The Darkening Ecliptic. Poems by Ern Malley. Paintings by Sidney Nolan. (With an original Nolan drawing)

Preface by Robert Melville. Introduction by Elwyn Lynn. [London] : R. Alistair McAlpine, 1974. Limited edition of 1,000 copies, of which 50 had an original signed drawing. THE DE-LUXE EDITION WITH AN ORIGINAL SIGNED CRAYON DRAWING BY SIDNEY NOLAN (executed on the half-title); this copy out of series, but signed on the title-page by Sidney Nolan, Robert Melville, and Elwyn Lynn. Quarto, cloth with pictorial dustjacket, pictorial endpapers, 56 pp, colour illustrations.

The poems of Ern Malley, the fictitious poet created by Harold Stewart and James McAuley in 1943 in order to discredit Max Harris, editor of Angry Penguins, are accompanied by twenty-four reproductions of Nolan’s Caran D’ache (pencil) drawings from the artist’s Bonython Gallery series of 1973. Nolan elected to draw in the copy we offer here a variant of his works which illustrates the Ern Malley poems Baroque Exterior (p.42) and Palinode (p.39), and the Kelly vignette on p.20. The drawing incorporates his iconic Ned Kelly helmet, Nolan’s most distinctive motif. It virtually fills the page (280 x 210 mm) and is in fine condition.