[GOLD RUSH] Portrait of traveller and writer Friedrich Gerstäcker.

A$125 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Albumen print photograph of a painted portrait, carte de visite format, 107 x 67 mm (mount), recto of mount with facsimile autograph of the famous writer, along with the artist s details: E. Hader pinxit , the publisher s copyright statement: 1882. Gesetzlich geschützt , and the imprint of the photographer and publisher: Photographie und Verlag v. Sophus Williams, Berlin W. ; verso with printed caption Friedrich Gerstäcker ; the albumen print and the mount are in fine condition. Both the fictional and non-fictional works of German traveller and writer Friedrich Gerstäcker (1816-1872), which are based on his experiences in New South Wales and South Australia, are of great significance to the study of Australian society during the gold rush period. However, we can trace no portraits of Gerstäcker in Australian public collections. From ADB : Friedrich Gerstaecker (1816-1872), writer and traveller, was born on 10 May 1816 in Hamburg, son of Friedrich Gerstaecker (1790-1825), opera singer. At an early age he entered an office but later went on the land. In 1837 he migrated to America where he led a wild and adventurous life . On his return to Germany in 1843 he established himself as a writer of travel books. Factual accounts of his own experiences and guides for intending migrants were followed by novels on American life that made him famous in Germany. In 1849 he went from South America to the goldfields of California and thence to Australia by way of the South Sea islands. He a

• Binding: Hardcover

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