Our Earth – No 9 of 225 – Ltd Edition Book (1937) with Original Etching (1936) – SOLD

Tiffany’s Research notes about “Our Earth”:

Throughout his life, Norman Lindsay (1879-1969) retained a strong interest in literature and poetry.  He began reading poetry when he was eight years old. Into adulthood, he associated with and held close friendships with writers and poets. His 60-year role as chief cartoonist at the Bulletin magazine brought him into contact with talented writers and publishers, furthering broadening his knowledge and love of literature.

Apart from producing his own artwork for commercial sale, through his art and literary connections, Norman Lindsay was also a generous champion of literary talent. In several instances he supported the careers of young poets and writers by offering to illustrate their books for free to ensure their work would be published. Lindsay knew that publishers would be more likely to produce a book by an aspiring poet that contained beautiful illustrations by a famous artist, thus ensuring a greater probability of success.

So, it came about that Lindsay produced a limited number of artworks that were used as illustrations in a select number of beautiful, very limited-edition books, most of which were published in tiny editions that numbered to under 200 copies per publication. Some of these publications contained original handmade Lindsay etchings that were bound or tipped into the books as beautiful illustrations.

These now few-remaining limited-edition books that contain Lindsay original etchings are valuable and highly prized by both book and art collectors due to their scarcity and the prestige that comes with owning a book that contains an original artwork by Norman Lindsay. Sadly, with the passage of time, some of these books have deteriorated or been vandalized with the etchings removed to be sold as separate artworks, which has further diminished the availability of these already rare books that remain fully intact with the etchings preserved in the publication.

One of the publications that Norman illustrated was a book of poetry entitled “Our Earth” by the then young Australian poet Kenneth Mackenzie (1913-1955). “Our Earth” was released in 1937 in a limited edition of only 225 copies. Each book was individually numbered and hand signed by Mackenzie and Lindsay.

Each book in the “Our Earth” limited edition contained an exquisite Norman Lindsay original etching created in 1936 especially to illustrate the book. This etching carries the same title as the book, “Our Earth”. The book also contains 13 illustrations reproduced from pen and ink works that Lindsay made to illustrate the poem.

Kenneth Mackenzie’s “Our Earth” poem is a long blank-verse poem that simultaneously celebrates natural beauty, and the seasons and bounty of the Earth, as well as protesting against the Earth’s corruption by man and machine.  Lindsay’s “Our Earth” etching evokes an image of great beauty that contrasts with the callous discord and ugliness of mechanization, as described by Mackenzie’s poem.

Lindsay described the poem as: “A long, strong, beautifully cadenced blank-verse poem in an age that can hardly read four lines of sterilized verse without fainting exhaustedly. A poem driven by a passionate disgust for a mechanical universe; for a chromium-plated machine-made earth which has forgotten that beauty and passion existed”.

Thanks to Norman’s collaboration, Kenneth Mackenzie was able to publish “Our Earth” as his first book of verse due to Norman’s beautiful etching and illustrations within the book.  Norman’s offer to illustrate Mackenzie’s poem meant that it became a more viable publication despite the lingering effects of the Great Depression when the book was released by Angus and Robertson in Sydney in 1937. Mackenzie was grateful to Lindsay and his dedication in “Our Earth” reads: “To Norman Lindsay in sincere friendship and true esteem and gratitude”.

 Adding to the collectability of this rare book is its impressive provenance and the associated documents and notations that are inside the book, which include three important components, as such:

(1) A hand-written letter penned in ink by Norman Lindsay to his close friend the poet Hugh McCrae (1876-1958) that describes working on the pen and ink drawings that were used as illustrations in the “Our Earth” book, and the quality of Kenneth Mackenzie’s poem. Lindsay corresponded regularly with McCrae and collaborated with him to provide etchings and illustrations to McCrae’s poetry books.

To follow is a transcript of this letter from Lindsay to McCrae that appears inside the “Our Earth” book:

Thanks for your kind letter about the drawings for Ken’s work.  I confess I had an awful struggle to get back to the pen, which means also back to poetry. It is the devil at our age having to intellectualize an emotion in order to stir up its mechanism.  I think the gods have completely deserted us these days – they are too bored with the whole business to give us a glance. Still, I got a glisk of the fact that they once had a reality here in Ken’s youth and vitality, which I am grateful for. There was something of a portent in getting a long-sustained poem of high quality in these blank days, thought I had to fight like hell to force concentration on it; not the poem’s fault but mine.

 My sympathy over your sickness problems in the home. Did you ever read Mencken’s magnificent jeers at the botch the Gods have made of the human body. But he missed the point that they intended to make a botch of it. I don’t know whether there is any consolation in that.

All love,

Norman.

(2) A hand-written inscription by Norman Lindsay inside the book presumably to Harry Chaplin,

the friend and biographer of the Lindsay family that reads:

Dear Harry,

Yes, this is the last edition of a published work to contain an original etching of mine.

Norman Lindsay.

 The presence of this personal notation inside the book from Norman to Harry indicates that this edition of the “Our Earth” book would have most likely been a gift from Norman to Harry.

(3) A bookplate of businessman Pat Corrigan by artist and cartoonist Peter Chapman (1925-2016).

Patrick (Pat) Corrigan AM, born in 1932, and now aged in his early 90’s, is one of Australia’s greatest art and book collectors, and a noted art patron and philanthropist. Through his interest in art and books, Corrigan became a collector of book plates, some of which he commissioned for himself and his family from Australian artists. The presence of the Pat Corrigan bookplate (the design of which alludes to his freight businesses and love of books), inside the “Our Earth” book indicates that Corrigan was once the owner of this beautiful book, a most impressive provenance, given that he is one of Australia’s best-known and most prolific art and book collectors, having amassed thousands of artworks and collectable and scholarly books during his lifetime, many of which he has donated to public art galleries and public libraries.  His significant library of scholarly Australian art publications, which he sold to James Hardie Industries in 1979 (now known as The Australian Art Research Collection) was subsequently donated to the State Library of Queensland, forming a core part of the library’s collection, in addition to another substantial donation of published and manuscript material including works both written and illustrated by members of the Lindsay family known as The Lindsay Collection of Pat Corrigan that he gifted to the State Library of Queensland in the 1990’s. In 1995 Corrigan gifted his large collection of bookplates (The Patrick Corrigan Collection of Australian Bookplates) to the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

 Corrigan has also loaned hundreds of works to public institutions and universities and donated over a thousand works of art to regional, state and national arts and cultural institutions and other organisations. In 2000 Corrigan was named a Member of the Order of Australia for ‘service to the visual arts, particularly as a philanthropist to regional galleries and through a grant scheme for artists.’ In 2007 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Bond University at the Gold Coast for his support and patronage of visual arts, in particular First Nations art.

To read more about Pat Corrigan, click here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Corrigan_(businessman)

To read more about the maker of the bookplate, Peter Chapman, click here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Chapman_(cartoonist)

Referring back to the significance of the “Our Earth” book and the beautiful Lindsay etching within, it is pertinent to mention that seeking to acquire an original etching of “Our Earth” is incredibly difficult because its availability is virtually limited to being inside the book of poetry, thus making both the book and the “Our Earth” etching inside, rare treasures for an art or literature lover. Furthermore, the additional impeccable and very desirable provenance of the book, also makes this item an important cultural and historical object which would be the envy of any rare book or art enthusiast.