Goldfield Balladeer by Robert Hoskins relates The Life and Times of the Celebrated Charles R. Thatcher the "Inimitable" songster of the New Zealand Goldfields
About the book:
'Gold! Gold!' was the cry so often heard in the 1860s. The romance of this cry is still with us, but the rollicking, seething, grand gesture atmosphere of the goldfields is elusive. Now, in this book, we can grasp it through the adventures and songs of itinerant balladeer Charles Thatcher ant minstrel, showman, and raconteur of events current, extraordinary, and scandalous.
Diggers rough and kind prized Thatcher's racy doggerel, through which he praised the good and damned the unworthy. His lampoons were often libellous, but the Inimitable (as he became known) was a big man and a crack shot, always ready to settle a dispute or pull a nose.
Just as the miners with grog in their hands and dancehall girls on their arms learnt the gossip of the day from Thatcher, so can we. And at the same time, we can absorb the atmosphere of those frenzied times - times on the newly discovered goldfields of Australia, and on New Zealand's Otago, Coromandel, and West Coast fields, where the cry went up and a new rush began: new towns, fresh inspiration and prey to Thatcher's witty comment.
Robert Hoskins describes the effervescent goldfields and the affairs of the equally effervescent Thatcher with a style to match.
first edition 1977
194 pages
158 x 220mm
A near fine copy, hardcover with some fading on the dust jacket.