Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

Mixing it with the professors

Last Sunday when I was at a a seminar listening to the woes of modern historians there were quite a few locally exulted professors in the audience. Some professors are very interesting people, some are really boring. No two are the same. Fortunately there were mostly interesting ones at the seminar.

There was one man whom I have known personally for over a decade. His name is Professor Bob Reece. He's a very distinguished author and editor, and just had an important biography on Daisy Bates published by the National Library of Australia.

In the early 1990s I contributed a chapter to one of his anthologies, Irish convict lives. (Crossing Press.) My chapter was titled, 'The voyages of the Robert Small and the Phoebe Dunbar in 1853.'

Ireland has been a recurrent theme in Bob's scholarly work. (Daisy Bates was Irish.) So when I was talking to him at intermission last Sunday I mentioned that one my sons was heading for Ireland soon, and would also be spending a bit of time in Sicily.

This briefly sparked his interest and he asked if I'd read the classic Sicilian novel, The Leopard. Well that put me in my place. I pleaded ignorance. The intellectual supremo had unintentionally made be feel quite inferior with a metaphorical snap of his gnarled fingers.

I made a point of remembering the title and later looked it up. The author was Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. It's a historical novel about the aristocracy and political change in 19th century Sicily. It was rejected while the author was alive and published posthumously in 1958.

It is indeed a classic. "Perhaps the greatest Italian novel of the twentieth century," claimed one reviewer. Another reviewer said the same of the English translation, but included the entire world. I was feeling even more intellectually inferior, because until Bob mentioned it I was quite oblivious.

I checked out the local public library. Nothing, I looked at the online catalogues of the principal second hand book dealers in Perth: Muirs, Serendipity, Elizabeth's and Mainly Books. Not a sausage. The latter shop is run by another professor I know. I emailed him just to make sure. I think he and his wife read every book they sell. He said he'd sold a copy last weekend - his only copy. Was he pulling my leg? Maybe.

I was starting to succumb to a manic desire to have the book. It was rare and I wanted a copy. Well rare in Australia anyway. There are plenty listed on US Amazon, but the postage is a killer.

I looked up Australian eBay and lo, there was a single copy on offer. Maybe it was the only copy for sale on the entire Australian continent? What does that say for the intellectual capacity of the country? It was about five bucks, plus three more for postage. There were still no bidders yesterday with only a few hours to go. I put in a low bid in case I forgot. That was a mistake. Someone else had been watching it and been alerted. Soon I was outbid. There was no point responding in kind. Such battles can easily go out of control.

I set up an automatic bidding snipe for a last second KO last night. I was lucky. I got the book for just over ten dollars, including postage.

It won't arrive before my son departs, not that he would find time to read it while travelling. I suppose now I'll have to read it myself.

© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.

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Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!