While the Billy Boils. First Series, Second Series, Third Series (First Paperback Edition)

The complete text of Lawson's first major story collection in the three pictorial paperbacks Angus & Robertson issued in 1923, with Percy Lindsay's covers and Frank Mahony's illustrations.

Even with a body of work as venerated as Henry Lawson's, While the Billy Boils stands out as one of the great classics of Australian literature. Originally published by Angus & Robertson publishedin 1896, Paul Eggert describes it as the first fully professional collection of Lawson's prose and part of a new and expensive initiative for literary publishing in Australia, led by George Robertson. The collection includes "The Drover's Wife", "The Union Buries Its Dead" and "On the Edge of a Plain".

First Paperback Edition of 1923. Small octavo. Three volumes in pictorial wrappers, the covers designed by Percy Lindsay. Illustrated by Frank P. Mahony. Vol. I (First Series): x, 1–116pp., four illustrations by Frank P. Mahony. Vol. II (Second Series): [viii], 117–228pp., three illustrations. Vol. III (Third Series): [viii], 229–333, [i]pp., two illustrations. Very good/near fine. An excellently preserved set. Pictorial wrappers in good order, unfaded, with only a few scattered markings. Volume one is more toned than the other two, though not unreasonably so. Some faint spotting along the edges of volume three. Contents complete and generally very bright and well preserved, particularly volumes two and three, whose contents are spectacularly preserved.

This book is currently not on display in store. If you would like more information or to arrange a viewing, please contact: rarebooks@harryhartog.com.au

Catalogue Number: HH000920