Patrick White’s First Book

Abstract

The several Patrick White bibliographies, as well as the various critical accounts of his work, list his first book as The Ploughman and Other Poems published in Sydney in 1935 in an edition of 300 copies. But in the Fisher Library, University of Sydney, another volume of White poems apparently anticipates Ploughman by several years. Titled simply Thirteen Poems by P[atrickj. V[ictor]. M[artindale]. White, it carries no publishing or printing information. A stapled quarto measuring 24.1 cm by 17.1 cm it contains 48 pages with all edges deckled, printed on rectos only, as was Ploughman, and with grey wrappers which simply repeat the title page. A silk thread passes through two holes near the left hand edge of the front cover and is tied in a bow.