A Lost Glitter edited by Michael R. Best

A Lost Glitter

Letters between South Australia and the Western Australian Goldfields 1895-1897

Edited by Michael R. Best

Wakefield Press, 1986, [First Edition], sepia photographic plates, hardcover, dustjacket, ISBN 0949268216

Like New Condition, minor edge and shelf wear, dustjacket minor (if any) edge and shelf wear with a crease to front wrap of dustjacket

'A Lost Glitter is the most richly detailed first-hand account of goldfields' life we have.
The letters of the Deland family between the Western Australian goldfields and Gawler contrast the rumbustious, economically chancy, life of the gold seekers and their support industries with the settled middle class life of South Australia.  They tell us of the struggle to maintain the standards of civilisation amongst the exigencies of an insecure frontier existence.
The letters form, in effect, an epistolary novel.  Each of the correspondents is literate and emerges as a distinct character.  From the overall narrative of daily goldfields' life two discrete tales take shape; that of the early success and ultimate failure of Campbell Deland's bakery and that of the courtship of Effie Wyllie by Charles Deland.  Besides being an invaluable social document A Lost Glitter is entertaining reading.
The letters are edited by Michael Best who is the grandson of Charles Deland and now teaches English at the University of Victoria, British Columbia.'