“Peter the Whaler in Southern Seas” : an archive relating to the book’s creation and publication.

Peter the Whaler in Southern Seas was an Australian collaboration between writer Max Colwell and artist Geoffrey C. Ingleton. The book tells the story of Australian whaling for young readers. It was published in 1964 by Macmillan in its series Great Stories of Australia, which was edited by another Australian writer, Kylie Tennant. The book was printed by the Halstead Press in Sydney.

This unique archive relating to the book’s publication was preserved by its illustrator, the eminent Australian maritime artist and bibliophile Lieutenant-Commander Geoffrey C. Ingleton. It contains:

1. a carbon copy of Colwell’s typed draft copy of Peter the Whaler in Southern Seas (123 quarto pages) accompanied by Ingleton’s original pencil sketches for the book’s full-page illustrations (approximately 30 in number).
2. Correspondence between Geoffrey C. Ingleton, editor Kylie Tennant, E. C. Harber of publisher Macmillan in Melbourne, and Aubrey Cousins manager of the Halstead Press in Sydney, dating from February 1964 up until the book’s publication later that year (approximately 15 items). The first letter in the sequence is from Tennant to Ingleton, 16 February 1964, and opens: ‘Dear Sir, I have admired your work for many years, and am writing to ask of you would care to illustrate a book in a series I am editing, entitled Great Stories of Australia….’
3. A small group of newspaper cuttings preserved by Ingleton, all relating to Kylie Tennant.

Provenance: Geoffrey C. Ingleton; by descent to his son, Nicholas Ingleton