AURORA AUSTRALIS
Correspondence to and from John Millard
Launched: 28 February 2010.
Last updated: 12 August 2012
John Millard, of Toronto, Canada, was the first one to attempt locating extant copies of Aurora Australis. He wrote to many individuals, libraries and organizations—all before the advent of the personal computer—seeking out the Aurora and details about individual copies.
I first became aware of John's interest from two sources: Dora Diener, a bookseller at Francis Edwards (from whom I bought my copy of the Aurora) and from Louis Starr, another Aurora owner, since deceased, who was a New York financier. John had written a letter to Francis Edwards on 6 February 1982. Dora Diener, in turn, sent me a copy.
John Millard's letter to Francis Edwards.
The original survey that John Millard circulated.
At about the same time I received Dora Diener's note, I received a letter from John, Louis Starr having provided him with my address. This was dated 12 March 1982.
This started a correspondence which finally concluded with my last letter to him dated 23 April 1987. During that span of years we only met once at an conference of Hakluyt Society members held in Providence, Rhode Island. The first facsimile printing of the Aurora, with an introduction by John, appeared in 1986.
Our correspondence is included here. Much of it will be of little interest.
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
Accompanying copy 20 of the Aurora at the Australian Antarctic Division in Tasmania is some correspondence between Millard and the Division that sheds some light on both copy 20 and other copies of the Aurora.
Accompanying copy 102 of the Aurora is some correspondence between Millard and K.D. Holmes, a previous owner.