Rare Beatles Scrapbooks at the University Book Fair

Monday 22 August 2005

Three scrapbooks filled with newspaper clippings about the lives and triumphs of the Beatles are among the rare items to be auctioned at the Friends of the University of Newcastle Book Fair from 27 August to 3 September 2005 at the University's Great Hall.

The Book Fair is held bi-annually and has raised more than a half a million dollars for the University over the past 24 years. The last fair in 2003 attracted more than 60,000 people over the eight days.

This year's auction will also include "A Century in Journalism, the Sydney Morning Herald and its Record of Australian Life", published in 1931, and "Company of Heralds, a Century and a Half of Australian Publishing by John Fairfax Ltd - 1831 to 1981".

There are eight volumes of the official history of Australia's involvement in the 1914-18 War, six volumes of Sir Winston Churchill's history of World War 2, an autographed copy of H.V. Evatt’s speeches on the Foreign Policy of Australia published in 1945 and Newcastle's Dr. Thomas Hamilton's "Soldier Surgeon in Malaya".

Other books to go on sale during the slow auction on the last day of the Fair, Saturday, 3 September, range from The Love Teachings of the Kama Sutra to the first edition of Les Murray's book of poems, "The Weatherboard Cathedral" and an autographed copy of "The Larwood Story" by Harold Larwood with Kevin Perkins.

The Friends' Book Fair Convenor, Pat Flowers, said the Beatles scrapbooks were obviously the work of a great admirer of the legendary pop group who had saved a wide range of clippings between 1963 and 1973.

One of the scrapbooks had been devoted to Paul McCartney, another had been titled "The Beatles-from Beatlemania to Bangladesh" and the third had been called "The Rise and Fall of the Beatles".

A record number of books, magazines, cds, sheet music and records covering a wide range of interests will go on sale from 10am, Saturday 27 August.

For further information contact Pat Flowers on 49 681120 or Meg or Vic Levi on 4946 8859.