Tales of Old Tasmania by Coultman Smith

Tales of Old Tasmania

The First Fifty Years

by Coultman Smith

Rigby, 1978, [First Edition], black and white photographic plates, hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition with a little edge and shelf wear, a little rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, no inscriptions, dustjacket shows minor edge and shelf wear with minor rubbing and bumping to edges and corners (See photographs)

“Coultman Smith, whose great-grandfather Cocky Dean was one of the most colourful early settlers, has gathered together a fine collection of rumbustious tales about those early days of the penal settlement.  He writes of the cannibal convict Pearce, who preferred killing his companion to killing a wild bird because ‘human flesh was by far preferable’; he tells of Howe, the bushranger who wore the skins of kangaroos and kept, in his isolation, a diary of his dreams; and he describes the extra-ordinary life of Jorgen Jorgenson, who once declared himself King of Iceland, who later was transported to Van Diemen’s Land, and who spilled a million words in prolific writings during his terms of imprisonment.”