Songs of Central Australia
Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1971.
Quarto, liv, 775 pages plus a colour frontispiece, a large folding colour map (885 × 685 mm) in an endpocket, and a tipped-in corrigenda slip.
Original blind-decorated cloth; tiny surface blemishes to the rear endpaper; essentially a very fine copy with the near-fine dustwrapper (with only minimal rubbing to the extremities, and remarkably free of the surface chipping that seems to plague this item).
The detailed four-colour map of Aboriginal Central Australia is based on information from Strehlow's field note books, 1932-1969; an extensive index is printed on the verso. 'The first complete account of the poetic heritage of the aboriginal people of Central Australia; an analysis of aboriginal songs as fully-developed oral literature, and their evaluation as authoritative documents of aboriginal religion' (from the original prospectus). One of only 500 copies of the original release, perennially scarce and, more importantly, of perennial interest.
Item #115323
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