WHITE, Samuel Albert.

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The Life of Samuel White. First edition, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed opposite the front free endpaper, "To Mr M. S. Fisher as a small token of the author's sincere regards 'Weetunga' Reedbeds 1/11/21". Maurice Stephens Fisher was the author's cousin-in-law; Weetunga was the White family home. We have traced only four copies institutionally outside of Australia.Samuel Albert White (1870-1954) wrote this work to immortalize the life of his father and his grandfather. The author's grandfather, John White (d. 1860), was one of the first settlers in Adelaide, having arrived in Australia in 1836. He bought several acres of land for farming and building houses, which would eventually develop into the suburb of Fulham, named after John's native home.Samuel White senior (1835-1880) had kept extensive diaries throughout his life, but these mysteriously vanished after his death. This was one reason his son wrote this "biographical sketch (it cannot be called anything else)" (preface). The author's father was an aspiring ornithologist. "In April 1880 White sailed in his own vessel, the Elsea, to Sydney, where he left his family. He then sailed up the eastern coast. In the Aru Islands, Arafura Sea, he obtained species of birds of paradise; he traded guns, shot, powder, axes and other goods with the natives, but banned spirits. After collecting 800 to 1,000 birds, trouble broke out with the crew. Ill, and with arsenic-damaged hands, he returned to Thursday Island, where he

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