Songs and Poems with an introductory essay on Poetry in Australia Signed with gift-inscription by Brian Fitzpatrick and with a verse of poetry in Fitzpatrick's hand No. 4 of 400 copies

Melbourne: Wilke & Co, 1931. Numbered Signed 1st Edition. hardbound. Very Good/no dustwrapper. 12mo. Alex McCrae cover art Very Scarce Signed 1st Edition of Brian Fitzpatrick's first and only collection of poems, being No. 4 of 400 copies - front endpaper shows a gift-inscription from Fitzpatrick 'To Claude Clements on the day of publication 15.iv.1931' followed by Fitzpatrick's signature, this followed by a four-line verse of poetry also in Fitzpatrick's hand (the poetry itself by Hillaire Belloc 'From quiet homes and first beginning....'); Fitzpatrick was an important Australian historian, left-leaning in politics, but expelled from the ALP - he was a founding member of The Australian Council for Civil Liberties; his works include ""British Imperialism and Australia 1788-1833'; once possessed of purely literary ambitions, he soon came to regard 'Songs and Poems' as ""an embarrassment"" (Australian Dictionary of Biography); red buckram over illustrated stiff card wraps, the wraps with illustrations front and rear by artist/cartoonist Alex McCrae; some foxing to endpapers, text block tanned, occasional mild foxing in text, minor knock top text block with mild creases to corners of some pages.