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