The Gaoler by Elsie Locke. first edition. SCARCE.

The Gaoler by Elsie Locke.

Publisher: Dunmore Press, 1978, first edition. SCARCE.

Very good hardback with no jacket. Spine slightly cocked. Very light fading to spine. No inscriptions. Light foxing - mainly to page edges.

"Today we are still unsure whether prisons should be regarded as places of reform or as places of secure confinement. All too often the result is that they are places where prisoners are dehumanised and warders are faceless. "The Gaoler" tells of Dunedin's earliest prison, essentially a makeshift affair neither secure nor comfortable, but small enough for the prisoners to be regarded as human beings. The central character of the story, Henry Monsoon, strove constantly to improve prison conditions and his prisoner's moral outlook, struggling all the way with official indifference and miserliness. Elsie Locke draws on a store of contemporary records, newspapers, diaries and reminiscences to tell this story, and attempts to restore, by imagination, some of the elements that so often go missing in history."--Inside front cover. 233 pages with illustrations.

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