The Book of Daniel. Sketches by Dennis Connelly
Melbourne, Alexander McCubbin, [1920].
Quarto, [28] pages with 23 pages of cartoon art (mainly full-page sketches, with a double-page one at the centrefold) and 3 pages of advertisements, plus advertisements on both sides of the rear cover.
Overlapping colour pictorial wrappers slightly marked, with the edges creased and chipped, with minor loss and a few sealed tears; overall a very good copy.
'In the following pages Dennis Connelly has attempted to present to you some of those aspects of high temperament, which, when practised assiduously in public places, preserve great men from an unrighteous obscurity' (from the introduction by Jean Sibi). The Daniel of the title was the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Daniel Mannix (1864-1963); the other celebrity worked over is Billy Hughes. Although Connelly, a 'Bulletin' cartoonist, had plenty of raw material to work with (the fall-out between Hughes and Mannix over the conscription referenda, and the fact that by 1920, Mannix 'had become arguably the most revered and reviled figure in Australian history', according to the 'Australian Dictionary of Biography'), contemporary reviews of the publication were scathing. Apparently, the cartoonist's lot is often not a happy one.
Item #112032
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