Haji's Book of Malayan Nursery Rhymes

Hamilton, A.W. [Arthur Weddeburn]

Published by The Australasian Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd., Sydney, 1947

About this Item

1947. First edition. [xviii], 157pp. including a colour frontispiece, 14 colour plates, a black and white illustration and 10 pages of words and music. Arthur Weddeburn Hamilton, was born in India in 1887 and had, in his lifetime, translated English nursery rhymes into Malay, the Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam, and wrote other books like Malay Made Easy, Easy Malay Vocabulary and Malay Proverbs. Sent to Malaya as a police probation officer, then in Penang and rose to be police commissioner in Johor. This book is a wide-ranging collection of old English nursery rhymes rendered in Malay, printed with accompanying music and text in both English and Malay. Some of the rhymes were originally published in pamphlet form at the Malaya-Borneo Exhibition in 1922. They were then reprinted in Singapore the following year, with a few simple drawings. Here they are reissued in an enlarged and much improved format extolling the bilingual method. The book is bound in the originial red cloth covered boards with the front board bearing an onlaid colour illustration with titling. The case of the book is in very good condition with bumping to the top corners and spine ends. There is some fading running along the bottom 1/2" of the front board and spine. The contents are tight and clean and the title-page has been flat-signed by the author. The top corners of the pages are bumped and there is partial offsetting to the free endpapers but no inscription. The unclipped dustwrapper has shelf wear with light soiling. Pieces are missing from the front corners, both spine ends, and along a large part of the bottom edge. There is a 1/4" hole together with another small hole on the front spine edge. The edges have several tears of up to about 1" and the larger of these have been repaired on the reverse with document repair tape (not sellotape). Seller Inventory # gVISEAsia02

Bibliographic Details

Title: Haji's Book of Malayan Nursery Rhymes

Publisher: The Australasian Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd., Sydney

Publication Date: 1947

Binding: Red Cloth Hardback

Illustrator: Nora Hamerton

Condition: Very Good

Dust Jacket Condition: Good to Very Good

Signed: Signed by the author

Edition: First Edition