| CHILDREN'S BOOKS |
Please
note that the Bibliography is by no means complete. As we gather more information and we have the time, this list will be continually updated. A veritable work in progress ...
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| The Magic Pudding — 1918 Sydney |
The Magic Pudding
1918
Angus & Robertson
This edition has endpapers which have the logo of Angus & Robertson on a green background. No one knows which was the actual first edition so there are two. |
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The Magic Pudding
1918
Angus & Robertson
This edition has white endpapers. No one knows which was the actual first edition so there are two. |
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The Magic Pudding
1957
Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex
Softcover, black and white
This is a funny book, a boys' funny book in particular. In spite of the word 'magic' in the title, there is nothing sissy about it. No fairies. Only a pudding. Sometimes it was a rich odoriferous steak-and-kidney pudding, sometimes boiled ham roll or an apple dumpling. All you had to do was to whistle twice and turn the pudding round, and you had what you wanted. And how valuable that could be out on the Australia bush! Indeed, the pudding was such a prize that there were 'professional puddin'-owners' and, alas, 'professional pudding'-thieves'. One of the owners was Sam Sawnoff whose feet were sitting down while his body was standing up (he was a penguin), but Bill was just an ordinary small man with a large hat. The pudding had its own views, and was apt to sing in a very gruff voice:
O, who would be a pudding',
A pudding' in a pot,
A puddin' which is stood on
A fire which is hot?
O sad indeed the lot
Of pudding's in a pot.
The author has also illustrated the story, and pictures and text bear one another out delightfully. For ages from eight to eighty, allowing for brief blind periods now and again in between.
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The Magic Pudding
1965
Angus & Robertson |
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The Magic Pudding
1968
Angus & Robertson, Sydney
Jubilee Edition, 2,000 copies
Hardcover, dustjacket, colour and black and white
In 1918, because of an argument with a literary critic who thought children were interested in fairies, whereas Norman Lindsay thought they preferred food, The Magic Pudding was first cooked.
Thousands of children have been eating it ever since; and now that it has lasted for fifty years with undiminished rotundity and flavour, this special Jubilee Edition is published.
What makes it special is that it contains, as well as all the original illustrations, eight entirely new colour plates. These are studies of the characters — Bunyip Bluegum, Uncle Wattleberry, the Possum and the Wombat, and all the rest — which Norman Lindsay painted as a guide for the puppetmakers when the story was made into a puppet-play. Also there are, a new jacket, special binding, paper of finer quality, and other suitable embellishments to mark the fiftieth birthday of a classic. The edition is limited to two thousand copies.
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The Magic Pudding: Second Slice
1974
Angus & Robertson, Sydney
Hardcover, no dustjacket, colour
This
is the second slice of the adventures of Bunyip Bluegum and his friends
Bill Barnacle and Sam Sawnoff. This edition of The Magic Pudding has
been broken down into four slices, this being the second in the series. |
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The Magic Pudding
1975
Angus & Robertson, Sydney
Hardcover, dustjacket, colour
Plain advice from the Magic Pudding -
Onions, bunions, corns and crabs,
Whiskers, wheels and hansom cabs,
Beef and bottles, beer and bones,
Give him a feed and end his groans.
Norman Lindsay wrote The Magic Pudding partly to cheer himself up during the dark days of World War I and partly to prove his point in a discussion with a literary critic who claimed that children prefer fairy stories. Lindsay declared that stories about food were far more popular. The critic suggested that he should write such a story.
One evening, some time after the discussion, Lindsay recalled ... the suggestion of a kid's book recurred to me and as a time-wasting occupation, I jotted down that nonsense about Bunyip Bluegum and his uncle ... It never occurred to me that the little work would be popular, but George Robertson thought otherwise when I passed the manuscript to him. He appears to have been right.
He certainly was. Since 1918, when it first appeared, the complete Magic Pudding has been reprinted 29 times in three Australian/UK editions. The full colour volume is the fourth edition and the thirtieth reprint. The first 30 printings comprised approximately 190,000 copies. In addition, the book appears in four slices in in the Young Australia Series and 30,000 copies of each slice have been printed to date. As well, the book has been published in the USA, Canada and Japan and there is a paperback edition on sale in Australia and the UK.
Perhaps this does not prove that children prefer stories about food but it certainly proves that The Magic Pudding is Australia's most popular children's story of all time.
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The Magic Pudding
1985
Angus & Robertson, Sydney
Bluegum Paperback
Softcover, black and white
The adventures of those splendid fellows Bunyip Bluegum, Bill Barnacle and Sam Sawnoff, the penguin bold, and, of course, their amazing, everlasting and very cantankerous Puddin'.
A very unusual pudding it is indeed. Whistle three times, turn it round and it's steak-and-kidney, if that's what you fancy, or hot jam roll, or delicious apple dumpling. It's manners are appalling, but it tastes so good! And it loves, just loves, to be eaten:
Eat away, chew away,
munch and bolt and guzzle,
Never leave the table till you're
full up to the muzzle,
it rudely urges the Noble Order of Puddin'-Owners, and of course the three members are delighted to oblige.
But a secret like a magic pudding is hard to keep, and the envious eyes of professional puddin'-thieves are on the brave trio and their prize. The puddin'-thieves are cunning, and masters of disguise, but no match, in the end, for the even greater ingenuity of righteous puddin'-owners.
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The Magic Pudding
2000
Angus & Robertson
Hardcover, dustjacket, black and white
In
1918, because of an argument with a literary critic who thought children
were interested in fairies, whereas Norman Lindsay thought they preferred
food, The Magic Pudding was first cooked. Thousands of children
(and, just quietly, their parents) have been relishing it ever since.
Almost seventy years later, it's rotundity and flavour undiminished, the
cut-and-come-again puddin' is served afresh in this special edition. Here,
as well as the original illustrations, are eight beautiful new colour plates
of all the favourite characters. there's Sam Sawnoff and bill Barnacle
and Bunyip Bluegum and even the pudding itself looking dour but debonair
under a clean white basin. All are studies of his characters which norman
Lindsay painted as a guide for the puppet-makers when the story was made
into a puppet-play.
For all puddin' fanciers and for those who have not yet tasted this pudding's
magic delights. |
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The Magic Pudding
2000
Angus & Robertson
Softcover, black and white
The
adventures of those splendid fellows Bunyip Bluegum, Bill Barnacle and
Sam Sawnoff, the penguin bold, and of course their amazing, everlasting
and very cantankerous Puddin'. A very unusual pudding it is indeed. Whistle
three times, turn it round and it's steak-and-kidney if that's what you
fancy, or hot jam roll, or delicious apple dumpling. Its manners are appalling,
but it tastes so good! And it loves, just loves, to be eaten:
Eat away, chew away,
much and bolt and guzzle,
Never leave the table till you;re
full up to the muzzle.
it rudely urges the Noble Order of Puddin'-Owners, and of course the three
members are delighted to oblige. But a secret like a magic pudding is hard
to keep and the envious eyes of professional puddin'-thieves are on the
brave trio and their prize. The puddin'-thieves are cunning and masters
of disguise, but no match in the end for the even greater ingenuity of
righteous puddin'-owners. |
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The Magic Pudding Cookbook
2000
Angus & Robertson
Hardcover, dustjacket, colour |
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The Magic Pudding
2008
Angus & Robertson
Hardcover, dustjacket, colour and black and white |
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| The Flyaway Highway — 1936 Sydney |
The Flyaway Highway
1936
Angus & Robertson
Hardcover, dustjacket, black and white |
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The Flyaway Highway
1973 |
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The Flyaway Highway
1979
Angus & Robertson Publishers, Sydney
Softcover, black and white
The Flyaway Highway is a book to be read and enjoyed by everyone. It will appeal to all who have retained their spirit of fun, imagination and sense of the ridiculous. The highest improbabilities of this mad and delightful story will seem as real to children as they seem enchantingly fantastic to grown-ups.
The tale follows the adventures of Egbert Tomkins and Murial Jane Jones who meet "this bloke", a strange fellow calling himself Silvander Dan. He shows them the mystical Flyaway Highway and they set off along it. What happens to them is told with charm, enthusiasm and wit, as they come across such incidents as The Heretic Murder Mystery Adventure, The Adventure of the Knightly Deed of High Emprise and The Adventure of the Scream in the Night.
The tales come to life vividly with the sixty-three line illustrations which complement Lindsay's animated prose. |
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27 September, 2010
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