Page 33 – Sydney Rare Book Auctions

Gary Gorton Crime Fiction Collection
Part One Sunday June 16, 12:00 PM

We have 48 Arthur Upfield items in this weeks catalogue.

Arthur William Upfield (1890-1964) born in England and arrived in Australia 1911(ADB). He served in the Australian Army and returned to Australia in 1921. Upfield was “employed patrolling the number one rabbit proof fence for three years until 1931”. (3pp. Lindsey) It is here he wrote his first two books before taking up writing full time.

Upfield’s Success: While he was read in Australia it was the American and European markets which gave his financial success. His books have been translated into 15 languages. (2pp Bony at Home and Abroad : The Arthur Upfield Phenomenon by Carol Hetherington)
Portrait from the Bony and the Kelly Gang.

Bony: He wrote 34 books, 29 featuring part-Aboriginal detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte. Known by ‘Bony’ by his friends. (2pp Bony at Home and Abroad : The Arthur Upfield Phenomenon by Carol Hetherington). The third in the series is Wings of Diamantina.

Story number four in the Bony Series: Mr Jelly’s Business was set in Burracoppin which is where Upfield was headquartered while riding the number 1 rabbit proof fence. (144pp Lindsey)

Upfield’s work later took on many forms including: newspaper serials, radio series of ‘Man of Two Tribes’ by Australasian Radio Productions(1953) and a television series featuring Bony(1972). (2pp Hetherington)

This copy of A Royal Abduction was inscribed to John K Ewers by Upfield on the title page. Upfield “… had very little intimate contact with other writers, except JK Ewers from their first contact in 1930.” (21pp Lindsey)

Want to see more Upfield books? Watch Paul show off some Upfield in dustwrappers.

References

Arthur Upfield: A Biography by Travis Lindsey. PhD. Murdoch University 2005. https://www.arthurupfield.com/attachments/TravisLindsey.pdf
Bony at Home and Abroad: The Arthur Upfield Phenomenon by Carol Hetherington. University of Queensland. https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:193209/UQ193209_OA.pdf
Arthur William Upfield. Australian Dictionary Biography. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/upfield-arthur-william-8900

When Sunday June 16, 12:00 PM
Where Timed auction
Viewing encouraged 10am – 4pm weekdays
At Sydney Rare Book Auctions Dalgety Square at C11/372-428 Wattle Street, Ultimo, NSW 2007
Bidding absentee, on Invaluable and on our website.

Part One
Sunday June 16, 12:00 PM
Sydney Rare Book Auctions is pleased to present the first auction of Crime Fiction books from the estate of the late Gary Gorton.

468

Gary was resident in Hong Kong for many years and more recently in Bangkok. He died suddenly in Bangkok in 2023. He lived most of his adult life in Asia and for fun he was collecting any book listed in Hubin’s Crime Fiction: A Comprehensive Bibliography.

The books he collected had to be first editions in dustwrapper and in very good condition. In his job as an international banker, he travelled widely and made contacts with dealers in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia and was always happy to entertain us when we were in Hong Kong or later in Bangkok. When visiting Gary I always felt privileged to view and handle his collection and it left me totally amazed that one person could put together such a collection of fine books.

Gary had an excellent memory and knew all the books and he had a good eye for detail and knew the correct first edition and all the necessary points. He could sit for hours and discuss the books and their content. Obviously, he had not read every book but he amazed me with the numbers he had not only read but remembered in detail.

This is the first of several auction catalogues of crime fiction we will be offering over the next several months.

The books are in wonderful condition. All of them are housed in a brodart cover. Some of the wrappers have professional repairs and some of the books have had the top stains refurbished. All of these individual faults and repairs have been noted in our description. Most of the repairs have been performed on the inside of the wrapper and are invisible to the naked eye.

Everyone who has wandered into our office in the last two months have used words like wonderful, unbelievable, stunning but I think that words cannot describe the collection.

Happy Hunting!

Catalogue
Sunday June 16, 12:00 PM
Online Timed auction
Viewing encouraged 10am – 4pm weekdays
Bidding absentee, on Invaluable and on our website.