Dmytro Chub.Trails of Adventure: Stories, Essays, Poems.Melbourne, 1975

Dmytro Chub. Path of Adventure: Stories, Sketches, Poems / [cover and illustrations by P. Vakulenko; three illustrations by L. Denysenko].

Melbourne: Ukrainian Publishing House “Prosvita”, 1975. — illus.

Illustrated softcover in yellow-orange paper: a landscape of Australian bush with a boat on the water, printed in green and dark brown; back cover plain. The front cover has several small spots; the back has reddish spots and dots, darkened edges, and creasing in the lower left corner; “500” is marked in pencil at the top left. The text block paper shows natural yellowing, with occasional foxing on the edges and first leaves. Good condition.

Lifetime edition. The book has historical and cultural value as a record of the lives of Ukrainian settlers in Australia.

INFORMATION

A collection of stories, sketches, and poems for older children and young people about the adventures of Ukrainian settlers in Australia. The first part, “From Australian Adventures,” opens with the sketch “Australian Teddy Bear,” which begins with a nighttime train journey from Melbourne to the Bonegilla camp; the author then writes about a snake, a crocodile, a Papuan, and a pet kangaroo named Hop-Hop. The second part, “From the Native Land,” contains “The Little Wolf,” “The Little Hare,” “Shevchenko Among the Children,” and other works.

Dmytro Chub was the pseudonym of Dmytro Nytchenko (1905–1999), a writer, literary scholar, and publisher from Zinkiv in the Poltava region. He emigrated to Australia in 1949, founded the “Lastivka” publishing house in Melbourne, and was a full member of the Ukrainian Literary Association from 1975.

The edition has an English-language title page, “Path of Adventure,” and a recommendation by the Association of Workers in Literature for Children and Youth. The book was republished in Kyiv in 1993.