Item #2055 Australia at War A Winter Record made by Will Dyson on the Somme and at Ypres During the Campaigns of 1916 and 1917. With an introduction by G.K. Chesterton. Will DYSON, Lieutenant William Henry.

Australia at War A Winter Record made by Will Dyson on the Somme and at Ypres During the Campaigns of 1916 and 1917. With an introduction by G.K. Chesterton

London: Cecil Palmer & Hayward, 1918. Folio, later brown cloth with the original illustrated front wrapper bound in; dedication plate featuring the poem "To the Men of the A.I.F.", with a total of 52 letterpress leaves (including the preliminaries) interspersed with twenty plates. Cloth moderately flecked, internally well preserved. First edition of a scarce First World War record, by the official Australian war artist William Dyson.

Will Dyson (1880-1938) was one of the significant political cartoonists of his generation, and a man of staunch socialist principles. Married to Ruby Lindsay (sister of Norman Lindsay), Dyson worked in London from 1910 for the Daily Herald, then a left-leaning publication whose editors allowed him considerable freedom of expression.

Given his outspoken views on capital and labour relations, Dyson was a surprising choice for war artist. This book is a selection of his better work produced under strained conditions on the Western front. Dyson was wounded twice in combat, proof that the war artist was far from a detached observer.

Renowned for both eloquence and artistic prowess, the foreword captures some of the hard-bitten scepticism that informed Dyson's world-view. Railing against the nationalistic propaganda that painted trench-warfare as anything but abject misery, Dyson writes 'they [the drawings] are not primarily cheerful - but it is open to doubt whether we are behaving generously in demanding that the soldier who is saving the world for us should provide us with a fund of light entertainment while doing it.' Dornbusch, 225; Fielding and O'Neill p. 245. Item #2055

Price (AUD): $350.00