Search Results: Australian Literature from Gavin de Lacy Rare & Secondhand Bookseller

Octavo, pen drawings by Porter, light blue endpapers, original black cloth with pictorial dustwrapper, the cartoonist Les Tanner's copy with his signature.
First edition. Inscribed and signed by Porter for Tanner: 'Les — I loveya. HP.'

Crown octavo, 52pp. publisher's advertisements, lacking preliminaries before title page (some offsetting), but very good in original burgundy cloth.
First edition. Very scarce novel set in Melbourne. Out of print.

Octavo, [5]pp. publisher's advertisements, small bookseller's label on front paste-down, contemporary inscription on front free endpaper, very good in original orange cloth (bit used) lettered in black on spine .
First edition. Scarce adventure novel set in Queensland.

Octavo, edges slightly tanned but an exceptional copy in bright original pictorial wrappers [by Woollett].
Pulp reprint (first published by the Endeavour Press in 1934). Magpie Books, second series, no. 91, with pictorial rather than typographical wrappers and priced at 2/-: 'Pearls mean tears. This well-worn condemnation of the white stones held a special significance for the friendless Sophie when the flamboyant Bella sought her ruin.'
Scarce, especially in crisp condition.

Octavo, discreet Tyrrells bookseller's stamp on title page, cheap paper browning but very good in original typographical wrappers (slightly chipped).
Magpie Books, first series, no. 58.

Octavo, neat contemporary inscription on half-title page, endpaper maps printed in blue, original red cloth slightly sunned on spine.
First edition.

Crown octavo, 56pp. publisher's advertisements (dated Autumn 1933), very good in original black cloth lettered in yellow.
First edition. Set in Melbourne, Campbell's first novel. Out of print and decidedly scarce.

Octavo, usual paper browning, original pictorial wrappers [by Woollett].
Magpie Books, second series, no. 67, with pictorial rather than typographical wrappers and priced at 2/-: 'Murder and passion against the lawless background of a city in the making.' Scarce.

Octavo, minor foxing on edges and preliminaries, bookseller's stamp on front free endpaper, very good in original green cloth with bright house style typographical dustwrapper (bit chipped).
First edition.

Octavo, spotting on edges, original blue cloth (bit faded on spine) lettered in gilt.
First edition. Very scarce.

Octavo, diffuse foxing, original blue cloth lettered in gilt with chipped pictorial dustwrapper (bit oxidised on spine).
Third impression in year of first publication. Early printing in exceptionally scarce 1920s dustwrapper reproducing the fabulous John Nicolson ('Nick') artwork from the first impression but not priced on spine. Banned in New Zealand in 1926 and in Australian from 1929 until 1958.

Octavo, [5]pp. publisher's advertisements, bookseller's stamp on front free endpaper, original red cloth lettered in black on spine with publisher's device on lower board.
Fourth impression. Banned in Australia in 1929. Scarce contemporary printing.

Octavo, [5]pp. publisher's advertisements, very good in original brick red cloth (faded on spine).
First edition. Very scarce.
Described as an Australian Nat Gould, 'Aintree' was one of several pen names used by the Melbourne writer and publisher John Wallace.

Octavo, very good in bright original yellow cloth lettered in purple with chipped pictorial dustwrapper (priced at $2.50).
First US edition. 'A Red Badge Mystery'.
Johnston's first crime novel.
Very scarce.

Octavo, foxing on edges & endpapers, bright original teal blue cloth lettered in orange.
First edition. Very scarce Australian novel dealing with demonology & witchcraft in the Middle Ages.

Octavo, usual cheap paper browning, bright original pictorial wrappers [by Woollett], small patch of abrasion on back cover but uncommonly good.
Pulp reprint of Death's Mannikins (1937). Magpie Books, second series, no. 68. 'A Baffling Murder Mystery by a Master Crime Writer'. Very scarce in either format.
Max Afford (1906- 1954) was a dramatist & novelist, writing numerous radio plays and publishing four 'Jeffrey Blackburn' detective novels.

Crown octavo, [8]pp. publisher's advertisements, contemporary name in ink on front free endpaper, small bookseller's label on front paste-down, very good in original blue cloth lettered in black.
First edition. Novel set in western Queensland. Very scarce.

Octavo, original pictorial wrappers.
First Horwitz edition. NA 53.
Scarce. 'Untamed‒a hot blooded woman whose passions exploded in the degradation of an Australian convict settlement.'

Octavo, pale offsetting on endpapers & foxing on edges, contemporary name on front free endpaper, very good in bright original black cloth lettered in red with Theyre Lee-Elliott Deco dustwrapper (slightly chipped). First edition.
Scarce with dustwrapper. Howard's first novel, mostly set in Melbourne, including Trades Hall, but also Gippsland. From 1931 Howard mostly worked on the Melbourne Herald. (Longmans also issued a second or 'cheap' 3/6 edition in 1930.)

Octavo, bottom and fore edges uncut, very good in bright original brown cloth with pictorial dustwrapper (bit sunned on spine).
US edition of Redheap. Third Printing in year of first publication.
Redheap was banned in Australia in 1930, and Every Mother's Son was declared a prohibited import in the following year. The offending or suggestive passages identified include pp. 103-9, 244-7, 257-60, 312-24, 328-30, and 333-37 (US edition).