[MELBOURNE] Manuscript notebooks (mostly devoted to literature and astronomy) compiled by J. S. Duke, of Elwood and Elsternwick, 1918-1927.

Melbourne : J. S. Duke, 1918-27 [unpublished]. Two small quarto-size notebooks, each 235 x 185 mm, original linen and black oilskin bindings, owner’s name and address to pastedown of one ‘J. S. Duke, Elwood’ with printed label beneath ‘456 New Street, Elsternwick’; in total both notebooks comprise approx. 250 pages filled with neat manuscript entries, mostly copies of poetry and popular song lyrics, but including an eclectic range of other subjects, most notably astronomy, mathematical puzzles, ancient coinage, symbols and alphabets, with a range of dates between 1918 and 1927; occasional hand-drawn illustrations and pasted-in press cuttings; the fact that the meticulous Duke constantly referred to his notebooks is evidenced by his detailed indexes at the end of each notebook.

Early twentieth-century Elwood and Elsternwick resident Mr. J. S. Duke was something of a renaissance man, although his two abiding interests appear to have been poetry and astronomy.

A cursory search of Trove reveals that from around 1910 Mr. J. S. Duke of Elwood was submitting calculation problems to The Argus newspaper; in 1914 he spoke at a protest meeting staged by local ratepayers in response to the St. Kilda Council’s decision to restrict open sea bathing; on 4 September 1915 The Argus published his letter to the editor in praise of a patriotic poem by Sir Ian Hamilton; he is mentioned in numerous articles as a member of the Clydesdale Horse Society; on 1 July 1919 his letter to The Argus about the satellites of Jupiter was published; on 8 December 1922 the same paper published his observations on the Southern Cross constellation, and on 2 March 1923 a lengthy letter correcting misinformation about the Cetus constellation; on 14 August 1923 The Argus published his letter under the heading “Is Mars Inhabited?”; in 1923-4 Duke is mentioned frequently in The Argus as the Assistant Secretary of the Astronomical Society of Victoria, and in October 1924 he delivered a lecture to the Society entitled “Some Astronomical References in Literature”; during 1927 Duke had his own weekly literary column in The Herald; in 1931 he is mentioned as the President of the Victorian Radio Association; his letters to Melbourne newspapers, mainly on the subject of astronomy, continued to be published up until early 1940.