The Scribblings of an Idle Mind
Melbourne, Lansdowne Press, 1966.
Octavo, [x], 154 pages.
Gilt-decorated quarter contrasting cloth slightly bumped and rubbed at the extremities; an excellent copy with the Norman Lindsay-illustrated dustwrapper slightly bumped and rubbed, with a tiny tear to the head of the rear hinge.
Number 5 of only 350 copies signed by Norman Lindsay; it is further personally inscribed and signed by him on the front free endpaper. Loosely inserted are two autograph letters signed by him (each one page quarto, dated 3 October and 9 December 1966) to the recipient of the book. In the first one, Lindsay gives details of the history of the publication of the book, which sold out in this limited edition 'on the day of publication'. All the publishers he offered it to had turned it down; 'Only one, Lloyd O'Neil of the Landsdowne [sic] Press, said he thought it should be published, but he could not risk his firm's money on it. I wrote saying that I would underwrite the cost of publication'. The second letter discusses art, and in the main an indigenous Australian Art. 'I think it an unforgivable thing that the early settlers had not at least a few thinkers capable of a sympathetic effort to understand something of the Abo mentality, and record his myths while they were still patent in the Abo mind ... For the myth is the only source by which we may divine the seemingly lost history of a people'. [3 items].
Item #83570
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Status: Reserved