The Life and Adventures of Edward Snell: The Illustrated Diary of an Artist, Engineer and Adventurer in the Australian Colonies 1849 to 1859 edited and introduced by Tom Griffiths

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Minor wear to book corners and edges. Dust jacket has some light creasing at edges and spine. Interior and binding are excellent.

Edward Snell was an engineer, surveyor, artist and adventurer, but above all, he was a diarist. The part of his life that was the least public is why he will be remembered.

Edward Snell kept two diaries -- one in England from 1842 to 1849 and one in Australia from 1849 to 1859. They are both literary and artistic delights, the repositories of Snell's humour, reflections and tales of his life in two hemispheres.

His Australian diary, held in the State Library of Victoria's Australian Manuscripts Collection, is published in its entirety in this book. It records Snell's voyages to and from the colonies. It tells of his experiences in South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria, where, after spending some months on the goldfields near Bendigo, he won the contract to build the Geelong-Melbourne railway, Australia's first country railway. (book flap)