OLD HAM FRESH DREST 1796.
Pp. 44(last colophon, verso blank), title page printed in red & black; narrow post 8vo; cream papered boards, spine lettered in black; dust wrapper, faintly soiled and lightly foxed; book label of David Levine, Sydney, on upper pastedown, edges of leaves slightly foxed; Sullivan's Cove, Adelaide, 1989. Edition limited to 165 numbered copies, initialled by the publisher. *'Old Ham Fresh Drest' is the poem for which Michael Massey Robinson was transported in 1798. The title derives from the name of Robinson's victim, James Oldham, an alderman of the city of London. 'In it, Robinson revived an old, disproven charge against Oldham of having murdered a former employer; he attempted to extort money from his victim by threatening to publish the verse, whereupon Oldham prosecuted him for blackmail' [Australian Dictionary of Biography]. This volume contains the text of the poem, along with Robinson's threatening letters to Oldham, and transcripts from the trial. Item #181725
Price: $45.00