PARKER, K. Langloh

My Best Boy and My Boy-in-Law. And 'Bobbity', a Bush Baby. [A Bush Booklet. Sketches of Children from Life (cover title)]

Sydney, W. Dymock, Book Arcade, 1901.

150 x 125 mm, 64 pages with a facsimile letter and 4 full-page illustrations (portraits of specific children, reproduced from photographs).

Flush-cut card covers with the leading corners rounded throughout (as issued); front cover lightly marked; rear cover lightly stained; two tiny pieces missing from the rear cover and the foot of the spine expertly infilled; an excellent copy.

Noted but not listed in Muir, as 'These are in fact sketches of children, & not written for children' (see page 317 in the 1992 edition). Published shortly after her very successful 'Australian Legendary Tales' (1896), 'More Australian Legendary Tales' (1898), and their contemporary reprints and combined editions, all relatively common today, Langloh Parker's third book is very rare. The fact that it looks like a children's book, feels like a children's book, and has the catch-words 'boy', 'baby' and 'children' four times on the cover and title page, yet isn't any of the above may have something to do with it. The words 'A Bush Booklet' at the head of the front cover suggests to us a series in the offing; that we can trace no further kindred publications also suggests that this first volume failed to find a market and that the project foundered. The light sketches certainly make heavy going today.