Lasseter's Last Ride, With an Introduction by Field-Marshal Sir William Birdwood

London : Jonathan Cape, 1936. First British Edition, First Impression. Hardcover (Embossed Cloth). Good Condition/Fair to Good. Octavo (standard book size). Binding is tight, covers and spine fully intact, but spine is slightly cocked Text body is clean, and free from previous owner annotation, underlining and highlighting No foxing in this copy Top and bottom edges have some brown spots on an otherwise clean edge. Bottom edge has spots and is faintly browned Boards have some slight edge wear and some bumping on bottom and top of spine (from The Spectator, May 1936)
In his introduction to Lasseter's Last Ride (Cape, 7s. 6d.) Field-Marshal Sir William Birdwood writes : "The annals of Central Australian exploration are tragic and heroic, but it is long indeed since I read a more moving story of endurance and heroism in the face of terrific odds than the epic which Mr. Ion Idriess has woven out of the last few months of the life of L. H. B. Lasseter."

The reader will agree with this, and wonder why he has not heard of Mr. Idriess before. He is well known in Australia, but this is his first book to be published in England. It will not be his last, if the present one meets with the success it deserves. Having himself been a prospector, the story he has constructed out of the fragments of documentary evidence - a few reports, the barely legible diary and letters found buried near Lasseter's last camps - is probably very close to what actually happened.

Harry Lasseter had once discovered a rich gold reef in unexplored west Central Australia. Owing to a faulty watch, the bearings he took were useless. An expedition was fitted out to locate it. From the first, misfortune dogged the steps of the party. Food ran short and they returned to the base-camp - all except Lasseter, who went on alone. When his two camels bolted he was left waterless in the desert. Blinded by sand and tortured by thirst, he found the reef, but died shortly afterwards, deserted by a tribe of aborigines with whom he had tried to make friends. Mr. Idriess tells this story in a simple, virile style which is, in its intense economy, comparable to Hemingway at his best. B & W map illustration and diagrams