With the Big Herds in Australia
Brisbane, Watson, Ferguson & Co. Ltd. (Printers), 1933.
Octavo, xiv (last blank), 213 pages plus 7 plates (from photographs).
Cloth lightly mottled, with a thin light tidemark and minimal bubbling near the bottom edge of the rear cover; edges and last few leaves a little foxed, with occasional foxing elsewhere; overall, an excellent copy.
Alfred John Cotton (1861-1941) was born in Jersey; he was apprenticed to the merchant marine at 14; at 22 he left the sea and settled in Australia ('Australian Dictionary of Biography'). 'His subsequent years in Australia as a jackeroo [sic], station storekeeper, stockman, drover and station owner, his experiences in buying some of the largest stations, selling and handling some of the biggest mobs of cattle Australia has seen, his adventures in hunting wild horses, his association with the Military Supplies Department during the war in South Africa, and his herculean efforts to secure the development of the Northern Territory' (introduction) feature in this story, along with the three fortunes he made and lost. The frontispiece portrait is inscribed and signed by the author. Tipped in on an initial blank is an autograph letter signed by Cotton (duodecimo, 4 pages [a bifolium] on Queensland Club, Brisbane letterhead, 16 June 1933) to 'Dear Mr Faulkner', possibly a fellow-pastoralist, sending him a typescript manuscript of the book, care of the Australia[n Club], Sydney. 'Please tell me what you think of my story, & will you return it to me at the Q'land Club, let me know if it should be published or not. Will you please?'.
Item #88124
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