Melba Hardcover (original cloth) - 1967

F. W. Cheshire, Melbourne, 1967. First Edition. Hardcover (Original Cloth). Very Good Condition/Very Good. Illustrator: Photographic. Illustrated with two line drawings in the text, a colour frontispiece painted by Rupert Bunny, and 16 pages of black-and-white photography. Includes bibliographic sources, index, and photographic. Purple coloured boards with gilt coloured titles to the back strip. Light purple coloured tint to the top text edge. Illustrated dust jacket with purple and black coloured titles to the front panel and back strip. Generous and mean, kindly and ruthless, stead fast and capricious, with a prodigious talent for self-dramatisation balanced by a Napoleonic gift of realism, she has inspired three earlier book length biographies, as well as a novel, a play, and 2 films. But until now no writer has penetrated the enigma of her personality and recreated her life-size. -- front fold over blurb.  Softening and a little fading of the back strip edges; with minor rubbing of the top book corners and lower book edges. Age toning and some marks to the text block edges with age toning of the pages. Offset tanning to the end pages. A little creasing of the dustwrapper edges with sunning to the dustwrapper. Browning to the verso. Marks are also present to the lower edge of the front panel.  Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. 312 pages,. Please refer to accompanying picture (s). Illustrator: Photographic. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilo. Category: Biography & Autobiography; Performing Arts; Australia; Music. Inventory No: 50087. .