Currently in store, we have three nice first editions books by esteemed Australian author and Nobel Prize winner (1973), Patrick White.
Starting with The Vivisector, “a novel about a painter, Hurtle Duffield, who exploits human relationships for his art. After the novel was published in 1970, Sidney Nolan believed Duffield was based on him, but White denied this, stating that Duffield was a composite of his own character and the working life of the artists John Passmore and Godfrey Miller.” (Wiki)
Next is The Burnt Ones, a collection of short stories set in Australia and Greece. The Burnt Ones are “haunted by feelings of isolation, intense self-examination, and an acute awareness of how they are different from others.” (Wiki). Stories include:
- Dead Roses
- Willy-Wagtails by Moonlight
- A Glass of Tea
- Clay
- The Evening at Sissy Kamara’s
- A Cheery Soul
- Being Kind to Titina
- Miss Slattery and Her Demon Lover
- The Letters
- The Woman Who Wasn’t Allowed to Keep Cats
- Down at the Dump
Lastly, we have a second story collection called The Cockatoos, which dives below the surface to deeper subjects. “Critics have seen in this collection a darkness, a loneliness, less playfulness than his previous pieces. Certainly there is repeated imagery of marriages and relationships driven dry by time or a lack of passion.” This is the first UK edition from 1974.
- A Woman’s Hand
- The Full Belly
- The Night the Prowler
- Five Twenty
- Sicilian Vespers
- The Cockatoos
All three copies are in good condition and highly collectible.
