The Generations of Men

Melbourne: Oxford University Press , 1959. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. vii 222 pages, stated first edition. Black & white sketches, maps. There is a neat ownership signature on the front end paper, and page 5 has a small crease at the head's blank outer edge. The book is not quite square. The jacket, now protected, is chipped at the edges. Overall a nice copy, clean, unmarked and solid. "'The Generations of Men' is the pioneering story of the ancestors of Australia's best-known poet, Judith Wright. The names, dates and events are factual and are based on diaries, letters and personal reminiscences. Wright has taken this factual material and with her poet's imagination turned it into a reconstruction of a past era; people, places and even moods. This is a beautifully written family history that documents not only the settling of Wright's own family into New South Wales' last century, but also the life of a nation, as Australia was colonized by 'generations of men' unsuited in many ways to the historical and geographical context of their new environment. For many years unavailable, Judith Wright's elegant chronicle is fascinating both as a historical document and a personal meditation." (publisher)