An Unfinished Diary of Impressions With extracts from correspondence of the late Geoffrey William Hassell (Flying Officer, R.A.A.F.)
Adelaide: privately printed, 1948. Octavo, original papered boards; portrait frontispiece and a single plate, [vi], 72 pp. This copy has what appears to be an artist's proof of a dust-jacket for the book, in watercolour and gouche on stiff card. A little foxing affects the boards, internally excellent. Geoffrey Hassell was a pilot of the Royal Australian Air force attached to Beaufighter Squadron number 455. He enlisted in January 1943 and perished on 5 April 1945 during an operational flight off the Norwegian coast. This scarce memorial volume was printed in Adelaide by his brother Frederick.
Geoffrey and Frederick were the sons of George Hassell (1869–1945), the highly regarded Adelaide based printer who established new standards of typographic excellence for Australian books. Frederick was trained by his father as a typographer, and it is fitting that this beautifully composed volume was prepared in honour of his fallen brother Geoffrey.
The book was printed in small numbers for those who knew Geoffrey Hassell personally. In the preface, his brother outlines the purpose of this book: 'While abroad he was shown hospitality by many kindly people, a fact which we deeply appreciate. So that these good folk, together with his other friends and members of the family, might have the opportunity of reading those portions of his correspondence which are of some general interest, we decided to publish them in this form'. Item #4367
Price (AUD): $500.00