Edition limited to 650 copies designed and printed by John Gartner at the Hawthorn Press.

Series of bibliographical essays including The blackfellow in books, which covers eighteenth & nineteenth century books only.

Contents: The Mitchell Library / Phyllis Mander Jones -- The Commonwealth National Library / Kenneth Binns -- Victorian Historical Collection / C.A. McCallum -- The early Tasmanian press and its writers / E. Morris Miller -- Van Diemen's Land for the collector / Clive Turnbull -- Victoriana / Edward E. Prescott -- Northern Australian history in early books / E.M. Christie -- Survival was their first care / Malcolm Uren -- The blackfellow in books / Charles Barrett -- Some early naturalists in Australia / Gilbert P. Whitley -- My bookshop memories / James R. Tyrrell -- A collector looks at collecting / Travers Borrow -- The bookplate and Australia / R.H. Croll.