From an avid collector - for sale Lasseter's Diary

In Flynn of the Inland I came across three interesting words in two pages - pages 190 and 191 (in the earlier editions at least) of Chapter XIX - to be exact. These words were Pilbarra, De Gray and Noongan (as in Noongan River). Why these words were interesting is that Pilbarra, with two "r's" has been superseded by Pilbara with one "r" and De Gray should be De Grey and Noongan should be Coongan. First, Pilbarra. Although Pilbarra seems to have been the earlier and more widespread spelling, it has now become outmoded as the preferred spelling and been largely replaced by Pilbara - though Pilbarra still crops up in a number of contexts, from tourism to business names. There is still a road in Perth called Pilbarra St (and another, just to be even-handed, called Pilbara St). It is aboriginal in origin - either meaning "dry" - or perhaps a type of fish. Pilbarra Creek was the original name (now Pilbara!) and then the Pilbarra Goldfields (1885) came into being and then it seems the wider area was called Pilbarra. The Pilbarra Goldfields News (published at Marble Bar 1897 to 1923)and Pilbarra Gazette (1920 - 1947) were two of the early newspapers in the area. So in this context Idriess was quite correct: Pilbarra was the main spelling used in that era. Why and how it came to be Pilbara (usually, The Pilbara), I am not sure but Pilbara seems to have been more and more in vogue from at least the sixties and the advent of the big mining developments. Idriess - on p.190 - specifically refers to the Pilbarra mining-district, with Marble Bar at its centre, as well as The Pilbarra in a more general sense. As an aside, Idriess on p.191 refers to the Kimberleys. There is a debate over whether it should be the Kimberley or the Kimberleys. Growing up in the Kimberleys in the 1960's, I always called it (and heard it called as) the Kimberleys. Second, De Gray. This one Idriess has got wrong. Perhaps easy to do as we use both gray and grey for the colour. Was it his original mistake, not corrected? Or someone mistakenly transliterating his pencil scrawl? Or just a typo? Whatever it was, it was never corrected. It was still in the Australian Classics Edition of 1983/1990 and in the Ion Idriess's Greatest Stories: Heroes of the Outback of 1986/1993. Because De Grey was the river so named by the explorer Francis Gregory in 1861 and named after Thomas de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey (Royal Geographical Society President of the time). Idriess calls both the river and the station named after the river, De Gray. It's a wonder someone didn't pick this up for correction. Third, Noongan. This stood out like a sore thumb to me, because the River that Idriess is referring to is the Coongan River. This is the river at Marble Bar, across which the bar runs (which Idriess correctly notes is actually jasper, not marble), from which Marble Bar gets its name. Again, Coongan is of indigenous origin and named as such by Alexander Forrest in 1878. It is not, and never has been, as far as I am aware, called the Noongan River. So was it a typo, or just a mistake by Idriess. Again, it was never corrected. Any other typos or mistakes in Idriess? Anybody?

Ion Idriess was a prolific signer of his books. Someone said in jest that the trick was to find a book he hadn't signed! But it wasn't always that way. Beverley Eley in her biography, Ion Idriess, notes a couple of occasions when Idriess was reticent to autograph his work: in 1933 in Perth (p.175) and in 1934 in Melbourne (p.271). But if he was a little reluctant early on, he soon got into the swing of things. Beverley Eley says, "In the files [at A & R] there are fourteen pages of the various inscriptions he used as messages from the author (p.369)." Fourteen pages is a lot! It reminds me of when I was a teacher and I had some stock standard phrases to put on pupil's reports: "works well," "could try harder," "room for improvement!" If you have been a collector of Idriess for a while, no doubt you have acquired some signed works, and you will be familiar with some of his inscriptions: Cheerio; With a Cheerio; Cheerio, Good Luck; A cheerio and good luck; Good fortune; Jolly good fortune; Jolly good times; Merry day; Happy year; Happy days; Cheery year; Prosperity; Yours sincerely; etc. The earliest signed book of Idriess that I have is a 1934 (first edition) The Yellow Joss. As you can see, it has the rather boring inscription, Yours Sincerely, like the end of a letter, though it is not actually addressed to anyone. Right to the end of the Second World War - and beyond - Idriess' signature remained pretty uniform. But sometime after the war he dropped the "L" - for Llewellyn (and never seemed to have used his other name - Windeyer - his mother's maiden name; Eley, p.19) and starting signing as simply Ion Idriess - at least as early as 1950, but I note that he sometimes lapsed back into using the L even after that. This is from a later edition of Madman's Island, signed in 1950 without the L of LLewellyn: He did at times date his inscriptions, as here with the year in full. Sometimes he abbreviated the year with an apostrophe and sometimes he added the month as well. Mostly he signed on the title page, but not always. This is Isles of Despair, with his inscription on the page before the Title page - probably because there was more room. Often, as in the Madman's Island example above, Idriess would address someone by name. If he knew the person concerned, he might share more than his stock inscription. Very occasionally he would have a co-signer. I have seen a copy online of Flynn of the Inland signed by both Idriess and John Flynn, perhaps not signed at the same time. I believe Idriess and Joris may have both signed Stone of Destiny or version two, The Diamond (I have a copy of the latter signed by Albert Joris only). But the only book I have with dual signatures is the joint work, The Silent Service, signed by both Idriess and Torpedo-man Jones: A question for collectors is: How much more value does a signature add? I like to think it certainly adds some, just as a dust jacket does. Signatures alone of famous people can be worth rather a lot and a book signed by the author adds to its value. But perhaps not double, as someone else has also said, in the case of Idriess. But I do have a book by G Bernard Shaw, which, though a first edition, is not worth that much: but because it is signed by Shaw and his signature is collectible and prized, my book is worth a lot more than unsigned - a lot more than double! Some collector's prefer pristineness: I like provenance as well (see my article on those themes in this forum). But other factors come into play besides the signature: Dates give extra provenance. And the person Idriess may have addressed in the inscription is also important: the more important the person, the more valuable the book may be. So I value more highly a couple of books signed by Idriess and addressed to Paul Wenz - the noted French-Australian author, and to Walter Burns, the one time controversial A&R head (see, e.g., Eley, pp.347-352). I also have some books by other authors (Charles Barrett, Douglas Lockyer, Frank Clune, etc) addressed to Idriess which I value more than if they didn't have those inscriptions. Idriess too is an important person!