeur, 35 bis, Rue de Fleurus, 1900

RARES 305.4209 A445 (1900)

Acquired by the Women Writers Fund, with the generous support of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and family

Marya Chéliga-Loevy was a Polish and French feminist and activist. She founded and assisted in the founding of the Union Universelle des Femmes (Universal Women’s Union), the Union française pour le suffrage des femmes, and the Ligue des Femmes pour le Désarmement International (League of Women for International Disarmament). This almanac records feminist initiatives around the world and includes articles by leading international activists, such as Finnish feminist Adelaïde Ehrnrooth, Polish novelist Eliza Orzeszkowa and British suffragist Millicent Garrett Fawcett.

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Suffragette Hunger Strike Medal, c. 1912

Issued by the Women’s Social and Political Union

Pictures Collection, PCLTCM 133

Acquired by the Women Writers Fund, with the generous support of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and family

Elise/Elsie Wolff (1843–1926) was a suffragette activist arrested three times between 1907 and 1912 for breaking windows, a common form of suffragette protest. The medal records that she went on a hunger strike while in prison. First commissioned by the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1909, the Medal for Valour, or Hunger Strike Medal, was considered the highest achievement for a suffragette. If the medal’s ribbon terminated in a silver bar (as Elsie’s does), this indicated the date of arrest; if it terminated in a three-colour enamelled bar, the engraved date was the day the recipient was force-fed.

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A Holloway Prison brooch

Issued by the Women’s Social and Political Union.

Pictures Collection, PCLTCM 134

Acquired by the Women Writers Fund, with the generous support of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and family

Jessie Landale Cumberland was born in Nainital, India, in 1861. She moved to England and worked as a governess. Cumberland joined the Women’s Social and Political Union and was first arrested in 1911; her Holloway Prison brooch is thought to commemorate this imprisonment. Designed by Sylvia Pankhurst, the brooch is in the form of a portcullis, representing the House of Commons, with an arrowhead in the suffragette colours of purple, white and green, symbolising the movement’s intent to penetrate the House. Jessie Cumberland also received a Hunger Strike Medal. She lived to see women receive the vote in 1918, dying in March 1935.

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Killing the King, from the
John Emmerson Collection

Explore the tumultuous years of the English Civil Wars and the execution of King Charles I (1600–1649) in this special display from the John Emmerson Collection. Use the QR code to dive into this and other stories in Beyond the Book: A Digital Journey through the John Emmerson Collection.

In 2015, the library received one of the most generous gifts in its history: The John Emmerson Collection. Born in Melbourne in 1938, John Emmerson completed a PhD in nuclear physics at Oxford University in 1964, and it was there that he began collecting 17th-century English printed works. Returning to Melbourne in 1971, he studied law and became a leading intellectual-property lawyer. Over the next 40 years, Emmerson amassed 5000 rare titles, including early newspapers and political pamphlets; rare literary editions of Milton, Defoe, Dryden and others; and works relating to Charles I. Emmerson died in August 2014.

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George LAUDER (attributed)

(Born c. 1600)

The loyall Christians melancholie sonets. Delyvered in a thrifold prospeck

Manuscript, c. 1649

RAREEMM 837/2

Many 17th-century books feature elaborate title pages and beautiful frontispieces (illustrations facing the title page). This quirky drawing is a title page design for a book that was never published, as far as we know.

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King JAMES VI of Scotland and I of England and Ireland

(1566–1625)

The Workes of the Most High and Mighty Prince, Iames …

London, printed by Robert Barker and Iohn Bill,

printers to the Kings most excellent Maiestie, 1616

RAREEMM 324/1

The ‘scholar king’ James VI and I wrote many texts, collected here in one volume. This unique copy features a deluxe presentation binding for James’ son Charles. In 1612, Charles’ older brother Henry died, elevating Charles to the position of Prince of Wales. The feathered coat of arms of this office is stamped on the binding, with the initials ‘cp’ (Carolus Principes). A central tenet of James’ thought was the divine right of kings: no human could override the authority vested in kings by God. Adherence to this principle would bring Charles I into open warfare with his parliament.

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Letter from Charles I to Rupert, 12 April 1644

Manuscript

RAREEMM 222/20

When faced with open warfare against his parliament, Charles called on the military prowess of his nephew Rupert, the soldierly son of his sister, Elisabeth. The 23-year-old arrived in England from Germany in 1642. In this letter, written from Oxford in Charles’ own hand, the king thanks Rupert for his loyalty and requests his presence. Charles had been in Oxford since January that year, and on 25 April, after Rupert’s arrival, a council of war was held to plan the royalist response to the imminent parliamentarian military threat in the region. Thanks to Rupert’s strategy, the royalists held Oxford until 1646.

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John NALSON and John PHELPS

(c. 1638–1686 and 1636–1666)

A True Copy of the Journal of the High Court of Justice, for the Tryal of K. Charles I … Jan. 4. 1683 ...

London, printed by H[enry] C[larke] for Thomas Dring, 1684

RAREEMM 136/3

After his military defeat, King Charles I was brought to trial in front of the High Court of Justice on Saturday 20 January 1649. He refused to recognise the court’s legitimacy but could not escape its judgement. At one point, described in this book, the silver tip of Charles’ cane came off and rolled to the floor:

… the head of his staff fell off, which he wondered at, and seeing none to take it up, he stoops for it himself.

Contemporary commentators suggested that this incident marked a turning point in Charles’ fortunes: a king would never be required to pick anything up.

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The Charge of the Commons of England, Against Charls Stuart, King of England …

London, Gilbert Mabbot printed for Rapha Harford, at the Gilt Bible in Queens-Head-Alley in Pater-noster-Row, 1649

A Perfect Narrative of the Whole Proceedings of the High Hourt of Iustice in the Tryal of the King

London, printed for John Playford, and are to be sold

at his shop in the Inner temple, 1649

A Continuation of the Narrative … Together with a Copy of the Sentence of Death …

London, printed for John Playford, and are to be sold

at his shop in the Inner temple, 1649

King Charls His Speech Made upon the Scaffold at Whitehall-Gate ...

London, printed by Peter Cole, at the sign of the

Printing-Press in Cornhil, near the Royal-Exchange, 1649

RAREEMM 134/22

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William WINSTANLEY

(1628–1698)

The Loyall Martyrology …

London, printed by Thomas Mabb, for Edward Thomas at the Adam and Eve in Little Brittain, 1665

RAREEMM 2020/2

The king’s execution was an unprecedented upheaval in life and the constitutional history of the three kingdoms: England, Scotland and Ireland. Oliver Cromwell ruled as Lord Protector for much of the following decade, before the revolution eventually failed and Charles’ son, King Charles II, took up the throne in the restoration of the monarchy in May 1660. This text describes the characters and actions of the most eminent defenders of the Royalist cause in the years after Charles I’s execution. Its dramatic woodcut illustration shows Charles on the scaffold, while those who executed him (the ‘Regicides’) meet their own awful fates below.

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Charles I

(1600–1649)

Eikon Basilike (Portrait of the King)

[Place and publisher unknown], 1649

RAREEMM 115/27

Eikon Basilike (Portrait of the King)

[Place unknown], reprinted in regis memoriam

[by William Bentley] for John Williams, 1649

RAREEMM 115/29

These are only two of many examples of small copies of this text. The smaller the book, the more easily it could be concealed by Royalists mourning the death of their king.

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Monumentum Regale: or A Tombe, Erected for that Incomparable and Glorious Monarch, Charles the First, King of Great Britane, France and Ireland, &c. In Select Elegies, Epitaphs, and Poems

[place and publisher unknown], 1649

RAREEMM 115/17

The king’s execution also gave rise to a flood of poetic elegies, such as those collected in Monumentum Regale. This title in Latin and English suggests that the book is a kind of tomb, preserving the king’s admirable qualities in its poems. Beneath the portrait, two 17th-century readers have left their mark. One forlornly describes the king’s substance as dissolved, leaving only an ‘umbratic lineament’, or a shadowy outline.

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Extra-illustrated engraved portraits of Oliver Cromwell and Charles I, bound into a sammelband of 17th-century texts

Later 17th century

RAREEMM 134/29

In the 17th and 18th centuries, it was quite common for owners to customise their books by adding relevant illustrations or other ephemera to the volumes. Such books are known as ‘extra-illustrated’. The pamphlets and prints in this volume were bound together by a later owner, who has added these evocative portraits of King Charles I (on the right) and his nemesis, Oliver Cromwell (on the left).

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The Remains of the Real Embalmed Head of the Powerful and Renowned Usurper Oliver Cromwell …

[London], printed for the Hughes brothers, c. 1799

RAREEMM 2016/15

Oliver Cromwell died in 1658. He was buried at Westminster Abbey in a tomb more elaborate than that of James I. However, he did not rest for long. Charles II returned to the throne in 1660 and, on the anniversary of his father’s execution, in 1661 had Cromwell’s corpse exhumed, dragged to Tyburn Gallows, hung in chains, beheaded and quartered. The head was on a spike outside Westminster Hall until a storm knocked it down in 1689. It was bought, sold and exhibited as a curio for several centuries (as this broadside announces) before its final burial in 1960, in a secret location in Cambridge.

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Charles I

(1600–1649)

Eikon Basilike (Portrait of the King)

[Place and publisher unknown], 1649

RAREEMM 122/16

Royalists responded to the execution of the king by printing the Eikon Basilike, a devotional work now generally believed to be based on manuscripts written by Charles himself and edited and added to by Royalist cleric John Gauden (died 1662). It became one of the most influential publications of the 17th century, printed in many different sizes and formats. Most copies include the highly symbolic engraved frontispiece showing the king at prayer. It echoes his famous words on the scaffold: ‘I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown, where no disturbance can be, no disturbance in the world.’

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BOOKS AND IMAGINATION

Books hold the world’s stories, from the earliest known myths and legends to postmodern fictions. They are also keys that unlock inner worlds. The greatest authors and texts act as literary milestones, signposts marking the collective journeys of the imagination.

Imagination begins in childhood. Our earliest experience of reading allows us to travel to new worlds, to inhabit the voices and lives of characters. As adults, we never lose this sense of discovery, this capacity to journey to other places and times through books. At a fundamental level, books allow us to imagine ourselves as other than who we are.

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Guillaume DE DEGUILLEVILLE,

author

(1295–1360)

BENNET, transcriber and scribe

(Active c. 1430)

The Pilgrimage of the Lyfe of the Manhode and the Pilgrimage of the Sowle

Lincolnshire, England, c. 1430

RARES 096 G94

Dream, or vision, literature was hugely popular in medieval Europe. In this genre, a protagonist goes on a journey during a dream, often spiritual in nature. This manuscript is a rare, illustrated prose translation in Lincolnshire dialect of two popular 14th-century French allegorical dream poems by the mid-15th century Cistercian monk Guillaume de Deguilleville. They relate the dream journey of ‘the Pilgrim’ (representing an ‘everyman’), who learns the importance of living a good Christian life in order to reach Heaven.

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Guillaume DE DEGUILLEVILLE

(1295–1360)

Le Roman des trois pèlerinaiges … (The Story of the Three Pilgrimages …)

Paris, Berthold Rembolt and Jean Petit, c. 1517

RARES 841.1 D3656R

De Deguilleville’s three most famous works were popular and widely translated: Le premier pèlerinaige est de l’homme durant qu’est en vie (The Pilgrimage of Mortal Life), Le second de l’âme séparée du corps (The Pilgrimage of the Soul) and Pèlerinage de Jhesuchrist (The Pilgrimage of Jesus Christ). The manuscript on display next to this book is the only known copy that includes both The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man and The Pilgrimage of the Soul. This printed edition of the original French text is one of only eight copies identified worldwide, and the only one in the southern hemisphere.

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William LANGLAND

(1332–1386)

The Vision of Pierce Plowman

London, Roberte Crowley, 1550 [corrected from 1505]

RARES 821.15 V8251/1 (1550)

Donated by Andrew Deakin Brookes and John Brookes under the Cultural Gifts Program, 2021

Little is known about English poet William Langland as a person, but his late-14th-century poem The Vision of Pierce Plowman secured his name on the list of canonical English-language authors (despite ongoing debate about its authorship). Allegorical in nature and with a generous sprinkling of social satire, the poem relates a succession of dream visions experienced by the narrator, Will, who is seeking knowledge about how to live a good Christian life. Preceding and influencing Geoffrey Chaucer, the poem is one of the earliest great literary works produced in the English vernacular. This is the extremely rare first printed edition.

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William LANGLAND

(1332–1386)

The Vision of Pierce Plowman

London, Roberte Crowley, dwellyng in Elye rentes in Holburne, 1550 [corrected from 1505]

RAREEMM 322/1 and RARE 821.15 V8251/3 (1550)

Although hugely popular and widely circulated in manuscript form, The Vision of Pierce Plowman was not printed until 1550. Robert Crowley then produced three editions of the text in the same year, illustrating its renewed popularity. The relationship between the first three editions is complex, as Crowley appears to have only recognised two, though modern scholars have recognised variations between all three 1550 printings. Displayed here are the second and third printings.

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John BUNYAN

(1628–1688)

The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come: Delivered Under the Similitude of a Dream …

London, printed by A. Wilde, for J. Clarke, at the Golden-Ball in
Duck-Lane, 1724

RAREEMM 425/9

The most enduring of all English dream literature is John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, which has been translated into more than 200 languages and never been out of print since the first edition, in 1678. Bunyan’s protagonist is named Christian, an ‘everyman’ character who (like De Deguilleville’s Pilgrim and Langland’s Will before him) goes on a spiritual dream journey from the ‘City of Destruction’ (representing the mortal world) to the ‘Celestial City’, Heaven. Christian meets a series of allegorical characters along the way, who represent the vices and the virtues, and the choices humans make.

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John BUNYAN

(1628–1688)

The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come: Delivered Under the Similitude of a Dream …

London, printed for Nathanael Ponder at the

Peacock in the Poultrey, near the Church, 1682

RAREEMM 425/10

This is the earliest edition of The Pilgrim’s Progress in the library’s collection. Its woodcut frontispiece depicts the sleeping figure of Christian in the foreground, while his dream journey begins behind him.

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Charles MARVILLE

(1813–1879)

Rue S[ain]te Croix (de la rue de Constantine) c. 1877

Silver albumen photograph

H88.19/43

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Alexandre DUMAS,

author

(1802–1870)

Paul GAVARNI,

artist

(1804–1866)

Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (The Count of Monte-Cristo), vol. 1

Paris, Dufour, Mulat et Boulanger, 1857

RARES 843.76 CO

Published in 1844, with a plot and characters devised by frequent collaborator Auguste Maquet (1813–1888), Alexandre Dumas’s famous novel is set during the political turmoil of 1815–38 in France. Edmund Dantès, a merchant sailor falsely accused of sympathy for the then-exiled Napoleon Bonaparte, is imprisoned for life in the notorious island prison fortress Château d’If. Making a daring escape six years later, Dantès acquires a fortune (becoming the Count) and takes vengeance on those who wronged him, with fatal consequences for both the innocent and the guilty in his life.

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Charles DICKENS

author

(1802–1870)

George CRUIKSHANK

artist

(1792–1878)

Oliver Twist: or, The Parish Boy’s Progress, vol. 1

London, Chapman and Hall, 1841 (3rd edition)

RARES 823.83 OC

Advocacy for the poor and disadvantaged characterised the life and work of Charles Dickens, the most popular of all Victorian novelists. Like the eponymous protagonist of his second novel, Oliver Twist, first published serially in 1838, Dickens experienced great hardship as child, working in a factory while his father was imprisoned in Marshalsea Debtors’ Prison.

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Victor HUGO

author

(1802–1885)

Les Misérables

Brussels, Lacroix Verboeckhoven, 1862

RARE Books Collection

A tale of poverty, power, injustice and revenge, the values of Les Misérables are integral to the political and social foundation of contemporary France and many other countries. The novel foreshadowed and demanded ways to ‘destroy poverty’ and achieve the democratic republican ideals of the freedom of the press, free compulsory education, universal medical care and the separation of church and state. Its key ideas – that good can triumph over evil and that human dignity can conquer poverty – continue to resonate with 21st-century readers.

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Victor HUGO

author

(1802–1885)

Émile-Antoine BAYARD

artist

(1837–1891)

Les Misérables

London and New York, G. Routledge and Sons

[The De Vinne press], 1887

RARES 843.78 MI

Born to unwed factory worker Fantine and raised by the abusive Thénardiers, Cosette seems destined for a tragic life as one of the many child labourers of the era. Her fortunes change when escaped convict Jean Valjean claims her as his ward and builds a prosperous life for them both, even as he flees the dogged detective Javert. Bayard’s tender drawing of the enslaved child dwarfed by the instruments of her labour was created for the second illustrated edition of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. The image would become iconic for Sir Cameron Mackintosh’s musical production.

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George ELIOT (Mary Ann EVANS)

(1819–1880)

Daniel Deronda

Edinburgh and London, William Blackwood and Sons, 1876

RARES 823.8 EL44D (1876)

Acquired through the Women Writers Fund, with the generous support of Helen Sykes

Mary Ann Evans, writing under a male pseudonym to protect her literary standing, is best known for her iconic novel of provincial English life, Middlemarch (1874). A contemporary of Hugo, Dickens, Dumas and Dostoyevsky, she too used literary naturalism to explore issues of morality, fate, modernisation and social justice, particularly regarding the position of women and the poor in class-obsessed English society. This is a rare example of Eliot’s last novel, Daniel Deronda, in its original form, published in parts.

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Marcus CLARKE

(1846–1881)

His Natural Life, book IV

The Australian Journal, vol. XXII, April 1887

RARELT 819.93 C554FO

London-born Marcus Clarke arrived in the Australian colonies in 1863, as a 16-year-old. He had been sent by his family, which had become unexpectedly impoverished. A bohemian, Clarke found success as a journalist and worked as a librarian at Melbourne’s Public Library, now State Library Victoria. His most famous novel was first serialised in The Australian Journal and later revised and published as a single volume titled For the Term of His Natural Life. Like some of his European contemporaries, Clarke used fiction to raise awareness of the shortcomings of the law and the brutalising treatment of prisoners. He reflected that ‘the story of a criminal need not necessarily be repulsive –Victor Hugo has made it almost sublime’.

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Australian Performing Group

Waiting for Godot

Poster from Theatre Projects

Place and publisher unknown, [1976]

PCPOSTER 70

Not I; Krapp’s Last Tape; Breath

Poster from Theatre Projects

Place and publisher unknown, [1979]

PCPOSTER 70

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Samuel BECKETT,

author

(1906–1989)

En Attendant Godot: Pièce en Deux Actes

Paris, Éditions de Minuit, [1960]

RAREWK 822.914 B3889E (1960)

Wallace Kirsop Collection

Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts

London, Faber & Faber, [1956]

RARES 822.91 B38W

Irish-born Samuel Beckett was one of the 20th century’s great literary artists. His pursuit of simplicity and objectivity led him to abandon the rich rhetoric of his native tongue and write in French. Waiting for Godot was Samuel Beckett’s first stage play and it caused a sensation. Published in French as En attendant Godot in 1952 and performed in Paris in 1953, it was first staged in English in London in 1955. The play identified Beckett with the ‘Theatre of the Absurd’.

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Samuel BECKETT

author

(1906–1989)

Patrick BOWLES

translator

(Unknown dates)

Molloy: A Novel

New York, Grove Press, 1955

RARES 823.91 B38MLB (NY)

Molloy: A Novel

Paris, Olympia Press, 1955

RARES 823.91 B38MLB

Beckett’s trilogy of novels – Molloy Malone Dies, and The Unnamable – is generally considered his prose masterpiece. Written in Paris after World War II, Molloy was the first of Beckett’s novels to be written in French. The novel, which takes the form of a series of monologues narrated by the character of Molloy and the man pursuing him, Moran, was published in French in 1951, and in English in 1955, and exerted a profound influence on postmodernist literature.

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Samuel BECKETT,

author

(1906–1989)

Westward Ho

London, J. Calder, 1983

RARES 822.91 B38WO

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Samuel BECKETT,

author

(1906–1989)

All That Fall: A Play for Radio

London, Faber & Faber, 1957

RARES 822.91 B38AL

All That Fall is a one-act play written in September 1956 in response to a request by the bbc. Unlike almost all of Beckett’s later works, the play was written firstly in English and then translated into French by novelist Robert Pinget. It was first broadcast on the BBC Third Programme in January 1957.

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Samuel BECKETT,

author

(1906–1989)

Not I

London, Faber & Faber, 1983

RARES 822.91 B38WO

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Samuel BECKETT,

author

(1906–1989)

Imagination Dead Imagine

London, Calder and Boyars, 1965

RARES 823.91 B38AI

Imagination Dead Imagine is a monologue in which the narrator refuses to accept that the imagination is dead. In this spare, minimalist text, Beckett presents the torment of an active mind encased in a failing body. The original French text was translated by Beckett. For this edition, the jacket design incorporates Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture Head on a Stalk.

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Samuel BECKETT,

author

(1906–1989)

From an Abandoned Work

London, Faber & Faber, 1958

RARES 823.91 B38F

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Samuel BECKETT,

author

(1906–1989)

Endgame: A Play in One Act; Followed by Act Without Words: A Mime for One Player

London, Faber & Faber, 1958

RARES 822.91 B38E

In Endgame, Beckett dispenses with theatrical conventions to focus on his bleak vision of the human condition. Endgame was his follow-up play to the groundbreaking Waiting for Godot and was first performed in French at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 1957. Beckett’s English translation appeared the following year.

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Samuel BECKETT,

author

(1906–1989)

Beckett Directs Beckett: San Quentin Drama Workshop

Prahran, Backyard Press, [1984]

TPC Beckett, Samuel

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Philip PULLMAN,

author

(Born 1946)

Bears Can Make Their Own Souls
Sit Tight, Hold On, Here We Go
We Are Angels, We’ve Come to Help You

Vinyl record sleeves from His Dark Materials:

BBC Radio Full-Cast Dramatisations

London, Demon Records, 2020

Private collection

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Philip PULLMAN,

author

(Born 1946)

His Dark Materials: BBC Radio Full-Cast Dramatisations

London, Demon Records, 2020

Private collection

Pullman’s work continues to captivate new audiences off the page, including through numerous radio, stage, movie and television adaptations. In 2003, His Dark Materials took to the airwaves of BBC Radio 4, with a six-part series in full-cast dramatisation. A repress of the radio play was released in vinyl format in 2020. In 2007, the highly anticipated screen version of Northern Lights, renamed The Golden Compass for North American audiences, was released amid some controversy. Boycotts ensued in response to the film’s perceived criticism of Christianity.

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Philip PULLMAN,

author

(Born 1946)

Northern Lights

London, New York, Scholastic Children’s Books, 1995

RAREJ 823.914 P96N

State Library Victoria holds first editions of Philip Pullman’s best known fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials. Set in a multiverse, the trilogy follows the adventures of Lyra Belacqua and her daemon (an animal that is deeply connected to the person) Pantalaimon. Exploring themes of the inner-self, spiritualism and the friction between science and religion, Pullman is lauded for his imaginative and expansive worlds. In 1995, Pullman received the Carnegie Medal for Writing for his work Northern Lights.

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Philip PULLMAN,

author

(Born 1946)

The Subtle Knife London, Scholastic, 1997

RAREJ 823.914 P96S

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Philip PULLMAN,

author

(Born 1946)

The Amber Spyglass

London, Scholastic, 2000

RAREJ 823.914 P96SP

In 2002, uk journalist Peter Hitchens described Pullman as ‘the most dangerous author in Britain’ and the ‘antithesis to c.s. Lewis’. Pullman’s series has come under scrutiny for its perceived stance on the power of authority in the church. In 2008, the American Library Association’s banned-book list identified His Dark Materials as the second-most banned and challenged book in the United States.

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Philip PULLMAN,

author

(Born 1946)

Chris WORMELL, illustrator

(Born 1946)

His Dark Materials: Northern Lights

London, Scholastic, 2021

Private collection

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Philip PULLMAN,

author

(Born 1946)

La Belle Sauvage

London, Penguin Books, 2017

Private collection

The Secret Commonwealth

London, Penguin Books, 2019

Private collection

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Philip PULLMAN,

author

(Born 1946)

John LAWRENCE, illustrator

(Born 1933)

Lyra’s Oxford

London, Doubleday, 2017

Private collection

Once Upon a Time in the North

London, Doubleday, 2019

Private collection

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Philip PULLMAN,

author

(Born 1946)

Tom Duxbury,

illustrator

(Birth date unknown)

Serpentine

London, Penguin Books, 2020

Private collection

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Toni Morrison

We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.

Toni Morrison, excerpt from her 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature lecture

One of the 20th century’s most enduring and influential novelists, Toni Morrison has left a profound legacy as a writer and an intellectual. The first African American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, her body of work has shaped Black culture in America and beyond. Morrison was born in Ohio in 1931 to parents from America’s South, and her childhood was deeply influenced by the generational trauma experienced by working-class Black families. Morrison published 11 novels during her lifetime, her rich language and transformative writing providing readers with profound insights into the African American experience. In 2012, Morrison received the Medal of Freedom from then-president Barack Obama. Morrison passed away in 2019.

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Kara WALKER,

artist

(Born 1969)

The New Yorker

New York, Condé Nast Publications, 2019

Exhibition print

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Toni MORRISON,

author

(1931–2019)

Nobel Lecture 7 December 1993

Oxfordshire, Oak Tree Fine Press, 2010

RARES 813.54 M83N

On 7 December 1993, Toni Morrison accepted the Nobel Prize in Literature, delivering a powerful speech on the human experience, language and literature. In doing so, Morrison became the first African American woman to receive the prestigious award.

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Toni MORRISON,

author

(1931–2019)

Beloved: A Novel

New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1987

RARES 813.54 M83B (1987)

Acquired by the Women Writers Fund, with the generous support of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and family

Set after the American Civil War, Beloved is arguably Morrison’s finest work. An complex tale of memory and trauma told through an intricate narrative structure, Beloved is the story of formerly enslaved Sethe and the ‘malevolent spirit’ that haunts her home. Accusations that the work depicts scenes of infanticide, bestiality and sex ensure Beloved remains on the American Library Association’s list of the most banned and challenged books. Despite the book’s controversial reception, Morrison was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988 and Beloved continues to be regarded as a seminal work in African American literature.

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Toni MORRISON,

author

(1931–2019)

The Bluest Eye: A Novel

New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, [1970]

RARES 813.54 M83BL (1970)

Acquired by the Women Writers Fund, with the generous support of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and family

Morrison’s debut work, The Bluest Eye, explores themes of beauty, identity and systemic racism in 1940s America. Largely overlooked on publication, it is now considered an American classic. This first-edition copy was owned and signed by prominent second-wave American feminist Erica Jong. The groundbreaking novel continues to be one of America’s most banned works of literature.

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Toni MORRISON,

author

(1931–2019)

Ezekiel MABOTE, illustrator

(Birth date unknown)

Beloved

Oxfordshire, Oak Tree Press, 2010

RARES 813.54 M83B

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Toni MORRISON,

author

(1931–2019)

Song of Solomon

New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1977

RARES 813.54 M83S (1977)

Acquired by the Women Writers Fund, with the generous support of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and family

Sula New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1974

RARES 813.54 M83SU (1974)

Acquired by the Women Writers Fund, with the generous support of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and family

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Toni MORRISON,

author

(1931–2019)

Tar Baby

New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1981

RARES 813.54 M83T (1981)

Acquired by the Women Writers Fund

Jazz New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1992

RARES 813.54 M83J (1992)

Acquired by the Women Writers Fund

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Haruki Murakami

Critically acclaimed Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami has received international recognition for his novels and short stories. He has been awarded the 2022 Prix mondial Cinco Del Duca and the 2018 America Award in Literature for his lifetime contribution to literature, although the Nobel Prize for Literature has eluded him.

Despite his international acclaim, Murakami has not been as widely celebrated in Japan as he has been elsewhere, leading him to state: ‘I was a black sheep in a Japanese literary world’. This display is drawn from the Graham and Anita Anderson Collection of literary first editions, an ongoing donation to the library through the Cultural Gifts Program.

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Haruki MURAKAMI,

author

(Born 1949)

Four advance-copy book covers for The Wind-up Bird Chronicle; After the Quake; Dance, Dance, Dance; and South of the Border, West of the Sun

London, Random House, 2003

Graham and Anita Anderson Collection

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Haruki MURAKAMI

author

(Born 1949)

Alfred BIRNBAUM

illustrator

(Born 1955)

A Wild Sheep Chase

Tōkyō, Kodansha International, 1990

RAREGAA 895.635 M93HB (1990/1)

Graham and Anita Anderson Collection

Norwegian Wood

Tōkyō, Kodansha International, c. 1989

RAREGAA 895.635 M93NOB v.1

Graham and Anita Anderson Collection

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Haruki MURAKAMI

author

(Born 1949)

Alfred BIRNBAUM

illustrator

(Born 1955)

Pinball, 1973

Tōkyō, Kodansha International, 1985

RAREGAA 895.635 M93SEB

Graham and Anita Anderson Collection

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Haruki MURAKAMI

author

(Born 1949)

Alfred BIRNBAUM

illustrator

(Born 1955)

The Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel

London, Hamish Hamilton, 1991

RAREGAA 895.635 M93SB (UK)

Graham and Anita Anderson Collection

A Wild Sheep Chase

Tōkyō, Kodansha International, 1990

RAREGAA 895.635 M93HB (1990/1)

Graham and Anita Anderson Collection

__

Haruki MURAKAMI

author

(Born 1949)

Philip GABRIEL

translator

(Born 1953)

Ted GOOSSEN

translator

(Unknown dates)

Killing Commendatore (Special Collection edition)

London, Harvill Secker, 2018

RAREGAA 895.635 M93KIG

Graham and Anita Anderson Collection

__

Haruki MURAKAMI

author

(Born 1949)

Philip GABRIEL

translator

(Born 1953)

Kafka on the Shore

London, The Harvill Press, 2005

RAREGAA 895.635 M93UG (UK)

Graham and Anita Anderson Collection

__

Haruki MURAKAMI

author

(Born 1949)

IQ84

New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2011

RAREGAA 895.635 M93OQR (2011)

Graham and Anita Anderson Collection

Haruki MURAKAMI

author

(Born 1949)

Philip GABRIEL

translator

(Born 1953)

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

London, Harvill Secker, 2014

RAREGAA 895.635 M93SHG (2014)

Graham and Anita Anderson Collection

__

Haruki MURAKAMI

author

(Born 1949)

Philip GABRIEL

translator

(Born 1953)

Alfred BIRNBAUM

translator

(Born 1955)

Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche

London, The Harvill Press, 2000

RAREGAA 895.635 M93ANB

Graham and Anita Anderson Collection

__

Thomas RAWLINS,

illustrator

(Unknown dates)

Charles MOODY, lithographer

(Unknown dates)

Telescopic View of the Great Exhibition, 1851

London, C. Lane, 1851

RARES 707.4 L24 (1851)

‘Peepshows’, or ‘tunnel books’, are a playful form of moveable book that dates to the mid-18th century and continues to be made today. Designed to be viewed from an eyehole at one end, the form uses layers to create a sense of depth in the scene presented, giving the viewer a three-dimensional experience. This example is a souvenir from the Great Exhibition held at the Crystal Palace in London in 1851, the first in a series of world fairs that showcased culture and industry from around the globe.

__

Edward GOREY,

author

(1925–2000)

The Tunney Calamity

New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, [1984]

RAREJ 702.81 G669T

‘Peepshows’, or ‘tunnel books’, are a playful form of moveable book that dates to the mid-18th century and continues to be made today. Designed to be viewed from an eyehole at one end, the form uses layers to create a sense of depth in the scene presented, giving the viewer a three-dimensional experience. This example was made by Edward Gorey, an artist renowned for his unsettling yet darkly humorous work, redolent of Victorian and Edwardian aesthetics.

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A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard

Our memories of some stories are so bound up with the illustrations that accompany them that it can be hard to consider one without the other.

When a partnership with E.H. Shepard was first suggested to A.A. Milne he was not overly keen, probably hoping for a more famous illustrator. But after their successful collaborations on the verses published in Punch magazine (later to form part of When We Were Very Young), Milne was satisfied that Shepard was the right man for the job.

Although the two were reportedly never particularly close, Milne clearly understood how integral Shepard’s illustrations were to his work. He inscribed a copy of Winnie-the-Pooh for Shepard with the verse:

When I am gone

Let Shepard decorate my tomb

And put (if there is room)

Two pictures on the stone:

Piglet, from page a hundred and eleven

And Pooh and Piglet walking (157) …

And Peter, thinking that they are my own

Will welcome me to heaven.

__

E.H. (Ernest Howard) SHEPARD,

illustrator

(1879–1976)

[Pooh Bear] postcards

Scholastic Dromkeen Children’s Literature Collection

H2014.751/1-2

__

A.A. (Alan Alexander) MILNE,

author

(1882–1956)

E.H. (Ernest Howard) SHEPARD,

illustrator

(1879–1976)

When We Were Very Young: IV – Puppy and I, from Punch, vol. 166

London, Punch Publications Ltd, 16 Jan. 1924

YA 052 P96

The first collaboration of author a.a.Milne and illustrator e.h.Shepard appeared in Punch magazine in 1924. The partnership was originally suggested by Punch colleague e.v.Lucas (also director of Methuen Publishing). Eleven of the verses that were to appear in When We Were Very Young were originally published in Punch.

__

A.A. (Alan Alexander) MILNE,

author

(1882–1956)

E.H. (Ernest Howard) SHEPARD,

illustrator

(1879–1976)

When We Were Very Young

London, Methuen, 1944

JLT 821.91 M63W (1944)

Milne’s first book of verses for children is a perennial favourite. This second Australian edition is inscribed ‘To dear John, with very much love from Mummy & Daddy. Christmas 1944’.

__

A.A. (Alan Alexander) MILNE,

author

(1882–1956)

E.H. (Ernest Howard) SHEPARD,

illustrator

(1879–1976)

When We Were Very Young

London, Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1927

J 821.91 M63W (1927)

First published in 1924, this book of verse was written by Milne for his young son, Christopher Robin. It features the first appearance of the bear that would become Winnie-the-Pooh, in the illustrations accompanying the poem ‘Teddy Bear’.

__

A.A. (Alan Alexander) MILNE,

author

(1882–1956)

E.H. (Ernest Howard) SHEPARD,

illustrator

(1879–1976)

Now We Are Six

London, Methuen Children’s Books, 1927

RARES 821.91 M63N

This is the first published deluxe edition of Milne’s second book of verse for children, Now We Are Six.

__

A.A. (Alan Alexander) MILNE,

author

(1882–1956)

E.H. (Ernest Howard) SHEPARD,

illustrator

(1879–1976)

Winnie-the-Pooh

London, Folio Society, 2016

Private collection

__

A.A. (Alan Alexander) MILNE,

author

(1882–1956)

E.H. (Ernest Howard) SHEPARD,

illustrator

(1879–1976)

Winnie-the-Pooh

London, Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1953

RAREJ 823.91 M63W (1953)

The map of 100 Aker Wood, the home of Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends, graces the endpapers of Winnie-the-Pooh. Shepard spent time visiting Milne’s property, Cotchford Farm, in Hartford, Sussex, wandering around the surrounding Ashford Forest to draw inspiration for his illustrations.

__

A.A. (Alan Alexander) MILNE,

author

(1882–1956)

E.H. (Ernest Howard) SHEPARD,

illustrator

(1879–1976)

Winnie-the-Pooh

London, Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1926

RAREJ 823.91 M63W (1926)

This is a first-edition limited issue of the beloved Winnie-the-Pooh. Following their successful collaboration in When We Were Very Young, Milne was keen for Shepard to illustrate this new work. Most of the characters in the story were based on toys from Christopher Robin’s nursery, and Milne asserts that Shepard’s depiction of them was largely true to life:

… their owner by constant affection had given them the twist in their features which denoted character, and Shepard drew them, as one might say, from the living model.

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A.A. (Alan Alexander) MILNE,

author

(1882–1956)

E.H. (Ernest Howard) SHEPARD,

illustrator

(1879–1976)

Winnie-the-Pooh

London, Methuen, 1926

RARES 823.912 M635W (1926)

This is the first trade edition of the beloved classic.

__

A.A. (Alan Alexander) MILNE,

author

(1882–1956)

E.H. (Ernest Howard) SHEPARD,

illustrator

(1879–1976)

The House at Pooh Corner

London, Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1928

RAREJ 823.91 M635H (1928)

This is a first edition of the second and final original novel to feature Winnie-the-Pooh.

__

A.A. (Alan Alexander) MILNE,

author

(1882–1956)

E.H. (Ernest Howard) SHEPARD,

illustrator

(1879–1976)

The House at Pooh Corner

London, Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1928

RAREJ 823.91 M635H (1928)

The endpapers of The House at Pooh Corner feature Tigger, who was first introduced in this novel. Tigger’s larger than life personality makes the other characters think he is bigger than he really is, but as Pooh explains, “He always seems bigger because of his bounces”.

__

H. (Harold) FRASER-SIMSON,

composer

A.A. (Alan Alexander) MILNE,

author

(1882–1956)

E.H. (Ernest Howard) SHEPARD,

illustrator

(1879–1976)

The Hums of Pooh: Lyrics by Pooh

London, Methuen & Co., [1929]

AF 784.3 F86

Although this label does not list Winnie-the-Pooh himself as the creator of the verses in this book, it can clearly be seen from the title that this is a curatorial error. However, this particular song, ‘Christopher Robin is going…’ was in fact written by Eeyore.

__

A.A. (Alan Alexander) MILNE,

author

(1882–1956)

E.H. (Ernest Howard) SHEPARD,

illustrator

(1879–1976)

Very Young Verses

London, Methuen, 1929

J 821.91 M63V

‘The Three Foxes’ is evidence that the words of Milne and the pictures of Shepard belong together, even outside the well-known realm of Winnie-the-Pooh. It is also an example of Milne’s playfulness with the English language and shows why his works continue to enchant children and adults alike.

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Cleveland Publishing Company

Founded by John Patrick Atkins in Sydney in 1953, Cleveland Publishing produced some iconic series of crime and western pulp titles, including the Larry Kent detective series and dozens of best-selling cowboy tales.

Import restrictions on American books and magazines in the 1940s and 1950s created an opportunity for local publishers to meet growing demand for American-style commercial novels. Companies such as Cleveland Publishing took full advantage of the market.

At its peak, Clevelend was publishing 18 series simultaneously, in edition sizes of around 25,000 per title. Cheaply produced and with eye-catching artwork by local artists, these books were affordable reading material for a voracious Australian audience, hooked on the salacious drama and gun-toting antics of the American characters.

When Cleveland Publishing closed in 2019, its archives of original artwork and published titles were sold, including to this library.

__

Unknown artist

Trigger Happy

Original watercolour cover artwork

Sydney, Cleveland Publishing Company, [1950–59]

H2021.24/23

Wrong Number

Original watercolour cover artwork

Sydney, Cleveland Publishing Company, 1954

H2021.24/30

Sinners May Live

Original watercolour cover artwork

Sydney, Cleveland Publishing Company, [1953]

H2021.24/32

__

Stanley PITT,

illustrator

(1925–2002)

Burning Brand

Original watercolour cover artwork

Sydney, Cleveland Publishing Company, [1967?]

H2021.24/14

__

Noel GORDON-COOKE,

author

(1930–)

Luke BROMLEY,

author

(Birth date unknown)

Stanley PITT,

illustrator

(1925–2002)

Burning Brand

Sydney, Cleveland Publishing Company, [1967]

RARELT A823.3 C599B

__

Unknown artist

Haunted Hour

Original watercolour cover artwork

Sydney, Cleveland Publishing Company, [1956–60]

H2021.24/17

E. Hamilton CLAY,

author

(Dates unknown)

Haunted Hour

Sydney, Cleveland Publishing Company, [1950–59]

RARELT A823.3 C599CH

__

Unknown artist

The Westerner

Original watercolour cover artwork

Sydney, Cleveland Publishing Company, [1950–59]

H2021.24/1

Shad DENVER,

author

(Dates unknown)

The Westerner

Sydney, Cleveland Publishing Company, [1950–59]

RARELT A823.3 C599W

__

Unknown artist

Stripper … Stay Alive

Original watercolour cover artwork

Sydney, Cleveland Publishing Company, [1950–59]

H2021.24/18

E. Hamilton CLAY,

author

(Dates unknown)

Stripper … Stay Alive

Sydney, Cleveland Publishing Company, [1950–59]

RARELT A823.3 C599CS

__

Walter STACKPOOL,

artist

(1915–1998)

Big River Man

Original watercolour cover artwork

Sydney, Cleveland Publishing Company, [1960]

H2021.24/13

Brett McKINLEY,

author

(Dates unknown)

Big River Man

Sydney, Cleveland Publishing Company, [1960]

RARELT A823.3 C599CMBR

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EXPLORING THE WORLD

Books reflect our desire to know the world: to see it, classify it and make sense of it. They have always both documented the past and recorded the new. From scientific discoveries to journeys to new lands, books enable the sharing of novel ideas and information.

Before the age of air travel and mass media, books were crucial in making the world accessible to many. Books now share this space with the internet. Because of their physicality – their ability to be held and owned, and to bring together word and image – books continue to be central to our lives.

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Martin KING

(Born 1957)

Tree of Life, Diary of Lost Souls in Twenty Volumes,
Nº. 1 2022

Etching, drypoint, spit bite, chine-collé, hard-cover books

H2022.173

Created for the City of Melbourne’s CLIMARTE exhibition about the city’s trees, Martin King’s monumental work draws on Fitzroy Gardens and the beautiful Port Phillip sketchbooks of English artist John Cotton (1801–1849). King creates a hybrid from two trees: Corymbia, a Lemon Scented Gum, and Fraxinus, an English Ash. As he writes:

Fitzroy Gardens were established in the 1800s, originally set aside as a reserve in 1848. My interest in the gardens is as a … haven for urban wildlife … My work is a reflection of habitats and the species that inhabit them, past and present.

__

John COTTON

(1801–1849)

Sketchbook of birds of the Port Phillip District

Manuscript, 1844–49

MS 9817

John Cotton was a London-born pastoralist and naturalist. He immigrated to Australia with his family in 1843. The sketchbooks in the library’s collection are those he kept over the following five years, in preparation for a planned publication on the birds of Port Phillip District (known as Victoria after its separation from the Colony of New South Wales in 1851). Sadly, he died before this could eventuate. Cotton was made a fellow of the Royal Zoological Society for his work on birds. Artist Martin King drew on Cotton’s sketchbooks in his work Tree of Life…, displayed adjacent.

__

John COTTON

(1801–1849)

Sketchbook of birds of the Port Phillip District

Manuscript, 1844–49

MS 9817

__

John COTTON

(1801–1849)

Journal of a voyage in the Parkfield Bark from Plymouth to Port Phillip, Australia, in the year 1843

Manuscript, 1843

MS 9817

This water-stained journal records the Cotton family’s voyage from England to Australia. Unillustrated, it includes several poems Cotton composed onboard, including ‘Thoughts about the Ocean’. At this time, the voyage took around 120 days (three months). Cotton’s travelling party included his wife, Susannah, their four sons and five daughters, and several female servants.

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John COTTON

(1801–1849)

Journal to Milan …

Manuscript, 1824

MS 15856

Before his marriage, and like many wealthy young gentlemen of his time, John Cotton undertook a ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe to complete his education. The usual itinerary for a grand tour involved sites of significance for classical history in Italy, Greece and other Mediterranean locations. In this 1824 illustrated journal, Cotton recorded his impressions of Italy.

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François LE VAILLANT

author

(1753–1824)

Jacques BARRABAND

artist

(1768–1809)

Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de paradis et des rolliers (Natural History of Birds of Paradise and Rollers)

Paris, Denné le jeune & Perlet, 1806

RARESEF 598.8 L57 (PLO)

An imaginative individualist, François Le Vaillant vehemently opposed Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus’s taxonomic system, preferring to apply his own descriptive French names for birds. Unfortunately, this meant many of the new species Le Vaillant discovered were widely credited to others, who named them using standard Linnean nomenclature. But his influence is felt in other ways: he was one of the first to publish colour illustrations alongside his descriptions, showcasing Jacques Barraband’s artistic brilliance.

__

Rhyll PLANT,

artist

(Born 1953)

Magpie bookplate 2017

Print from rubber stamp

H2019.106/14

__

John GOULD

author

(1804–1881)

Elizabeth GOULD

artist

(1804–1841)

The Birds of Australia: In Seven Volumes, vol. 2, pl. 46

London, the author, 1848

RARELTEF 598.2994 G73B

Love them or loathe them, the Magpie is an iconic Australian bird. English ornithologists John and Elizabeth Gould recorded the Magpie under its Latin name, Gymnorhina tibicen, and the common name of Piping Crow-Shrike. John wrote of its song:

To describe the notes of this bird is beyond the power of my pen, and it is a source of regret to myself that my readers cannot, as I have done, listen to them in their native wilds … The Birds of Australia was on open-access shelves for decades at this library, and it shows the signs of its many readers.

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Alex SELENITSCH

(Born 1946)

13 Ways of Looking at a Magpie

Clifton Hill, Vic., A. Selenitsch, c. 1999

RARELTP 702.81 SE4T

In this artist’s book, Melbourne architect, artist and poet Alex Selenitsch playfully references American Wallace Stevens’ poem ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird’ (1917), transposing it to an Australian context by musing on the Magpie. Like Stevens’ poem, Selenitsch’s work employs short sections of text to consider the bird from multiple perspectives; the bird represents the wider world, the perception of which is always subjective. Selenitsch’s poem appears on white pages interleaved with black, some cut, folded, torn, pricked and punched, recalling the colours and shapes of a Magpie.

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John RYRIE

artist

(Born 1961)

Alex SELENITSCH

author

(Born 1946)

Magpie Song

[Melbourne, J. Ryrie], 1999

RARELTP 769.994 R99M

This elegant artist’s book combines the compact verse of Alex Selenitsch with a striking woodcut by John Ryrie. In vivid sensory contrast with the monochrome of the print and the text, the poem evokes an array of colours, suggesting the complex song of the Magpie. In 2023, a National Science Week poll found that the Magpie’s song is Australians’ favourite sound.

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Rose Stereograph Co.

Beautiful Ferns, Clematis Avenue, South Sassafras, Vic. c. 1920–54

Exhibition print from glass negative original

H32492/5830

In the collages of Something Reverberated, Gracia and Louise have made use of a digital scan of this Rose Stereograph postcard image of ferns in the Dandenongs.

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Gracia HABY and Louise JENNISON

(Both born 1976)

Something Reverberated, Nº. 2/2

[North Fitzroy, Vic.], Gracia & Louise, 2021

RARELTEF 702.81 J44S (2021)

Gracia and Louise have been creating art together since 1999. The fusion of their words, collages, drawings and prints has forged a unique aesthetic. Their work as wildlife foster carers and environmental activists guides their art practice as well as their daily lives. It imbues their artists’ books with authenticity and integrity. Something Reverberated was created for an exhibition called Biosphere – A Sense of Belonging, curated by Felicity Spears for the Stephen McLaughlin Gallery in 2021. The concertina book, its box and wrapper, and a related zine are shown together here.

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Gracia HABY and Louise JENNISON

(Both born 1976)

Something Reverberated, Nº. 2/2

[North Fitzroy, Vic.], Gracia & Louise, 2021

RARELTEF 702.81 J44S (2021)

There were once trees growing under the roads. There are still creeks flowing beneath the directional pathways we’ve imposed. Patches of green remain, here and there. Pieces of what was, though dimmer, diminished. A jigsaw forest that hints at what could have been, should have been, and echoes the sprung rhythm words of Gerard Manley Hopkins, ‘After-comers cannot guess the beauty been’.
– an excerpt from the book text

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Gracia HABY and Louise JENNISON

(Both born 1976)

Something Reverberated zine, from Three Years, Flew: A Compilation Box of Zines, 2019–2021

[North Fitzroy, Vic.], Gracia & Louise, 2019

RARELTEF 702.81 J44TY (2022)

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Gracius Joseph BROINOWSKI

(1837–1913)

Birds of Australia …, vol. 5

Melbourne, C. Stuart, 1887

RARESF 598.2994 B78B (Set 3)

If you look carefully, you will spot this lyrebird in Gracia & Louise’s work Something Reverberated. Polish-born Gracius Broinowski studied art and classics in Germany before immigrating to Australia in 1857. He married in Melbourne and took his growing family all around Australia as he painted on commission, eventually establishing himself as a respected artist and lecturer. Broinowski’s most notable achievement was Birds of Australia, issued to subscribers in a sold-out edition of 1000 in 40 parts, comprising 303 full-page colour lithographs, with notes on more than 700 species.

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James SOWERBY,

artist

(1757–1822)

James Edward SMITH,

author

(1759–1828)

Exhibition print of Ceratopetalum gummiferum from A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland

London, printed by J. Davis, published by J. Sowerby, 1793

RARELTF 581.994 SM6

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Ferdinand BAUER

(1760–1826)

Illustrationes florae Novae Hollandiae (Illustrations of the Flowers of New Holland)

London, F. Bauer, 1813

RARELTEF 581.994 B32

Ferdinand Bauer, along with botanist Robert Brown, accompanied Matthew Flinders on his circumnavigation of Australia on HMS Investigator in 1801. On this expedition, Bauer completed more than 2000 drawings of Australian flora and fauna. His Illustrationes, issued after his return to London, comprises 15 engraved plates of Australian botanical figures, each hand coloured by Bauer himself. It was intended as a larger publication, but Bauer was able to attract only 23 subscribers. He subsequently abandoned the work and returned to his native Austria.

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Gracia HABY and Louise JENNISON

(Both born 1976)

With Wings Outstretched and Quivering, Nº. 2/2, and its hand-painted box

[North Fitzroy, Vic.], Gracia & Louise, 2021

RARELTEF 702.81 J44W (2021)

This artists’ book is a variation of collages created for recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey’s album Bower (2021). Both the music and artwork were created during the Melbourne lock-downs in the Covid-19 pandemic. As the artists have written: The collages feature … illustrated botanical works by Ferdinandi [sic] Bauer from Illustrationes florae Novae Hollandiae (1813), and James Sowerby’s engravings within the Specimen of the Botany of New Holland (1793), both in the collection of State Library Victoria.

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James SOWERBY

artist

(1757–1822)

James Edward SMITH

author

(1759–1828)

A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland

London, J. Sowerby, 1793

RARELTF 581.994 SM6

James Smith’s work on the botany of New Holland was the first separately published book on the subject. Its 16 plates, by botanical artist James Sowerby, contain the earliest illustrations of several Australian species. Sowerby was fortunate in being able to draw upon a collection of sketches and plant specimens ‘made on the spot’ and sent to England by John White, surgeon-general of the new colony. Smith and Sowerby were both prominent figures in English botany and their collaboration ensured that Australia’s first flower book would be among the finest of the period.

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Charles Robert BREE

(1811–1866)

Booted Reed Warbler, from A History of the Birds of Europe Not Observed in the British Isles

London, Groombridge and Sons, 1859–63

RARESEF 591 T44

John James AUDUBON

(1785–1851)

Common or Purple Crow-Blackbird, from Birds of America

Philadelphia and New York, J.B. Chevalier and John James Audubon, 1840

RARESEF 591 T44

Henry Leonard MEYER

(1797–1865)

Leaf from Coloured Illustrations of British Birds and Their Eggs

London, G. Willis, 1852–57

RARESEF 591 T44

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John James AUDUBON

(1785–1851)

The Birds of America, vol. 2

London, the author, 1827–38

RARESEF 598.2973 Au2

John James Audubon was born in Haiti, raised in France and immigrated to America at the age of 18. After a failed business venture, he decided to devote himself to an ornithological survey of North American birds. From then on, he was constantly at work observing, collecting and painting specimens. For this publication, his life-size paintings were transferred to copper plates, printed and then coloured by hand. A complete set comprises 435 ‘double-elephant’ folio plates, issued in 87 parts over 11 years. Audubon funded this publication in part through buying and selling enslaved people, a racist legacy that has recently been acknowledged by the American ornithological organisation bearing his name.

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Eleazar ALBIN

(1690–1742)

The Weazel Coot, from A Natural History of Birds

London, Innys, 1731–38

RARESEF 591 T44

Lorenz OKEN

(1779–1851)

Leaf from Allgemeine Naturgeschichte für alle Stände (General Natural History for All Classes)

Stuttgart, Hoffman, 1839–43

RARESEF 591 T44

George EDWARDS

(1694–1773)

Leaf from A Natural History of Birds

London, William Gardiner and Messers Robinsons, 1802–05

RARESEF 591 T44

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John James AUDUBON

(1785–1851)

The Birds of America, vol. 3

London, the author, 1827–38

RARESEF 598.2973 Au2

Audubon was born in Haiti, raised in France and immigrated to America at the age of 18. After a failed business venture, he decided to devote himself to an ornithological survey of North American birds. From then on, he was constantly at work observing, collecting and painting specimens. For this publication, his life-size paintings were transferred to copper plates, printed and then coloured by hand. A complete set comprises 435 ‘double-elephant’ folio plates, issued in 87 parts over 11 years. Audubon funded this publication in part through buying and selling enslaved people, a racist legacy that has recently been acknowledged by the American ornithological organisation bearing his name.

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ART AND NATURE

Botanical illustration unites the scientific and the artistic. Even with today’s digital imaging, botanical drawing remains the finest means of understanding and representing plant life.

Thousands of years ago, medicinal plants were identified in India, China and Mexico. The Greek physician Dioscorides’ De materia medica, published around 50–70 CE, was the first ‘herbal’, or manual of medicinal information relating to plants, and was a key botanical reference for centuries. The Renaissance brought the first printed herbals, followed by the works of the great botanical artists of the 19th century: Pierre-Joseph Redouté, John Sibthorp and Ferdinand Bauer.

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33

Leonhart FUCHS

(1501–1566)

Two plates from Das New Kreüterbuch (The New Herbal)

Basel, Michael Isingrin, 1543

RARESEF 016.58163 N63

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Pierre-Joseph REDOUTÉ

(1759–1840)

Les Liliacées (The Lily Family), vol. 4

Paris, the author, 1802–15

RARESEF 584.32 R24

Pierre-Joseph Redouté was born in Flanders and moved to Paris in 1782 to make his name as a flower painter. Just prior to the French Revolution, he was offered a court appointment to Queen Marie Antoinette. Under the reign of Napoleon, he was commissioned to make pictorial records of Empress Joséphine’s newly established garden of rare plants at Malmaison. Redouté is best known for his masterpiece on the lily family, published in only 200 copies under Joséphine’s patronage.

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John SIBTHORP

(1758–1796)

Flora Graeca (Greek Flowers), vol. 3

London, printed by Richard Taylor and Co., 1806–40

RARESEF 581.9495 SI1F

In 1786, botanical illustrator Ferdinand Bauer accompanied John Sibthorp, professor of botany at Oxford University, on a research trip to study the plants of the Mediterranean region. After producing more than 1500 sketches, Bauer returned to London, where he finished the drawings that formed the basis for Sibthorp’s ten-volume Flora Graeca. The work, completed by James Smith after Sibthorp’s death, contains almost 1000 engravings, mostly by the English artist James Sowerby, after Bauer’s illustrations.

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Abraham ORTELIUS

(1527–1598)

Indiae Orientalis Insularumque Adiacentium Typus

Antwerp, Coppens van Dienst, 1595

MAPS SB 401 A [1595?]

Abraham Ortelius published the first atlas, or compendium of maps of various countries, in 1570. The library holds a volume from 1574; this map is from the 1595 edition. The islands of the East Indies receive prominence over other parts of Asia, such as a truncated China, perhaps because of the concentration of interest in the spice trade at this time. The island of Java (Java Maior) is prominent, as is part of New Guinea, although the cartographer is doubtful as to whether this is an island or part of a southern continent.

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Berthe HOOLA VAN NOOTEN

(1817–1892)

Fleurs, fruits et feuillages choisis de la flore et de la pomone de l’ile de Java (Flowers, Fruits and Foliage Selected from the Flora and Fruits of Java)

Bruxelles, Émile Tarlier, 1863

RARESEF 581.992 N73

The durian takes its name from the Malay word duri, meaning ‘thorn’. While hugely popular in China and South-east Asia and high in nutritional value, durian occasionally attracts bans due to its intense smell, which has been described as a mixture of sulfur, sewage, rotten egg and rotting vegetables. Berthe Hoola van Nooten was a Dutch botanical artist who, with her husband, travelled widely before settling in Java, then part of the colonial Dutch East Indies. Despite the success of her book on Java’s flora, including the durian, she died in poverty in Jakarta in 1892.

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George Eberhard RUMPHIUS

(1627–1702)

Het Amboinsche kruid-boek (The Herbal Book of Ambon)

Amsterdam, Meinard Uytwerf, 1750

RARESF 581.991 R865H

Het Amboinsche kruid-boek is a comprehensive catalogue of the plants of the Malay Archipelago. It was compiled by George Eberhard Rumphius, an employee of the Dutch East Indies Company, who lived on the island of Ambon, in Indonesia, from 1654. Rumphius began his botanical study in 1657. Despite the loss of his eyesight in 1670 and the destruction of his illustrations in a fire in 1687, he persevered with his work, completing the 12-volume manuscript in 1694. The volumes were published posthumously between 1741 and 1755.

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Walter HODGKINSON,

photographer

(Dates unknown)

Woman and two boys in fern gully c. 1880–1900

Exhibition print from glass negative

H42506/358

Lindsay CUMMING,

photographer

(1894–1979)

Woman seated in a large fern tree c. 1910–30

Exhibition print from glass negative

H2005.88/77

Gift of Mrs. Joan Edwards, 2005

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Lindsay CUMMING,

photographer

(1894–1979)

Sightseers among fern trees near Alexandra c. 1910–30

Exhibition print from glass negative

H2005.88/441

Gift of Mrs Joan Edwards, 2005

Samuel CALVERT,

engraver

(1828–1913)

Fern Gatherers

Melbourne, Ebenezer and David Syme, 1877

IAN27/12/77/SUPP/212-213

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Unknown creator

Collection of Specimens of the Weeds, Grasses, Herbs and Ferns of Ireland, vol. 1

19th century

RARESEF 584.9 C68

Pteridomania is the technical term for someone who has ‘fern fever’. A particular craze during the Victorian era, ‘fern madness’ was coined by Charles Kingsley in his work Galucus, or The Wonders of the Shore (1859). From the shores of England to the mountains of Australia, people from all classes ventured into the wild to collect specimens. Sadly, such interest and wanton destruction of environmental areas saw the eradication and loss of several fern species throughout Australia. Many of these specimens were pressed and kept in scrapbooks like the ones on display.

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Anne PRATT

(1806–1893)

The Flowering Plants and Ferns of Great Britain, vol. 6

London, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Unknown place and publisher, [1855]

RARES 581.942 P8881F

Anne Pratt was an English botanical artist who published many popular books about Britain’s plant life. A childhood of ill health excluded her from many social and physical activities, and so she was encouraged to focus on drawing and botany, considered suitable occupations for young women at the time. Pratt’s publications used a form of chromolithography that allowed for inexpensively produced colour-illustrated works, which, along with her accessible writing style, brought her a large readership.

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Anne PRATT

(1806–1893)

The Ferns of Great Britain and Their Allies:
The Club-Mosses, Pepperworts, and Horsetails

London, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, [1855]

RARES 581.942 P8881F/2 (1855)

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Unknown compiler

Album of Botanical Specimens, Photographs
and Watercolours

Victoria, Royal Studio, [c. 1875–99]

H2012.139

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Samuel CALVERT,

engraver

(1828–1913)

What You Give?

Melbourne, David Syme and Co., 1884

IAN08/11/84/SUPP

John LEECH,

artist

(1817–1864)

Exhibition print of Common Objects at the Sea-Side – Generally Found Upon the Rocks at Low Water, from Punch, vol. 35

London, Punch Publications Ltd, 21 Aug. 1858

YA 052 P96

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William Henry HARVEY,

author

(1811–1866)

Phycologia Australica, or, A History of Australian Seaweeds …, vol. 4

London, Lovell Reeve, 1858–63

RARES 589.3 H26

Like amassing ferns, collecting seaweed was a popular pastime in the Victorian era. The advent of steam-powered trains in the early 19th century in Britain allowed city-dwellers of all social classes to travel more widely, and more quickly, than had been previously possible. Trains gave access to Britain’s seaside towns, creating an entirely new way of having a holiday and giving rise to new hobbies, such as seaweed collecting.

__

Unknown creator

Diary of a voyage from London to Melbourne on RMS Potosi, and book of pressed seaweed

Unknown place, 1885–88

MS BOX 4135/6

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William Henry HARVEY,

author

(1811–1866)

Phycologia Australica, or, A History of Australian Seaweeds …, vols 1 and 2

London, Lovell Reeve, 1858–63

RARES 589.3 H26

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Unknown creator

(possibly Daniel BUNCE)

Album of pressed seaweed from the Daniel Bunce Papers

Unknown location and date

MS 16504

English-born botanist and gardener Daniel Bunce (1813–1872) immigrated to Australia in 1833, first to Hobart and subsequently to the Port Phillip District, where he established a nursery in St Kilda. In 1846, he joined German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt’s ill-fated second attempt to cross Australia from east to west. He was fortunate to survive. After unsuccessful applications for the directorship of the Adelaide and the Melbourne botanical gardens, in 1858 he became director of the Geelong Botanical Gardens.

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ARTISTS AND BOOKS

Books are valued not only for their content but also for their beauty and craft. Since the invention of the codex in the first century CE, artists have been intimately involved in book production, from papermaking and illustration to design and binding.

The mass production and consequent decline in the quality of books in the 19th century prompted artists such as William Morris to revive traditional bookmaking crafts, laying the foundations for the fine press movement. Contemporary artists continue to challenge the nature of the book, ensuring its future as an ever-changing object to be admired, read, viewed, and desired.

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The Art of the Book in Japan

Japan is renowned for its book arts, including calligraphy and the production of fine papers, woodcut illustrations and bindings.

Woodblock prints were first produced in Japan as gifts presented to believers at Buddhist temples. These prints were religious, depicting deities and sacred texts. More celebrated in the West are the secular images, such as street scenes and portraits of courtesans and kabuki actors from the Edo period (1600–1870), known as ukiyo-e, or images of the ‘floating world’.

For centuries, the scroll was Japan’s primary book form. While the codex replaced the scroll in the West, the concertina book, or orihon, emerged in Japan as an intermediary form. As Japanese books took on the codex structure, many retained pages of double thickness, reflecting the requirements of the woodblock printing process. Japanese papers continue to be among the finest produced, desired worldwide for creating artworks and fine press books.

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Yūsai KUNITERU,

artist

(1808–1876)

Haru no yuki yukari no akatsuki (Dawn of Spring Snow)

Edo (Tōkyō), Yamaguchiya Tōbē, Ansei Gannen (1854)

RAREP 769.952 Y928H

This beautiful colour woodblock triptych (an artwork composed of three panels) likely depicts Lady Murasaki writing her epic novel, The Tale of Genji.

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Lady MURASAKI

author

(c. 973 – c. 1014)

Unknown scribe

(Active 1600s)

源氏小鏡 (Genji kokagami; The Tale of Genji), vol. 1

Manuscript, early Edo period (17th century), Japan

RARES 895.614 SH619K

Acquired by the Women Writers Fund, with the

support of the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, 2023

The Tale of Genji is considered by many as the first novel ever written. Like other iconic texts, including Homer’s The Iliad and Dante’s The Divine Comedy, it has resonated through all periods and across cultures. However, The Tale of Genji has an additional significance in that its author was female. Lady Murasaki was raised in an erudite household that encouraged her learning. She became fluent in the Chinese classics that dominated medieval Japanese culture. Murasaki also wrote poetry but remains best known for her epic tale of the life of Genji, the second son of the Japanese emperor.

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Lady MURASAKI

author

(c. 973 – c. 1014)

Unknown scribe

(Active 1600s)

源氏小鏡 (Genji kokagami; The Tale of Genji), vol. 2

Manuscript, early Edo period (17th century), Japan

RARES 895.614 SH619K

Acquired by the Women Writers Fund, with the

support of the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, 2023

Murasaki’s novel (possibly completed c. 1021 by another woman after Murasaki’s death) tells the life of Genji, the second son of the Japanese emperor. The work comprises some 400 characters, all of whom are referred to by titles and relationships rather than by proper names. In part for this reason, by the beginning of the 17th century, the 54 chapters of The Tale of Genji were not easy to read without a teacher. As a result, a series of digests, or condensed versions such as this example, were published, offering easier access to the text through familiar language.

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Lady MURASAKI

author

(c. 973 – c. 1014)

Masao EBINA

artist

(1913–1980)

木版画 源氏五十四帖 (Mokuhanga Genji gojūyonjō; Genji: in 54 Woodblock Prints)

Tōkyō, Yamada Shoin [1958]

RARESEF 769.952 M729

Acquired by the Women Writers Fund, with the

support of the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, 2023

The Tale of Genji is ripe for illustration, with its vast cast of characters and glamorous settings. This portfolio of 54 colour woodblock prints is the first published work in which an illustration has been provided for each of the 54 chapters of the original story. Its illustrations are by artist Masao Ebina in the Nihonga style, with the woodblock printing completed in brush-tone technique by printer Yoshio Kawazura (Negoro Raizan). The prospectus notes that each image took an average of 50–60 impressions to complete. text through familiar language.

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Hisui SUGIURA,

illustrator

(1876–1965)

三越カタログ (Mitsukoshi Katarogu; Mitsukoshi Catalogues)

Tōkyō, Tōkyō Kabushiki Kaisha Mitsukoshi, c. 1920–32

RARES 381.14102952 M6977S

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Hisui SUGIURA,

illustrator

(1876–1965)

三越カタログ (Mitsukoshi Katarogu; Mitsukoshi Catalogues)

Tōkyō, Tōkyō Kabushiki Kaisha Mitsukoshi, c. 1920–32

RARES 381.14102952 M6977S

Just as Japanese woodblock printmaking exerted a huge influence on 19th-century European art, the dawn of Art Deco (after a 1925 world fair in Paris) had a seismic impact on Japanese culture and aesthetics. On display are 1930s issues of catalogues produced by the department store Mitsukoshi, founded in 1673 and still operating today. Artist Hisui Sugiura was trained by Viscount Kuroda Seiki, a pioneer in introducing Western art theory and practice to Japan.

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Hisui SUGIURA,

illustrator

(1876–1965)

三越カタログ (Mitsukoshi Katarogu; Mitsukoshi Catalogues)

Tōkyō, Tōkyō Kabushiki Kaisha Mitsukoshi, c. 1920–32

RARES 381.14102952 M6977S

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Unknown artist

聚秀. [五] (Shūshū. 5)

[Kyoto], [Hirō Shōeidō], [Shōwa 5; 1930]

RARES 746.92 SH93

This is an album of Japanese pochibukuro, small ornamental envelopes used for discretely carrying and giving cash. It features pochibukuro in Art Deco style, presumably intended for moga, or Japanese ‘modern girls’ of the 1920s and 1930s.

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Art Deco: 100 Years of Elegance

Since the first international exhibition, in England in 1851, fairs to showcase the best of arts, craft and industry became a regular fixture in Europe, the United States and Australia. In 1925, Paris hosted an international exhibition that has been credited with formalising the style known as Art Deco, shortened from the French phrase Arts Décoratifs.

Influenced in part by the magnificent treasures found in Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, Art Deco designs used bold geometric patterns and expensive materials such as gold, ebony and ivory. The aesthetic represented the luxurious, glamorous ideal of the interwar years before the horrors of World War II. The works in this display epitomise the elegance of French Art Deco publishing.

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George BARBIER,

artist

(1882–1932)

‘Laissez-moi-seule!’ (‘Leave Me Alone!’)

Print extracted from Feuillets d’Art (Art Leaves),

Nº. II, Août, print Nº. 1089 of 1200

Paris, [Condé Nast], 1919

RARESEF 705 F435R

Unknown artist

‘Robe portée par Mme Charlotte directrice de la Maison Premet’ (‘Dress Worn by Madame Charlotte, Director of the Maison Premet’)

Print advertisement extracted from Feuillets d’Art (Art Leaves),

Nº. II, Août

Paris, [Condé Nast], 1919

RARESEF 705 F435R

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Feuillets d’Art (Art Leaves), Nº. 1 and Nº.IV

Paris, [Condé Nast], Oct.–Nov. 1921 and Sept. 1922

RARESEF 705 F435R

Lucien Vogel (1886–1954) founded several of the most iconic Art Deco high-fashion magazines, including Feuillets d’Art, which aimed at ‘finding in the taste of the moment all that is traditional and durable’. Each issue contained articles on contemporary literature, theatre, music and fashion. A pochoir print by a leading artist – including Georges Lepape, George Barbier and Édouard Halouze – was inserted ‘for beauty alone’. Marcel Proust, Paul Claudel, Jean Giraudoux, Paul Valéry, Jean Cocteau and Anatole France were some of the magazine’s prestigious literary contributors.

__

Feuillets d’Art (Art Leaves), Nº. III and Nº. I

Paris, [Condé Nast], Oct. and May 1919

RARESEF 705 F435R

__

Feuillets d’Art (Art Leaves), Nº. 4 and Nº. II

Paris, [Condé Nast], Apr.–May 1922 and Jan. 1922

RARESEF 705 F435R

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J.-H. ROSNY AÎNÉ,

author

(1856–1940)

Maurice LALAU,

illustrator

(1881–1961)

Pages from Tabubu: Roman Egyptien (Tabubu: An Egyptian Story)

Paris, Jules Meynial, [1932]

RARES 709.04012 R7731T (1932)

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J.-H. ROSNY AÎNÉ

author

(1856–1940)

Maurice LALAU

illustrator

(1881–1961)

Pages from Tabubu: Roman Egyptien (Tabubu: An Egyptian Story)

Paris, Jules Meynial, [1932]

RARES 709.04012 R7731T (1932)

Described as one of the most refined and distinguished illustrated books of the French Art Deco era, Maurice Lalau’s striking pochoir illustrations tell the tale of Prince Setne’s hallucinatory encounter with Tabubue. Son of 19th dynasty pharoah Ramses II, Setne Khaemwas pursues a magical book written by the god Thoth. Having discovered the book, Setne encounters the mysterious and irresistible Tabubue. Falling under her spell, Setne is asked to murder his own children, a command that he agrees to. Upon discovering that the experience was illusory, Setne returns the book.

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Designing Books

The role of all books is to communicate. While the words and images form the messages to be conveyed, graphic design is the vehicle by which this is done.

The introduction of the printing press, around 1455, enabled multiple copies of identical books to be produced for the first time, opening up a new range of possibilities for font style and size. In the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution and the development of mass printing automated typesetting, and photographic forms of reproduction also greatly expanded the role of graphic design, as books were increasingly produced for larger and more competitive markets. Nothing, however, would match the impact of the computer on the possibilities open to designers in shaping the look and the character of the book.

Throughout these many developments, artists have always broken accepted rules of design to produce work that is adventurous and experimental.

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Robert JACKS,

artist

(1943–2014)

Three prints from The James Joyce House of the Dead: A Suite of Etchings

[Fitzroy, Vic.], Port Jackson Press Australia, 2004

RARELTEF 702.81 J13J

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The Ariel Poems

In 1925, London publishing house Faber & Faber (originally Faber & Gwyer) hired Anglo-American poet Thomas Stearns (t.s.) Eliot (1888–1965) as its poetry editor. The 1922 publication of The Waste Land had established him as a major modernist poetic voice. It was a canny hiring decision, for Eliot would go on to make the firm the leading poetry publisher of its day. Between 1927 and 1931, the first series of The Ariel Poems appeared, with a second in 1954. This display shows some of the 38 titles in the first series, with artwork by Edward McKnight Kauffer, Edward Bawden and others.

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Walter DE LA MARE

author

(1873–1956)

Blair HUGHES-STANTON

engraver

(1902–1981)

Alone

London, Faber & Gwyer, Faber & Faber, 1927–31

RARES 808.81 AR42P

T.S. ELIOT

author

(1888–1965)

Edward McKnight KAUFFER

artist

(1890–1954)

Marina

London, Faber & Gwyer, Faber & Faber, 1930

RARES 808.81 AR42P

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Æ (George William RUSSELL)

author

(1867–1935)

Paul NASH

artist

(1889–1946)

Dark Weeping

London, Faber & Gwyer, Faber & Faber, 1927–31

RARES 808.81 AR42P

D.H. LAWRENCE

author

(1886–1930)

Althea WILLOUGHBY

artist

(1904–1982)

The Triumph of the Machines

London, Faber & Gwyer, Faber & Faber, 1927–31

RARES 808.81 AR42P

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Vita SACKVILLE-WEST

author

(1892–1962)

Graham SUTHERLAND

artist

(1903–1980)

Invitation to Cast Out Care

London, Faber & Gwyer, Faber & Faber, 1927–31

RARES 808.81 AR42P

Roy CAMPBELL

author

(1901–1957)

David JONES

artist

(1895–1974)

The Gum Trees

London, Faber & Gwyer, Faber & Faber, 1927–31

RARES 808.81 AR42P

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T.S. ELIOT

author

(1888–1965)

Edward McKnight KAUFFER

artist

(1890–1954)

A Song for Simenon

London, Faber & Gwyer, Faber & Faber, 1928

RARES 808.81 AR42P

Journey of the Magi

London, Faber & Gwyer, Faber & Faber, 1927

RARES 808.81 AR42P

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Sigfried SASSOON

author

(1886–1967)

Stephen TENNANT

artist

(1906–1987)

To My Mother

London, Faber & Gwyer, Faber & Faber, 1927–31

RARES 808.81 AR42P

Edith SITWELL

author

(1887–1964)

Edward BAWDEN

artist

(1903–1989)

Popular Song

London, Faber & Gwyer, Faber & Faber, 1927–31

RARES 808.81 AR42P

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Edith SITWELL

author

(1887–1964)

R. A. DAVIES

artist

(dates unknown)

Jane Barston 1719–1746

London, Faber & Gwyer, Faber & Faber, 1927–31

RARES 808.81 AR42P

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Roy CAMPBELL

author

(1901–1957)

Barnett FREEDMAN

artist

(1901–1958)

Choosing a Mast

London, Faber & Gwyer, Faber & Faber, 1927–31

RARES 808.81 AR42P

Sigfried SASSOON

author

(1886–1967)

Stephen TENNANT

artist

(1906–1987)

In Sicily

London, Faber & Gwyer, Faber & Faber, 1927–31

RARES 808.81 AR42P

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Ian ARMSTRONG,

artist

(1923–2005)

Nunawading 1979

Woodcut and colour stencil on white paper, Nº. 4/6

H88.52/1

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Emily BRONTË

author

(1818–1948)

Clare LEIGHTON

artist

(1898–1989)

Wuthering Heights

New York, Random House, 1931

RARES 823.89 B78W (1931)

Acquisition supported by the Women Writers Fund

The artistic style known as Expressionism developed in the early 20th century. It was so-called for the intensity and subjectivity of its emotional register and often bleak and angst-ridden themes, responding in part to the horror of World War I. The woodcut and the wood engraving were favoured media for visual artists working in this milieu, including George Grosz, Max Beckmann, Erich Heckel and Käthe Kollwitz. English-American artist Clare Leighton was highly regarded for her wood engravings and was the first woman to publish a treatise on the subject, in 1932.

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Charlotte BRONTË

author

(1816–1855)

Fritz EICHENBERG

artist

(1901–1990)

Jane Eyre

New York, Random House, 1943

RARES 823.8 B78J (1943)

Fritz Eichenberg was born in Germany and trained as an artist in Berlin in the 1920s. In the early 1930s, Eichenberg, like many German Jews, left the country due to the rising anti-Semitism encouraged by Adolf Hitler’s governing National Socialist party. Eichenberg spent the rest of his life in New York, where he established himself as a leading literary illustrator, particularly in the medium of wood engraving. His cover illustration for Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (first published 1847) captures the rigidity and confinement of the protagonist’s life as an intelligent but impoverished woman in the Victorian era.

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Lynd WARD,

author and artist

(1905–1985)

Madman’s Drum: A Novel in Woodcuts by Lynd Ward

New York, Jonathan Cape, Harrison Smith, 1930

RARES 813.54 W214M

God’s Man: A Novel in Woodcuts

New York, Random House, [1929]

RARES 813.54 W214G

American artist Lynd Ward is best known for his wordless graphic novels, illustrated in wood engraving. As a young man, he studied for a year in Leipzig, Germany, at the National Academy of Graphic Arts and Bookmaking. It was while in Leipzig that Ward came across two highly significant wordless graphic novels, which would shape his career on returning to America: Frans Masereel’s The Sun (1919) and Otto Nückel’s Destiny (1926).

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Émile VERHAEREN

author

(1628–1688)

Frans MASEREEL

artist

(1851–1931)

Quinze Poèmes d’Émile Verhaeren (Five Poems by Émile Verhaeren)

Paris, G. Cres, 1917

RARES 841.89 V58Q

Belgian artist Frans Masereel was one of the most skilled proponents of woodcut printing in the early 20th century. As well as creating wordless graphic novels, Masereel provided illustrations for poets and authors, including fellow Belgian Émile Verhaeren. Verhaeren was one of the founders of the Symbolist movement in the late 19th century, which sought to replace naturalism with metaphor. It is striking that both poet and artist have here adopted a grim naturalistic tone for the poem ‘Les Usines’ (The Factories), in a book published during World War I.

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Frans MASEREEL,

artist

(1851–1931)

Die Passion eines Menschen: 25 Holzschnitte (25 Images of a Man’s Passion)

Muenchen, Bei Kurt Wolff, 1928

RARES 769.9493 M37P

This is a 1928 edition of the first wordless graphic novel Frans Masereel created, originally published in 1918. It tells the story of a disenfranchised young man who revolts against his employer, protesting the injustices inflicted on workers in industrialised society. Masereel was immersed in socialist thought and an active participant in protests, as is reflected in the themes of the novel. It was hugely popular, especially in Germany.

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Helena BOCHOŘÁKOVÁ-DITTRICHOVÁ,

artist

(1894–1980)

Z Mého Dětství: Dřevoryty (From My Childhood)

Praha, Orbis, 1929

RARES 741.5947 B6312Z (1929)

Acquired by the Women Writers Fund, with support from the Helen Macpherson-Smith Trust

Limited to just 50, this is a very rare first and signed edition of the first wordless graphic novel by a woman, Czech artist Helena Bochořáková-Dittrichová. An autobiographical work, it contains 94 woodcuts that follow the life of a middle-class girl from Moravia (a rural region of the Czech Republic). Bochořáková-Dittrichová had encountered Frans Masareel’s books during her studies and was profoundly influenced by him. But instead of focusing on wider social and political themes, she turned her attention to the everyday life of women and girls, asking viewers to place equal importance on their experiences.

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Rick AMOR,

artist

(Born 1948)

Woodblocks from The Raven

Melbourne, Croft Press, 1990

H2012.235/43-48

Wood engraving continues to be a significant medium for artists today. Melbourne artist Rick Amor is a master printmaker, working in a variety of techniques, including wood engraving. His atmospheric woodcuts for Edgar Allen Poe’s melancholy poem ‘The Raven’ (1845) suggest the popular identification of the author with the poem’s fictional narrator, whose features are clearly based on those of Poe. Amor’s work was published in an edition of 100 in 1990.

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Australian Artist Books: Theo Strasser

In Theo Strasser’s words, Ghost Bones (2017) is:
a book of physical gestures uncovering the landscape. A book of paintings relating to abstract thoughts and environmental spaces on paper … draw[n] with the brush as well as the camera. This book looks at the vanishing, bleached tinder dry country that’s left fragile and vulnerable … This is a book that unfolds into a sequence of pages that opens up to a landscape.

Arriving in Australia from the Netherlands at four years of age, Strasser later studied painting at Prahran College in Melbourne. From large-scale wall works to more intimate artists’ books, his vivid abstract paintings use colour, water and ‘controlled chance’ to explore the possibilities of pigment on paper. In a 2010 interview he reflected on the narrative opportunities inherent in the form of the book, which allows an artist to ‘tell a story while keeping it abstract’.

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Theo STRASSER

(Born 1956)

Framed pages from Ghost Bones, Nº. 1/6

Melbourne, Theo Strasser, 2017

RARELTEF 702.81 ST8G

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Theo STRASSER

(Born 1956)

Ghost Bones, Nº. 1/6

Melbourne, Theo Strasser, 2017

RARELTEF 702.81 ST8G

This unbound artist’s book is composed of hand-painted pages, collage and digitally printed images. It is housed in a box made by Wolfgang Schaefer.

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The Wayzgoose Press Archive

Founded by Jadwiga Jarvis (1947–2021) and Mike Hudson (1939–2021) in Katoomba in 1985, the Wayzgoose Press issued more than 50 limited-edition letterpress books and broadsides, as well as an illustrated history of its work, The Wayzgoose Affair (2007).

When we consider the labour involved in hand-setting type, cutting woodblocks and lino for illustration, and printing and binding handmade books, this level of productivity is nothing short of astonishing.

In 2021, the library received the final component of the press’s extensive archive, including correspondence with local and international letterpress printers, typographers, writers, artists, collectors, booksellers, librarians, curators, type founders, paper suppliers and academics. It is an extraordinary resource for all those passionate about the craft of making books.

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45

Mike HUDSON

(1939–2021)

Jadwiga JARVIS

(1947–2021)

Working drafts of Dada kampfen um leben und tod: A Prose Poem by Jas H. Duke

Wayzgoose Press Archive, State Library Victoria

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Jas H. DUKE, poet

(1939–1992)

Dada kampfen um leben und tod: A Prose Poem

Katoomba, NSW, Wayzgoose Press, 1996

RARELTEF 702.81 D885D

Dada is one of a series of Wayzgoose Press’s ambitious hand-set, hand-printed books featuring the work of contemporary Australian poets, in this case Jas H. Duke’s experimental sound poem. While clearly influenced by the modernist books produced by Russian Constructivists in the 1920s, Mike Hudson and Jadwiga Jarvis have been careful to avoid mere pastiche. It is one of the finest private press books ever produced in Australia.

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Contemporary Photobooks

The photobook is a genre with roots in the early days of photography, in the mid-19th century, when photographs were often ‘tipped in’ (pasted) to illustrate books.

In the 20th century, artists such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Man Ray began to use the form of the book as a conscious part of their practice, creating books of photos around a theme or narrative, not necessarily accompanied by text. The photobook sits in contrast to the more usual form of a photographic portfolio of loose prints.

The popularity of the photobook has boomed in recent decades, particularly as it has become easier for photographers to self-publish quality books. This display of photobooks reveals photography that is both documentary and aesthetic. It celebrates the depth of State Library Victoria’s collection of a genre often under-represented in libraries.

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Mia Mala MCDONALD, photographer

Birth date unknown

Amy-Jo, Tam and Malu Sean, Chris, Jaylen, Alisha and Lei

Digital prints from Once in a Lullaby, Melbourne, M.33, 2022

Pictures Collection

Melbourne-based photographer Mia Mala McDonald published Once in a Lullaby in 2022, an intimate celebration of rainbow families. She writes: This is as much about what it means to be an Australian as it is about sexuality. There is no sensationalism here. It is an archive and a documentation of our rapidly changing community and the lives of people who offer brave new visions of what it means to be family in Australia today.

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Henri CARTIER-BRESSON

(1908–2004)

The Decisive Moment

New York, Simon and Schuster, [1952]

RARESF 779 C24

One of the pre-eminent photographers of all time, French artist Henri Cartier-Bresson brought a modernist sensibility and a deep immersion in literature and painting to his use of the camera. His candid, spontaneous images of unposed subjects have become iconic in the history of photography. In 1952, he published a book titled Images à la sauvette (Images on the Sly), translated and published in English as The Decisive Moment, shown here in its first US edition.

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Carol JERREMS

photographer

(1949–1980)

Virginia FRASER

editor

(1957–2021)

A Book about Australian Women

North Fitzroy, Vic., Outback Press, 1974

RARELTF 301.412 F86B

In her short life, Carol Jerrems made a lasting impact on Australian photographic practice. She was particularly noted for her interest in representing marginalised groups: Indigenous activists, women and urban subcultures such as the Sharpie gangs. Jerrems also made films, including Hanging About (1978), which analysed rape culture and misogyny. The form of A Book about Australian Women facilitates a moving juxtaposition of female experiences, creating powerful imagery that (along with the rest of her oeuvre) continues to resonate in the #metoo era.

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Edward RUSCHA

(Born 1937)

Twentysix Gasoline Stations

Alhambra, Cunningham Press, 1962 (3rd edition, 1969)

RARES 779.092 R89T

Books by American photographer Ed Ruscha are seminal to the development of the modern artist’s book. His Twentysix Gasoline Stations heralds a new way of thinking about artists and books. The black-and-white photographs of gas stations Ruscha encountered while driving along Route 66 from Los Angeles to Oklahoma City document the banality of a new, motorised American landscape. At the same time, the inexpensive format of his book prefigures the proliferation of 1960s multiples and artists’ adoption of newer technologies, such as offset printing and photocopying, as a means of democratising art outside of galleries.

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John CORKER

(Birth date unknown)

Gertrude Street

[Sydney], [John Corker], [2021]

RARELTF 702.81 P56CORG

John Corker is an Australian photographer. During the late 1970s, he lived at 6 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy. He took numerous photographs documenting the street, its residents, housing and businesses, inspired by the Magnum photographers, including Henri Cartier-Bresson.

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Atong ATEM

(Born 1994)

Surat (Snapshots)

Melbourne, Perimeter Editions, 2022

RARELT 702.81 P56ATS

Born in Ethiopia, Atong Atem is a South Sudanese artist and writer who has lived in Melbourne since childhood. She is known for her striking photographic portraiture and self-portraiture, characterised by vibrant colours and referencing the long history of photographic studios in Africa. Surat is Atem’s first photobook. In it, she revisits family photo albums to restage and reimagine the scenes, people and memories they hold. As she writes:

We have few things that travel continents with us as familial practi[c]es. We have recipes and textiles, crocheted doilies and Majok beads, and we have photo albums … Photos are gestures, examples of culture in flux.

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Alana HOLMBERG

(Birth date unknown)

Porch Diaries

Melbourne, Alana Holmberg, 2021

RARELTF 702.81 P56HOP

Alana Holmberg is a multi-disciplinary artist who works in conceptual and documentary ways with photography, motion, sound and text. Porch Diaries arose from documenting daily life during the 2020–21 pandemic lockdowns in Melbourne. As she writes, the book

‘reflects on community as a remedy for isolation … a reminder of the opportunities available for connection and belonging beyond screens and chosen social circles’.

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