AustLit

The memoirs of James Tyrrell (1875-1961) - famous bookman, bookseller and owner of several bookshops in Sydney during the late 19th and early 20th centuries - include his boyhood reminiscences of Sydney and his later encounters and experiences in Sydney's cultural and literary circles. He remembers the many 'booksfellows of all sorts' that he had the privilege 'to know or to see in one of my succession of shops or at Angus and Robertson' where he began his career (p.1). Among the many literary identities, illustrators, publishers, collectors, bibliophiles, politicians and public figures he got to know through his work were numerous significant Australian writers and artists, and his book is full of delightful anecdotes and interesting insights into Sydney's cultural, literary, political and social life at the time. The books is richly illustrated with old photos, facsimiles, portraits, cartoons, and a 'Reference Plan of City Streets, Sydney, 1888', reproduced from the Illustrated Sydney News. It also includes several poems by Australian writers celebrating Tyrrell's bookshop .