The Torch. Published annually by the Adelaide Teachers’ College. Vol. XIX, December, 1939. (Extensively signed copy)

Adelaide : Printed at The Hassell Press, 1939. Small quarto, original textured paper wrappers with yapp edges (minor edge wear), upper wrapper with design in blue and silver; pp 44, viii; illustrated with numerous reproductions of linocuts by student artists and photographic plates; this copy is that of Vin Mansell, General Secretary of the Students’ Council in 1939, and is extensively signed throughout by literary contributors including Jim Sugg (with a note by Mansell to the effect that he died in an RAAF crash in Northern Australia in 1943), Boyce Worthley, H. Braham, M. L. Strange and Ralph Skitch; there are also signed photographic portraits of Pat Whitford and Bryan Rofe, a double-page with headshots of “Who’s Who in College, 1939” which is signed by everyone pictured (except Mansell, of course), and a single page headed “Autographs” which contains the signatures of close to 50 students; very clean throughout, a significant association copy.

One of Jeffrey Smart’s earliest published works was the linocut Evening which was included in the December, 1941 issue of The Torch. Unfortunately none of the linocuts in the December, 1939 issue is signed and the only one with an artist’s name printed beneath is the frontispiece view of the college by Milton Hunkin.