Historical information

This is an Irish-Australian novel written in 1922 by Doctor Gerald Baldwin (c.1868-1942). New Zealand born Dr Baldwin was in Warrnambool from about 1900 to 1915. He took over the medical practice and small private hospital of Dr Thomas Scott in Banyan Street, Warrnambool. In 1915 he disposed of the hospital to Sister Ingpen who renamed it ‘Alveston’. Dr Baldwin then practised in Richmond, Melbourne. He wrote novels and plays, with his best-known work being the novel, ‘In Racing Silk’. As well as the novel, ‘Grey Town’, the Historical Society has an original program of a performance in 1914 by the Warrnambool Dramatic Society when Dr Baldwin was in Warrnambool. The program featured a play written by Dr Baldwin, ‘Father O’Flynn’, set partly in Dublin.

Significance

This book is important because it is a novel written by a local doctor, Gerald Baldwin . He had considerable success with his writings in the early part of the 20th century.

Physical description

This is a hard cover book of 262 pages. It has a red cover with gold and black lettering on the front cover and on the spine. The colouring on the spine is very much faded. The book is a novel with 26 chapters and contains a full page sepia-coloured sketch at the beginning of the story.