My book collection is eclectic, covering multiple fields of interest, but biased a little to 18th century English literature and English history, as well as older rare books. Most of my books are properly catalogued, in a spreadsheet, which numbered about 3,200 at last count. I am fortunate to have a dedicated library room with floor-to-ceiling custom-built bookshelves, but they hold only 2,000 books. Another room is on the drawing board.
This story is not about my British books or rare books, which date from 1494. That is for another time. Unfortunately I have no rare manuscripts, unless you count a 1549 edition of Petrarch’s Works which is wrapped in an earlier manuscript codicil on vellum, with the spine patched up with scraps of old manuscripts with red initial capitals.
This story is about a mere one hundred books – all Australian.
In 1985 I received as a gift the just-published Geoffrey Dutton (1922-1998) book The Australian Collection: Australia’s Greatest Books, published by Angus & Robertson, North Ryde. This book presents Dutton’s (perhaps controversial) opinion on the best 100 books written by 100 different Australian authors, excluding poetry, plays and anthologies. As a project, I decided that I would collect all 100 books! Fortunately, 1985 pre-dated the internet, so I went into bookshops back then with a purpose, armed with a list of what I had to find – much more productive than mindless browsing. Even when the internet arrived, I was determined not to “cheat” but to track books down serendipitously. It took 25 years to find the lot!
Dutton followed a regular pattern in describing each book:
- A half-page extract from the book
- A precis of the work (with illustrations)
- A half-page biography of the author (with portrait)
Interestingly, Dutton had committed to his top 10 books a year earlier, when the Sun-Herald (15 January 1984) compared the selections by other noted literary figures: Brian Johns, Manning Clark, Frank Moorhouse, Mary Durack, Geoffrey Blayney, and Leonie Kramer – Patrick White declined to participate; Morris West and Tom Keneally did not finish in time.
Dutton’s top 10 (not in any order):
- Edward John Eyre: Journals of Expeditions and Discovery into Central Australia
- Marcus Clarke: For The Term of His Natural Life
- Henry Lawson: Joe Wilson and His Mates
- Norman Lindsay: The Magic Pudding
- Xavier Herbert: Capricornia
- Patrick White: Voss
- Hal Porter: The Watcher on the Cast Iron Balcony
- Donald Horne: The Lucky Country
- Manning Clark: A History of Australia, Volume 3, The Beginnings of an Australian Civilisation
- David Foster: Moonlite
For the collection of 100 books, occasionally I replace poor copies or recent editions with earlier editions. Only six copies are signed, but I now have about one-third of the collection as first editions.
I would recommend this project-oriented approach to any newbie book collector. It is much more fun if you don’t buy online, and probably less expensive.
BCSA Member: Noel Merrick