Colonial Ballads
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
In the rough-hewn voice of a young nation finding its feet, Colonial Ballads resurrects the songs and verses that echoed across Australia's goldfields, bush tracks, and frontier settlements throughout the nineteenth century. Compiled by Hugh Anderson, this carefully curated collection presents a vivid tapestry of colonial life — its hardships, humour, defiance, and longing — as captured by the poets and balladeers who lived it firsthand, with evocative illustrations by Ronald G. Edwards bringing each era to life on the page. Anderson, one of Australia's most dedicated folk-music scholars, argues persuasively through his selection that the ballad tradition is not merely entertainment but a living historical document — a people's archive of struggle and spirit. Published by the celebrated Rams Skull Press out of Ferntree Gully, this 1955 edition stands as a landmark of Australian cultural preservation, situating these verses within the broader tradition of folk poetry that shaped a national identity. For anyone drawn to the roots of Australian literature, culture, or history, this collection poses an irresistible question: whose voices have we forgotten, and what do they still have to tell us?
Author: Hugh Anderson
Format: Hardback
Published: 1955, The Rams Skull Press
Genre: Poetry
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
In the rough-hewn voice of a young nation finding its feet, Colonial Ballads resurrects the songs and verses that echoed across Australia's goldfields, bush tracks, and frontier settlements throughout the nineteenth century. Compiled by Hugh Anderson, this carefully curated collection presents a vivid tapestry of colonial life — its hardships, humour, defiance, and longing — as captured by the poets and balladeers who lived it firsthand, with evocative illustrations by Ronald G. Edwards bringing each era to life on the page. Anderson, one of Australia's most dedicated folk-music scholars, argues persuasively through his selection that the ballad tradition is not merely entertainment but a living historical document — a people's archive of struggle and spirit. Published by the celebrated Rams Skull Press out of Ferntree Gully, this 1955 edition stands as a landmark of Australian cultural preservation, situating these verses within the broader tradition of folk poetry that shaped a national identity. For anyone drawn to the roots of Australian literature, culture, or history, this collection poses an irresistible question: whose voices have we forgotten, and what do they still have to tell us?