Spencer: The Gold Seeker. SIGNED by Crumpton, E.W.

Hardcover, fine condition. Dust jacket scuffed, chipped, and small pieces missing from edges. ISBN 9780473000349 Publisher: Batyprint New Zealand Limited, 1979

This two-part biography of pioneering on the West Coast of NZ's South Island in the 1860s era of the gold rushes that attracted many miners and prospectors from the diggings of America and Australia. Henry Spencer, the "gold seeker" of this book arrived from the latter after he abandoned his studies as a medical student in Melbourne Part one revolves around Henry Spencer and his experiences on the gold fields. The second relates to Spencer's daughter Lizzy, born in a hut on the diggings. She later married Albert Crumpton and was the author's mother. Eric Crumpton compiled this excellent account of life on the fields, of pioneering.with its privations, lonliness. challenges, succeses and inevitable "characters":, from various accounts, old lertters, and from stories related to him by his mother over many years. and recorded (in note form) at the time, and also from the recollections of other old-timers. In his introductory notes the author says he is not a "professional writer" and while that may be so, his story is refreshingly simple while presenting a convincing setting for the pioneering time being recounted. Printed the by Batyprint at Christchurch, first edition of 1979, 193 pages.

Home