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Floridly SIGNED & INSCRIBED by editor Kate Baker to Archbishop Mannix in black ink on ffep: "To His Grace The Rt. Rev. D. Mannix with every good wish, Kate Baker, Xmas 1917". Presentation copy in belletristic script. Uncommon book of poetry by Joseph Furphy (pseudonym Tom Collins, author of Such is Life). Collected & edited by Kate Baker. Preface by Bernard O'Dowd. Illustrated with two b&w plates, as issued (frontispiece of Joseph Furphy, & a portrait of the author's mother). "Joseph Furphy (1843-1912) is widely regarded as the 'Father of the Australian novel'. He mostly wrote under the pseudonym Tom Collins, and is best known for his novel Such Is Life (1903), regarded as an Australian classic. He was encouraged in his writing by Kate Baker (1861-1953), a schoolteacher who boarded with his mother. Kate Baker's belief in his ability had helped to sustain Furphy during the long labour of writing Such is Life, eventually published in 1903. The novel had made little impact on the public, and at the time of his death he was little known: Kate resolved to gain proper recognition for him. Her long life was devoted to the memory of Furphy, whose death in 1912 affected her deeply. Dependent upon her small pension, she lived frugally. In 1916 she edited and published at her own expense The Poems of Joseph Furphy." The recipient of Kate Baker's inscription, Archbishop Daniel Mannix (1864-1963), was "an Irish-born Australian Catholic bishop. Mannix was the Archbishop of Melbourne for 46 years and one of the most influential public figures in 20th-century Australia. Mannix's legacy to the Roman Catholic Church in Australia is substantial. A number of facilities are named in his honour". First Edition, December 1916, stated. Printed in Australia by The Specialty Press, Melbourne. Bound in publisher's original plain drab boards with black lettering within border to front board, cream cloth-backed spine with small printed paper title label. Slight handling wear, mild spotting to spine, paper label chipped (only half remaining), light sporadic foxing to fore-edge, both plates with small neat handwritten ink notation (Obit. date), otherwise overall a nice clean tight solid hardcover copy. 56pp. Scarce volume of poetry by the 'Father of the Australian novel', inscribed by the editor & champion of Furphy's Such is Life, to Archbishop Mannix, one of the 'most influential public figures in 20th-century Australia'. An important copy. UNIQUE & RARE.
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