The Anzac Book. Written and illustrated in Gallipoli by the Men of Anzac
London, Cassell and Company, 1916 [second impression, first state, with the error corrected on page 5, but not on page 104].
Quarto, xvi, 170 pages with numerous illustrations and plates plus 11 colour plates and a folding map.
Handsomely rebound in overlapping suede on flush-cut plain card with marbled endpapers ('Bound by F. Binns & Co., Adelaide'), with 'ANZAC.' in gilt in a Gothic font on the front cover; original card front cover (trimmed a little) with a large mounted colour plate (from original artwork by 'David Barker, Gallipoli, 1915') retained; text paper tanned, as often; in superior condition.
This copy contains the correct date for Anzac Day in the caption to the plate facing page 4 (it originally stated 'April 15, 1915'), but it still shows the misappropriation by Trooper J. Wareham of 'The Trojan War, 1915', a poem by Arthur Adams, former editor of the 'Red Page' in 'The Bulletin'. 'The Anzac Book', overseen by Bean, is one of the most significant literary achievements of the war. The first paragraph of his 'Editor's Note' makes it easy to understand why: 'This book of Anzac was produced in the lines at Anzac on Gallipoli in the closing weeks of 1915. Practically every word in it was written and every line drawn beneath the shelter of a waterproof sheet or of a roof of sandbags - either in the trenches or, at most, well within the range of the oldest Turkish rifle, and under daily visitations from the smallest Turkish field-piece. Day and night, during the whole process of its composition, the crack of the Mauser bullets overhead never ceased. At least one good soldier that we knew of, who was preparing a contribution for these pages, met his death while the work was still unfinished'. Dornbusch 237; Fielding and O'Neill, page 241.
Item #141852
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