The example set by Mr. William Hatfield and Mrs. AEneas Gunn in assisting the appeal for £1,800 to defray the cost of piping to provide a permanent water supply for the Hermannsburg Mission in Central Australia has evoked a generous response from other Melbourne authors, who have presented autographed copies of their books for sale. Mr. Tarlton Rayment has presented a dozen inscribed copies of his book, "The Prince of the Totem." Mr. R. W. E. Wilmot has presented a dozen inscribed copies of his book, "Defending the Ashes," and Mr. Erle Cox has presented a dozen inscribed copies of "Out of the Silence," the novel which first appeared in serial form in "The Argus." Mr. Edgar Holt has presented six inscribed copies of his book of poems, "Lilacs Out of the Dead Land." Messrs. Hutchinson and Co. Ltd. have presented, on behalf of Mr. Charles H. Holmes, six signed copies of his "We Find Australia."
All these books, except Mr. Holmes's, which will be available on Monday, will be on sale at Robertson and Mullens. Those presented by Messrs. Rayment and Wilmot will be sold at 10/ each. Mr. Holmes's book, signed by the nuthor, will be available on payment of 14/6. The novel by Mr. Erle Cox will be sold at 6/. Mr. Holt has authorised the sale of his poems at 7/6 a copy, and he will present six more copies when these have been sold. Typical of the inscriptions placed on their books by the authors is that of Mr. Tarlton Rayment, who has written, "The brown birralilees cried gullee, gullee (water, water), and the white man answered by sending the stream of life through a water-pipe at Koporilja."
Within an hour of the opening of Robertson and Mullens yesterday 12 more copies of Mr. William Hatfield's novel, "The Desert Saga"; 12 copies of "The Little Black Princess," signed by the authoress, Mrs. AEneas Gunn, and presented by Robertson and Mullens; and six copies of "We of the Never Never," presented by Mrs. AEneas Gunn, were sold. Several copies of Mrs. Gunn's books have been taken to the shop to be autographed at a cost of 5/.
First published in The Argus, 2 March 1934[Thanks to the National Library of Australia's newspaper digitisation project for this piece.]
This piece follows on from two letters to the editor of The Argus, firstly from William Hatfield and then from AEneas Gunn, that were published here over the past two weeks.
