The Hill of Content: Books, Art, Music, People by A.H. Spencer (Secondhand Book)

SECONDHAND BOOK

These are the reminiscences and reflections of one of Australia’s leading booksellers. A.H. Spencer’s Hill of Content Bookshop was affectionately known for nearly thirty years not only to the book-lovers of Melbourne but to visitors from all parts of the world; among those who enjoyed its unique atmosphere were Dame Nellie Melba, John Masefield, Sir John Monash, Sir Arthur Streeton, Sir Lionel Lindsay, Beverley Nichols, Sir Seymour Hicks, H.D. McIntosh, and many others, vividly drawn from the life in these pages. With an unfailing eye for quirks of character and with a ready humour and sympathy, Mr Spencer tells the story of his shop and its customers, and of the rewards it brought him in a more enduring currency than pounds, shillings, and pence.

Added to his Melbourne memories are those of his youth in Sydney, where he worked in the firm of Angus and Robertson in the days when Henry Lawson was a frequent and merry visitor to the shop and when David Scott Mitchell and Sir William Dixson were building up their great collections. He has many tales to tell of the ways (often eccentric) of book-collectors, and of the excitement of their treasure-hunts, and gives some fascinating side-lights on he collecting of Australiana.

The Hill of Content is sub-titled “Books, Art, Music, People”, and it offers a rich feast for readers who are interested in any or all of these things – especially in “people”, for this is above all a warmly human record of men and women with whom A.H. Spencer has known happy fellowship, whether in the flesh or through the pages of great books. To read it is to be admitted into a company of entertaining and delightful friends, not least of whom is the author himself.

Specifications:

Condition: Fair – some tearing to dust jacket edges, minor staining to cover, yellowing to pages from age.

Publisher: Angus and Robertson

Year: 1959

Format: Hardback, with dustjacket

Pages: 246pp

ISBN: N/A

$24.00

1 in stock