RIS ID
101705
Link to publisher version (URL)
Abstract
Hume Cook's Australian Fairy Tales of 1925 was the first book fully produced in Australia to bear that specific title. Its appearance followed on the passage of almost 30 years since the publication in London during 1897 of Frank Atha Westbury's similarly titled work, and Jessie Mary Whitfield's The spirit of the bush fire and other Australian fairy tales in Sydney the following year. There had been numerous stories about local fairies and other fantastical creatures written in Australia prior to 1925, including the Reverend Charles Marson's Faery Stories (Marson 1891) and the many small booklets, articles and monographs by artist Ida Rentoul Outhwaite and her sister Annie from 1903; and May Gibbs' fairy-like Gumnut Babies from 1916 (Gibbs 1916, Organ 2012). The dreaming stories of the Australian Aborigines were also adapted and labelled fairy tales or legends.
Publication Details
Organ, M. K. 2015, 'Hume Cook and Christian Yandell's Australian Fairy Tales 1925', Biblionews and Australian Notes & Queries - Journal of the Book Collectors' Society of Australia, no.386, June, pp. 62-80.