More than Half a Century of Colonial Life and Christian Experience. With Notes of Travel, Lectures, Publications, etc
Adelaide, Hussey & Gillingham, 1897.
Octavo, [viii], 504 pages with 13 illustrations and numerous head- and tail-pieces plus a frontispiece portrait.
Gilt-decorated tan cloth lightly flecked; trifling signs of use and age; an excellent copy.
The front flyleaf is inscribed, dated (16 April 1933) and signed by the author's nephew, Geo. F. Hussey. Henry Hussey (1825-1903), 'evangelist, millenarian, printer and historian', arrived in South Australia in 1839, and by 1850 was established as a printer. He later became a successful publisher and bookseller, so his autobiography is, not least, an account of printing in colonial Adelaide. He was George Fife Angas's secretary from 1865, and compiled his biography, which was edited by Edwin Hodder and published in 1891 under Hodder's name (as was the 1893 two-volume 'History of South Australia'). 'Hussey's achievements in history and biography, though somewhat filtered, were more enduring than his adventism, though his evangelical career was long and enthusiastic' and the work highlights 'the remarkable religious climate in South Australia in the nineteenth century'. If put off by the title, read Gerald Fischer's engaging account of Hussey in the 'Australian Dictionary of Biography' first - it may change your mind.
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