Chis: The Life and Work of Alan Rowland Chisholm
Antiquarian & Collectible Literary Criticism Australian Literature Biography Academic Reference French–Australian Relations Modernism Studies
Collectors and scholars searching for a scarce, modern biography of one of Australia’s most influential literary critics need look no further than the 2019 limited-edition hardcover “Chis: The Life and Work of Alan Rowland Chisholm.” Published in a small press run and already out-of-print, this copy arrives in very-good condition—boards are square and tight, pages are crisp and unmarked, and the only flaw is a few light indentations on the jacket that keep it from being graded as fine. Because the edition was never reprinted, clean copies are becoming increasingly difficult to locate on the secondary market, making this an attractive acquisition for anyone building a 20th-century Australian literature reference library.
Stan Scott’s meticulously researched narrative traces “Chis” from his modest beginnings in rural Victoria to his decades shaping European studies at Melbourne University and his pivotal role introducing writers such as Baudelaire, Mallarmé and Proust to Australian readers. The biography weaves together previously unpublished letters, newspaper columns and broadcast transcripts, giving collectors concrete provenance material while offering students and academics a one-stop scholarly resource. Readers searching for keywords like “Australian modernism,” “interwar cultural exchange,” or “French–Australian literary relations” will find entire chapters devoted to those themes, all fully indexed and referenced.
What sets this particular copy apart for the discriminating buyer is the combination of scarcity and physical integrity: no prior owner’s inscriptions, no dog-eared leaves, and a binding that has not been weakened by reading wear. Whether you are a university library filling a gap in your Australian reference section, a dealer sourcing investment-grade biographies, or a private collector who specialises in limited-edition Australiana, this hardcover delivers both intellectual content and resale potential. Keywords that surface this listing—limited edition biography, Alan Rowland Chisholm book, Stan Scott Chis hardcover, Australian literary critic biography—accurately reflect the rarity and condition value on offer.
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