JUNOR, Charles. - Richard Brice, Adventurer.

London, Everett 1902. Octavo publisher's decorated cloth blocked in gilt and maroon. Small, very small, hole in the spine; a bit of foxing; quite good. ¶ First edition of Junor's other book and rare; missed by Miller and Macartney and by Loder. Not the first appearance, a version was serialised with the title 'A Ruby from the Sea' in The Murrurundi Times and Liverpool Plains Gazette from March to November 1901. Junor's first book was, of course, 'Dead Mens' Tales' of 1898 and as he fell off a Sydney ferry and drowned while this was in the press there were no more. Junor has aimed at an international market while keeping one foot in the home camp. The hero and narrator is Australian born but brought up in Argentina. Finding himself on the run after a misjudged coup d'etat he decides to head for London and then on to Australia. Manila is as close as he gets and long before he gets that far he has been through a multitude of perilous scrapes, subterfuges and double crosses. There is a possibility that some autobiography went into this. Maybe not the bloodshed and Spanish American war in the Philippines but many of the locations, from Argentina onwards. Information on Junor is scant, here's what I've gleaned. According to the inquest report Junor was a South American born 37 year old journalist of North Sydney, and married. His "young and pretty" widow Minnie remarried in 1904. When he came to Australia is still mirky but his name begins to appear in Melbourne newspapers around 1890. Two pamphlets published in London in 1885 by the freethinking, and sometimes blasphemous, Progressive Publishing Co were authored by a Charles Junor. He would have been very young then but it is possible that this is our Junor; particularly since both pamphlets are in the SLNSW while only one can be traced in OCLC or Copac. Junor was a Melbourne scribbler for newspapers until the late 1890s when he migrated to Sydney. He had occasional 'Comments of a Melbournian' published in provincial Victorian papers and stories that went into his 'Dead Mens' Tales' appeared in papers scattered all over the place. His most successful writing, in terms of exposure, were two testimonials he wrote for Clements Tonic. He had two other jobs: assistant to a politician in Melbourne and assistant secretary to the AAAS at Sydney University. I suspect that reports of the inquest into his death are purposely close mouthed and coded - maybe loyalty to a fellow journalist - but no mortal brain can ever comprehend why and what journalists choose to report or omit. Given he was on a late Saturday night ferry to Milsons Point, was woken on arrival by a friend, stepped over the ferry rail and went into the water I'd guess he was drunk. Or given that his employer testified he was noticeably absent minded perhaps we could say he was absent minded as a newt. A search of all the likely catalogues finds copies in the four English deposit libraries, two in Australia and one belonging to the Mormons in Utah.