THE SONGLINES (First edition - second printing)

Bruce Chatwin

ISBN 10: 0224024523 / ISBN 13: 9780224024525

Published by Jonathan Cape, 32 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3EL, 1987

About this Item

A second printing of the true first edition - a popular book that was reprinted four times in 1987, the year of first publication. ***Very good in black cloth-covered boards with gilt titles to the spine. Boards clean and unmarked. Head and tail of spine just very slightly creased. Corners sharp. Edges of page block clean. Internally also very good with a neat contemporary gift inscription - 'To Dad, Xmas '87, from Steve x. (Spycatcher being somewhat difficult to find) - to the top of the front free endpaper. Pages clean and bright with no foxing, but the paper stock has tanned as usual. No creases or tears. Spine tight. ***In a very good colour illustrated dustwrapper, which has been corner price-clipped. No chips or tears to the dustwrapper, just some light edge wear and very minor creasing. No fading. Dustwrapper bright. ***293 pages. 224mm x 145mm. ***'In his new book, which far surpasses even his award-winning "In Patagonia", Bruce Chatwin has used a form common enough in the eighteenth century, rare in ours; the novel of ideas.' (Quote taken from the front flap of the dustwrapper) ***'Charles Bruce Chatwin FRSL (13 May 1940 - 18 January 1989) was an English travel writer, novelist and journalist. His first book, "In Patagonia" (1977), established Chatwin as a travel writer, although he considered himself instead a storyteller, interested in bringing to light unusual tales. He won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel "On the Black Hill" (1982), while his novel "Utz" (1988) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2008 The Times ranked Chatwin as number 46 on their list of "50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945." ***The Songlines is a 1987 book written by Bruce Chatwin, combining fiction and non-fiction. Chatwin describes a trip to Australia which he has taken for the express purpose of researching Aboriginal song and its connections to nomadic travel. Discussions with Australians, many of them Indigenous Australians, yield insights into Outback culture, Aboriginal culture and religion, and the Aboriginal land rights movement. Chatwin develops his thesis about the primordial nature of Aboriginal song. The writing engages the hard conditions of life for present day indigenous Australians, while appreciating the art and culture of the people for whom the Songlines are the touchstone of reality. The book's first half chronicles the main character's travels through Outback Australia and his various encounters, while the second half is dedicated to his musings on the nature of man as nomad and settler. (Wik) ***A very good second printing of the first edition of Bruce Chatwin's fifth published work "The Songlines". First printings of this work are elusive now in decent condition, and even the 1987 reprints are quite hard to find. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.

Seller Inventory # 8387

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE SONGLINES (First edition - second printing)
• Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 32 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3EL
• Publication Date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0224024523
• ISBN 13: 9780224024525
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Jeff Fisher (Jacket design)
• Edition: First Edition
• Printing: Second Printing
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literature
  • First Editions

About this title

Synopsis

Book by Chatwin, Bruce

Review

The late Bruce Chatwin carved out a literary career as unique as any writer's in this century: his books included In Patagonia, a fabulist travel narrative, The Viceroy of Ouidah, a mock-historical tale of a Brazilian slave-trader in 19th century Africa, and The Songlines, his beautiful, elegiac, comic account of following the invisible pathways traced by the Australian aborigines. Chatwin was nothing if not erudite, and the vast, eclectic body of literature that underlies this tale of trekking across the outback gives it a resonance found in few other recent travel books. A poignancy, as well, since Chatwin's untimely death made The Songlines one of his last books.