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Issue Details: First known date: 1880... 1880 Tasmanian Friends and Foes, Feathered, Furred, and Finned : A Family Chronicle of Country Life, Natural History, and Veritable Adventure
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Lina decides to write to her English cousin Sibyl about the exciting and unusual flora and fauna of Tasmania. She does so through relating anecdotes about encounters with wildlife. The book also contains beautiful colour plates depicting some of the flora and fauna mentioned.

Exhibitions

Notes

  • Dedication: This volume is affectionately dedicated to Ethel and Gregory, Tasmanian-born children of Sir Thomas Gore Browne, K.C.M.G. etc., formerly Governor of Tasmania; Mary Violet, daughter of Major-General P.Maxwell; Stanislaus, Son of Count Odoardo Colacicchi; Rowland, son of Colonel T. Vaughton; and to my other grand-nieces and nephews in Europe and Australia, with the hope that they may all share that love of nature which, from childhood to age, I have found so precious a companion. Louisa A.Meredith.
  • Users are warned that this work contains terminology that reflects attitudes or language used at the time of publication that are considered inappropriate today.
  • Warning: Meredith recounts an incident whereby Aboriginal people are accused of murdering a settler family. Her description of the Palawa people of Tasmania and distortion of facts is offensive and should be treated with caution.
  • The Palawa people are one of two groups who are descendants of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people. The Palawa people are the descendants of the Aborigines taken to the islands in Bass Strait in 1835, after becoming the wives of European sealers. The other group known as Lia Pootah are the descendants of the Aborigines who remained on mainland Tasmania as servants and those who managed to remain in small tribal groups.

    Source: McFarlane, I. Beyond Awakening: The Aboriginal tribes of North West Tasmania. Fullers Bookshop, 2008.

    Flood, J. The Original Australian of Aboriginal People. Allen and Unwin, 2006.

  • For other works listed in AustLit about the Palawa people follow the 'Palawa Tasmanian' link in the list of General subjects above.

Affiliation Notes

  • Nineteenth-Century Travel Writing

    Louisa Anne Meredith (nee Tawmley, 1812-1895) was an artist, poet, novelist and travel writer. Her Tasmanian Friends and Foes Feathered, Furred and Finned is an account of the fauna of Tasmania, featuring autobiographical anecdotes from her family's daily life. Each chapter opens withan epigraph, and the voice shifts from first to third person, but with a conversational tone. Many sections are accounts of day trips around Tasmania, and family gossip. The book was elaborately illustrated with coloured plates and black and white sketches of Tasmanian wildlife and flora. This is one of Meredith's later books, and the second edition was published following her husband Charles Meredith's death in 1880. She also wrote Notes and Sketches of New South Wales, During a Residence in that Colony from 1839 to 1844 (1844), My Home in Tasmania, during a Residence of Nine Years (1852) and Travels and Stories in our Gold Colonies (1865).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Hobart, Southeast Tasmania, Tasmania,: London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      J. Walch ; Marcus Ward ,
      1880 .
      person or book cover
      Link: 8503396Full text document AustLit Full Text
      Extent: 259p., 8 leaves of col. platesp.
      Description: illus. (b & w).
      Note/s:
      • Title page note : With coloured plates, from drawings by the author.
      • Title page verso has Publishers' Note.
      • Digitised by AustLit, 2009, from the collection of the NLA.
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Marcus Ward ,
      1881 .
      image of person or book cover 8481538059530270494.png
      Link: 21275325Full text document Sighted: 10/03/2021
      Extent: 259p., 8 leaves of col. platesp.
      Edition info: 2nd ed.
      Description: illus. (b & w).
      Note/s:
      • Title page note : With coloured plates, from drawings by the author.
      • Title page verso has Publishers' Note.

      Holdings

      Held at: State Library of Tasmania State Library of Tasmania
      Location: Crowther Collection
      Local Id: CRO 574.9946 MER

      Holdings

      Held at: Monash University Monash University Library Sir Louis Matheson Library
      Local Id: A820.2 M559 A6/T.2

      Holdings

      Held at: National Library of Australia
      Location: Main Reading Room
      Local Id: N 591.9946 M559-2

      Holdings

      Held at: State Library of Victoria
      Local Id: JKP 591.9946 M541T

      Holdings

      Held at: Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW
      Local Id: DSM/591.996/M

      Holdings

      Held at: State Library of Queensland State Library of QLD
      Local Id: RBJ 591.9946 MER

      Holdings

      Held at: University of New South Wales UNSW Library
      Local Id: QL339.T37 M47 1881

      Holdings

      Held at: University of Tasmania Morris Miller Library
      Local Id: QL 339 .T2 M47 1881

      Holdings

      Held at: Adelaide University Barr Smith Library
      Local Id: 591.9946 M55.2

Works about this Work

y separately published work icon In the Service of Infinite and Glorious Creation: The Nature Writing of Louisa Anne Meredith Kordula Dunscombe , St Lucia : AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource , 2009 Z975333 1998 single work criticism Dunscombe discuss the work of Louisa Anne Meredith positing that the attention she gives to the natural environment in her novels has an 'overt conservationist message' (17) and engages with issues of domination, exploitation and general disrespect for the environment. Dunscombe argues that Meredith 'strove to foster in her readers a multi-dimensional appreciation of the natural world, encompassing emotional, spiritual, ethical, aesthetic, cultural scientific and practical understandings' (16). Dunscombe admires Meredith's work as an example of 19th century environmentalism and also for Merediths awareness and foregrounding 'of her less than authoratative status as woman and author' (as opposed to the more authoratitive position of male-professional environmentalist). Dunscombe believes that 'Meredith's well-established commkitment to close personal observation is the backbone of her scientific approach' (24) while her 'earnest purpose is to 'inculcate a love and respect for nature by using all the means at her disposal' (29).
Changing Perspectives : The Implied Reader in Australian Children's Literature 1841-1994 H. M. Saxby , 1995 single work criticism
— Appears in: Children's Literature in Education , March vol. 26 no. 1 1995; (p. 25-38)
Changing Perspectives : The Implied Reader in Australian Children's Literature 1841-1994 H. M. Saxby , 1995 single work criticism
— Appears in: Children's Literature in Education , March vol. 26 no. 1 1995; (p. 25-38)
y separately published work icon In the Service of Infinite and Glorious Creation: The Nature Writing of Louisa Anne Meredith Kordula Dunscombe , St Lucia : AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource , 2009 Z975333 1998 single work criticism Dunscombe discuss the work of Louisa Anne Meredith positing that the attention she gives to the natural environment in her novels has an 'overt conservationist message' (17) and engages with issues of domination, exploitation and general disrespect for the environment. Dunscombe argues that Meredith 'strove to foster in her readers a multi-dimensional appreciation of the natural world, encompassing emotional, spiritual, ethical, aesthetic, cultural scientific and practical understandings' (16). Dunscombe admires Meredith's work as an example of 19th century environmentalism and also for Merediths awareness and foregrounding 'of her less than authoratative status as woman and author' (as opposed to the more authoratitive position of male-professional environmentalist). Dunscombe believes that 'Meredith's well-established commkitment to close personal observation is the backbone of her scientific approach' (24) while her 'earnest purpose is to 'inculcate a love and respect for nature by using all the means at her disposal' (29).
Last amended 25 Mar 2021 11:00:30
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