J.R.W. Purves RDP, FRPSL: A Philatelic Bibliography

Description

The Royal Philatelic Society of Victoria decided that the most appropriate memorial to Mr. J. R. W. Purves, and one which would most adequately represent the man and his work would be a literary one. The Society was fortunate in having in Dr Kellow, a man who was able to search for and tabulate Mr Purves’ vast output.
It has been a tenet of the Society that it encourages research, that research must be published; and that it should be most easily available when wanted.
The Society was well aware of Mr Purves’ wide-ranging interests, but nobody dreamed of the vast amount of material which Dr Kellow’s industry produced.
His total of Mr Purves’ writing was 25 books and pamphlets, plus three books in collaboration with others, 187 magazine articles and serials, in 22 journals, as well as chapters in exhibition catalogues and other publications associated with particular events, and specialist “columns.”
Mr. Purves’ name is especially linked with Victoria but his published researches have dealt with the stamps of 3l countries.
Happily, Dr Kellow has perceived that a bibliography would be a dreary literary production, however valuable, if it confined itself to references. He has written a fine study of Mr. Purves’ development as a philatelist from boyhood, and then added the tributes of Mr. H. M. Campbell, R.D.P., and Mr. John Gartner, R.D.P., Mr Robson Lowe, as a very special overseas friend, and Mr. Eric Creed, F.R.P.S.L., a very close friend, from the Purves Memorial Issue of Philately from Australia (June 1979) to give a portrait of the man.
A smiling portrait – with stamps in the background – completes the book.

Published in 1982