Australian Legendary Tales: Being the Two Collections of Australian Legendary Tales and More Australian Legendary Tales Collected from Various Tribes.

Sydney: Bodley Head Australia, 1978. Reissue ed.. Hardback tall octavo, dustjacket, very good condition (in good dustjacket), dark plum boards (little rubbed), black & white drawings, coloured top edge (slightly faded), reverse side jacket lightly foxed, small foxed patches flaps, spine & decorative edge near spine faded, slight edgewear, spine ends creased, tiny tear top edge). 188 pp. A reissue in one volume of two important 19th century folk tale collections by K. Langloh Parker: 'Australian Legendary Tales' and 'More Australian Legendary Tales'. The collections were first published in separate volumes in 1896 and 1898 respectively, appearing simultaneously in London and Melbourne. The first book contains 31 stories, and the second has 23 stories. Both have prefaces by the author and introductions by Andrew Lang and Wandjuk Marika. There is a native text of one story and a glossary. Many of the stories are about animals and birds. The stories in the first book are solely from the Narran tribe (New South Wales), known among themselves as the Noongahburrahs. Those in the second book are from a wider number of tribes, but Mrs Parker used only Noongahburrah names to avoid confusing the reader with different dialects. The chapter-head illustrations in this new edition have been specially commissioned from Rex Backhaus-Smith, the well-known Queensland artist.