The Australian and other Verses 1st Edition Signed by Will H. Ogilvie and with postcard hand-written by Ogilvie’s wife concerning the sending of the book to Selkirk, Scotland, for the poet to autograph

Unique copy of Will Ogilvie’s book of poems on Australian themes and also referencing the first World War – Signed by Ogilvie to title page, and including two hand-written postcards from Mrs. W.H. Ogilvie to a Mr. F.C. Fuller; at the top of both is printed ‘Kirklea, Ashkirk, Selkirk’, being the name of the Presbyterian Church manse in Selkirk where the Ogilvie’s lived for many decades. The message from Mrs. Ogilvie covers one side of the first postcard complete and continues to verso; F.C. Fuller, the book’s owner, had previously enquired as to whether he could post the book to be autographed by the poet, after which it would be sent back to Mr Fuller c/o the Bank of N.S.W. London, such that he might retrieve it before his return to Australia (or ‘sunny land’ as Mrs. Ogilvie describes it in the message). On a second postcard is stated (again in Mrs. Ogilvie’s hand) ’22 June 1955 duly autographed and book returned by W.H.O. as requested – to Mr. F.C. Fuller c/o Bank of N.S.W. at Berkeley Square London W.9 K.M.O.” – K.M.O. being Mrs. (Madge) Ogilivie; to the front endpaper Fuller has inscribed his name, followed by ‘North Australia Survey Commonwealth Offices Melbourne C.2 Victoria’; poet William Henry Ogilvie spent most of his life in his native Scotland, but lived in Australia from 1889-1901, during which time he worked as a horse-breaker and drover; the Australian bush made a deep impression on him, and he wrote numerous poems and ballads, many of which were published in the Bulletin; he continued to write Australian poems after his return to Scotland, sending them by mail to the Bulletin; the current volume contains poems on Australian themes – droving, camels, bullocks, bush scenes, and a poem on Aboriginal trackers; also includes a section of strident war poems; newspaper clipping from 1963 marking Ogilvie’s death is adhered to prelims; green cloth boards with silhouette illustration of drover on horseback smoking a pipe to front board, two colour frontispiece plates by Hal Gye; title page dated 1916, 24 page A&R catalogue to rear of text dated September 1916; a beaten-up copy lacking the spine and with heavy insect damage to boards front and rear; binding a little loose but boards and all pages holding; heavy foxing, especially to prelims and text block, but continuing light-medium through text, one poem with pencil annotations, two pages with heavy offset from loose-inserted leaflet; this bookseller has considered rebinding/restoring but concludes that the current condition is in keeping with the story of the book, its travels, and the correspondence herein detailed.