A very good copy of the only edition, with pencil revisions to several poems, probably by Baylebridge himself.

A very good copy of the only edition, with pencil revisions to several poems, probably by Baylebridge himself.

Christened Blocksidge, the Australian poet and short story writer is better known as William Baylebridge, the name he took without legal change soon after 1925. He went to England in 1908, and travelled extensively on the Continent. He published several volumes in England, most privately printed. He was openly influenced by the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, which led him to develop a mystic nationalism as early as 1913. He returned to Queensland in 1919, but soon after settled in Sydney. He had few friends, guarded his privacy rigorously, shunned literary society, resolutely refused nearly all invitations for publication in anthologies, and was regarded by many as a mysterious recluse.

As the Australian Dictionary of Biography notes, he 'wrote continually, revised constantly and published versions of earlier work under new titles so frequently that his output is a bibliographer's nightmare.' Certainly this copy would seem to bear this out, with extensive pencil revisions, especially in terms of copy editing, to the final poems "The Nun", "The Bride" and "The Chatelaine of Vergi".