MOUNTFORD, Charles Pearcy

Rough Copy. The Non Secret Legends of the Anjamatana Tribe of the Northern Flinders Ranges. [Non Secret Legends of the Unjamatana Tribe. 1937. C.P. Mountford (cover title of a bound volume of annotated typescript manuscript, with 'Unjamatana' corrected to 'Adnjamatana')]

[Adelaide, Unpublished, 1937].

Quarto (approximately 264 × 210 mm), 2, 147 leaves (rectos only, some leaves blank, some tipped in) of original and duplicate typescript, with numerous annotations, additions and corrections in ink and pencil by Charles Mountford.

Flush-cut quarter cloth and patterned papered boards; front board bowed, causing the head of the front joint to split; covers a little rubbed and marked; minor signs of age and use; in very good condition.

A presentation copy from the author to Miss Elizabeth Margaret Symon, with his signature ('C.P. Mountford 1938') on the front free endpaper, and an autograph letter signed to the recipient loosely inserted. The letter (one page quarto, undated but probably circa 1938) is worth quoting in full: 'Dear Miss Symon / This is a rough copy of some of the legends of the Northern Flinders aborigines. The notes are taken direct from my diary and are very much unfinished both as regards English and arrangement.

Also, for children's stories, much of the detail is unnecessary. Nevertheless, I think many of them could easily be used as fairy stories, especially those marked X.

I am sent to Port Pirie for about a fortnight, but after that, hope to be allowed to stay in Adelaide for a time. Best wishes, yours truly, C.P. Mountford'. The manuscript contains 34 legends.

Provenance: Elizabeth Margaret Symon (1883-1956), one of the daughters of Sir Josiah Symon (1846-1934, South Australian lawyer and politician, a member of the Australian Senate in the First Australian Parliament, an Attorney-General of Australia ... and much else besides); by descent. Gifts from Miss Symon and her sister Mrs Mary Clark (along with those of Harold Sheard) to the University of Adelaide enabled Mountford to undertake his 1940 expedition to Central Australia, accompanied by Sheard's teenage son Lauri. The information collected on that expedition appeared many years later as Mountford's magnum opus, 'Nomads of the Australian Desert' (1976).

The relevance of these legends to Elizabeth Margaret Symon is of considerable interest. In 1929 she had established The Nursery School at 36 The Grove, Lower Mitcham. 'It became known as the Inn Nursery School later when it moved to premises formerly occupied by an inn at 24 Price Ave., Mitcham. In a letter ... on 1 December 1937 Miss Symon refers to her nursery school as the first in South Australia. The Grey Ward Nursery School was the first opened under the Auspices of the Kindergarten Union in Adelaide in 1937. An article on the Nursery School in "The Housewife", 14 December 1932 says it was the first to be opened in the Commonwealth and was still the only one in South Australia. The school took children from the ages of 1½ - 7 years including some boarders. The aim of the school was to provide for the "all round development, welfare and study of each child - physical, mental, emotional and social - in a free environment with as wide a curriculum as possible"' (introduction to the archive of the Nursery School in the State Library of South Australia, SRG 232).

Loosely inserted in this volume is a series of newspaper cuttings containing eleven 'Legends of the Flinders Ranges. As told to C.P. Mountford ... Illustrated by an aboriginal artist'. These articles appeared in the Adelaide newspaper 'The News' on Saturdays in late 1941; an introductory article with them provides relevant details. Ten of these newspaper tearsheets contain more polished versions 'both as regards English and arrangement' of material in the manuscript.

Also present is an offprint of an article by C.P. Mountford and Alison Harvey from 'Oceania', December 1941 (Vol. XII, No. 2): 'Women of the Adnjamatana Tribe of the Northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia (Sydney, 1943). The head of the front wrapper is inscribed and signed to 'Miss E.M. Symons [sic] | with best wishes | from | C.P. Mountford'.

Item #142930

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