Arcadian Adelaide

by Thistle Anderson

with ‘Thistle Anderson in Edwardian Adelaide’ by Derek Whitelock

Wakefield Press, 1985, ISBN 094926802, black and white frontispiece, illustrated endpapers, hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, minor edge and shelf wear, minor rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, previous owners gift inscription to front endpaper, dustjacket shows a little edge and shelf wear with a little rubbing and bumping to edges and corners (see photographs)

“”May a merciful God forgive Adelaide her wine.” Adelaide’s women are “passing plain to look upon”; its men boors and drunks.  The best thing about Adelaide is that you can buy a ticket to Melbourne at its railway station.  Brothels and opium dens thrive in the “city of churches”.
Fanged with such comments, Arcadian Adelaide, published in 1905, was seen by infuriated Adelaideans as a serpent in their self-proclaimed Garden of Eden, the “Queen City of the South”.  There was a furore in the press.  Then the thistle under the municipal bottom was consigned to oblivion.
Dr Derek Whitelock came across this blistering little pamphlet while writing his prize-winning Adelaide: A History of Difference (1976).  He gives an entertaining and informative commentary here.
Thistle Anderson (Mrs Herbert Fisher) was an actress, a poet and a witty satirist – and handsome as well.  Her book is a whimsical insight into the realities of Edwardian Adelaide.  Have we changed much since Thistle inspected us?.”