First book
In 1894, Henry Lawson's first book, Short Stories in Prose & Verse, was published by his mother Louisa Lawson on the press of her women's paper the Dawn. An accident, on the way to the binders, however, saw a large number of pages blow out of the printer's cart into York Street, and only 300 copies were saved.
Lawson's stated intention had been to publish 'a collection of sketches and stories at a time when everything Australian in the shape of a book must bear the imprint of a London publishing firm before our critics will condescend to notice it'. Priced at 1 shilling each, the poorly-edited little volume of 96 pages was printed hurriedly for the Christmas market and brought in little money, despite being favourably reviewed.
Years later, John Le Gay Brereton recalled meeting Lawson in George Street on his way to the Public Library of NSW (now the State Library of NSW) with two copies of this book for legal deposit. At the time Lawson suggested that as ’only one copy is really needed...you may as well have the odd one...', commenting further that ‘my mother’s the hardest business man I ever met’.
On the title page of this rare copy of Short Stories in Prose & Verse, one of only 70 known survivors and now held in the Mitchell Library, Henry Lawson’s inscription to David Scott Mitchell (noted bibliophile and collector of publishing curiosities) reads:
Dear Mr Mitchell,
This is my first book. Only a few copies were published, fortunately [as] I withdrew the book from publication. The book should be interesting as a curiosity in printing.
H. Lawson