My book has just been published.

“Ion Idriess letters”.

OK, I’m just the glorified typist, but it’s great to see the final version.

I own the letters by the way, bought at auction.

mollwollfumble said:

My book has just been published.

“Ion Idriess letters”.

OK, I’m just the glorified typist, but it’s great to see the final version.

I own the letters by the way, bought at auction.

Who were the letters written to?

roughbarked said:

mollwollfumble said:

My book has just been published.

“Ion Idriess letters”.

OK, I’m just the glorified typist, but it’s great to see the final version.

I own the letters by the way, bought at auction.

Who were the letters written to?

Can we have a brief synopsis?

Congratulations.

https://www.booktopia.com.au/ion-idriess-letters-ion-idriess/book/9781922698933.html

Already on special and it isn’t yet on the shelves.

Congrats molly.

OCDC said:

Congrats molly.

+1

roughbarked said:

OCDC said:

Congrats molly.

+1

+ another 1

Well done.

Tamb said:

roughbarked said:

OCDC said:

Congrats molly.

+1

+ another 1

And a further +1

Well done sir

Good

Well done.

:)

Good work mate.

I’m not surprised that you published a book about an Ion but that wasn’t the type of Ion that I was expecting.

‘grats.

AussieDJ said:

Tamb said:

roughbarked said:

+1

+ another 1

And a further +1

Fun-tast-ic! Kudos to you.

roughbarked said:

mollwollfumble said:

My book has just been published.

“Ion Idriess letters”.

OK, I’m just the glorified typist, but it’s great to see the final version.

I own the letters by the way, bought at auction.

Who were the letters written to?

Thanks for all the congrats. :-)

Good question, roughbarked.

Many were written to Australian mounted police, because he was writing the book “Man Tracks” about them at the time.
This was followed by letters to the Kidman organisation, because he was writing about Kidman in “The Cattle King”.
Other letters were to residents of far north Queensland, because of his earlier time visiting the Torres strait islands and his former prospecting for gold in Queensland.

Letters for family in Grafton, and friends throughout the continent.
And a letter to Sweden, as one of his books had been translated into Swedish.

The most singular and revealing letter, I take to be to a brothel madam in New Guinea, because he had promised to write.

I made a map of almost all the places he wrote to, and other places mentioned in the letters, this is the map.

I want to sat a word about the factualness of Idriess’s books.

Some books have very little factual information in them.

“40 fathoms deep” is a ripping yarn about pearling in Broome, and has very little fact to it.
Of the stories in “The Yellow Joss”, Idriess writes that one third of them are factual.

In the book “Red Chief” about aborigines in NSW, the aboriginal romance is pure fiction, the story about the development of the war shield comes from the memoirs of an old aboriginal chief. The humorous part about how one tribe accidentally defeated an invading tribe is a “true story”, ie. a faithful rendition of an aboriginal story. The teaching of the young comes from Idriess’s own experience with aborigines elsewhere in Australia.

“Drums of Mer”, is based on Idriess’s diaries from 20 years earlier cruising the Torres Strait. I wouldn’t trust it for accuracy.

The book “Lasseter’s last ride” is heavily based on Lasseter’s own diary, which of necessity is incomplete.

The book “Flynn of the inland” is described as factual but not time accurate, events have been rearranged to make a better story.

The book “The Cattle King” about Kidman is as factual as possible. Idriess searched all over Kidman territory and spoke to Kidman and his son for anecdotes about the man.

The book “Over the range” is factual, from Idriess’s own diary visiting the last wild places in Australia, in the North East Kimberley.

The book “Man Tracks” about Australia’s mounted police and their interaction with white, black and Sri Lankan criminals, and prospectors, is rock solid fact and a time-accurate sequence. Unfortunately, this makes it Idriess’s least readable book.

The books “Prospecting for Gold” and “Fortunes in Minerals” are non-fiction guides to prospecting.

That should give you some feeling for the factuality of Idriess’s books.

mollwollfumble said:

roughbarked said:

mollwollfumble said:

My book has just been published.

“Ion Idriess letters”.

OK, I’m just the glorified typist, but it’s great to see the final version.

I own the letters by the way, bought at auction.

Who were the letters written to?

Thanks for all the congrats. :-)

Good question, roughbarked.

Many were written to Australian mounted police, because he was writing the book “Man Tracks” about them at the time.
This was followed by letters to the Kidman organisation, because he was writing about Kidman in “The Cattle King”.
Other letters were to residents of far north Queensland, because of his earlier time visiting the Torres strait islands and his former prospecting for gold in Queensland.

Letters for family in Grafton, and friends throughout the continent.
And a letter to Sweden, as one of his books had been translated into Swedish.

The most singular and revealing letter, I take to be to a brothel madam in New Guinea, because he had promised to write.

I made a map of almost all the places he wrote to, and other places mentioned in the letters, this is the map.

I want to sat a word about the factualness of Idriess’s books.

Some books have very little factual information in them.

“40 fathoms deep” is a ripping yarn about pearling in Broome, and has very little fact to it.
Of the stories in “The Yellow Joss”, Idriess writes that one third of them are factual.

In the book “Red Chief” about aborigines in NSW, the aboriginal romance is pure fiction, the story about the development of the war shield comes from the memoirs of an old aboriginal chief. The humorous part about how one tribe accidentally defeated an invading tribe is a “true story”, ie. a faithful rendition of an aboriginal story. The teaching of the young comes from Idriess’s own experience with aborigines elsewhere in Australia.

“Drums of Mer”, is based on Idriess’s diaries from 20 years earlier cruising the Torres Strait. I wouldn’t trust it for accuracy.

The book “Lasseter’s last ride” is heavily based on Lasseter’s own diary, which of necessity is incomplete.

The book “Flynn of the inland” is described as factual but not time accurate, events have been rearranged to make a better story.

The book “The Cattle King” about Kidman is as factual as possible. Idriess searched all over Kidman territory and spoke to Kidman and his son for anecdotes about the man.

The book “Over the range” is factual, from Idriess’s own diary visiting the last wild places in Australia, in the North East Kimberley.

The book “Man Tracks” about Australia’s mounted police and their interaction with white, black and Sri Lankan criminals, and prospectors, is rock solid fact and a time-accurate sequence. Unfortunately, this makes it Idriess’s least readable book.

The books “Prospecting for Gold” and “Fortunes in Minerals” are non-fiction guides to prospecting.

That should give you some feeling for the factuality of Idriess’s books.

He also wrote about opal gougers among other things.