Norfolk Island printing at the Melanesian Mission Press

“An Introduction to the Study of Oceanic Languages."

Norfolk Island: Melanesian Mission Press, 1910”

FOX, C. E.

Small 8vo. (iv), 103 pp. Original flexible cloth binding, lightly worn but sound. Small personal library mark and ownership name to half-title; early signature of K. J. Dover on the facing page.

A rare linguistic study printed at the Melanesian Mission Press on Norfolk Island, established in 1859 under Bishop Selwyn to serve as the central training and printing station for the Anglican Melanesian Mission. The press issued grammars, religious tracts, and linguistic works in and about Oceanic languages, many in small runs for missionary use.

Fox was a missionary-linguist and later noted anthropologist. This work gives a systematic attempts to classify and describe the grammatical structures of the Oceanic language family, drawing on his experience in the Solomon Islands.

Provenance: from the library of Sir Kenneth James Dover (1920–2010), distinguished classical scholar and President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

Around 20 copies recorded on OCLC

£650