"My Dear Spencer"

Book excerpt: Between 1894 and 1903, outback postmaster Frank Gillen wrote to the Melbourne University academic Baldwin Spencer. Gillen, a self-educated enthusiast, died in 1912, having partnered Spencer in pioneering fieldwork to record the culture and beliefs of the Aboriginal people. These letters provide a background to their books, which profoundly influenced theories on the development of human society. The letters shed light on race relations, social conditions and Aboriginal culture in Central Australia. They also document a poorly-understood period in the history of anthropology.