Sepik Diary Deluxe Edition
Cultural Anthropology Collectible Picture Book Australiana Travel Memoir Pacific History Tribal Art Ethnographic Illustration
Frank Hodgkinson’s deluxe hardcover “Sepik Diary” is one of the most sought-after Australian picture books of the late 20th century. Published in 1984 in a small deluxe press run, this lavishly illustrated folio documents the artist’s journey along Papua New Guinea’s Sepik River, capturing tribal art, river life and the fragile beauty of a culture that was even then disappearing. Every spread pairs Hodgkinson’s luminous, full-colour paintings and pen-and-ink sketches with diary entries that read like private letters to the reader, making the book both a travel memoir and a portable gallery of museum-quality images. Because the edition was never reprinted, copies in collectible condition—especially with the original dust jacket—have become scarce on the open market.
What makes this copy particularly appealing is its clean, tightly-bound interior: pages are fresh and free of markings, dog-ears or inscriptions, while the boards and jacket retain their original deep blues and gold foil stamping. The only minor age evidence is light foxing confined to the inside covers, leaving the illustrated pages themselves bright and display-worthy. For collectors of Australiana, tribal art or Pacific ethnography, this is the kind of volume that normally surfaces only in institutional collections or at specialist auctions.
Young-adult and adult readers alike value “Sepik Diary” as an accessible introduction to cultural anthropology: Hodgkinson’s first-person narrative avoids academic jargon, instead inviting readers to witness spirit-house carvings, crocodile ceremonies and river markets as he experienced them. Art educators use the book to demonstrate how travel journals can merge observational writing with on-site sketching, while rare-book investors recognise the 1984 deluxe edition as a modern limited press that continues to appreciate as Pacific studies gain academic prominence. Secure this copy now to own a vivid, beautifully preserved piece of cultural history before remaining jackets intact disappear from the secondary market.
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