Hesperian Press
Hesperian Press is a locally owned and operated book publisher located in Perth, Western Australia.
Peter Bridge first published technical material in 1969.[1][2]
The business of Hesperian Press in its current format started in 1979. The Press republishes out-of-print books together with new texts.[3][4]
It has also published facsimiles of early out-of-print Western Australian books, and the writings of early Australian explorers.[5][6]
It continues[when?] to produce otherwise difficult to trace items.[7]
In August 2025, The Guardian reported that Hesperian Press would be publishing an edition of the diaries of early Western Australian settler Major Logue.[8] These diaries contained sections written in a simple code which, when decoded, revealed Logue had murdered at least 19 Yamatji people.[8] The company made the decision not to publish the sections relating to the murders which was criticised by Chris Owen, historian of mass murders of Aboriginal people.[8] The Guardian stated that Hesperian's catalogue contained 'descriptions of historical works using outdated and racist language', and that Bridge's own works suggested 'Aboriginal "criminal matters" have been minimised by "our masters"'.[8]
Notes
[edit]- ^ 'Peter Bridge - biography of publisher, Hesperian Press' in The Sunday Times (Perth, W.A.), 1 Sept. 1985, p.53,
- ^ 'Peter Bridge - biography of publisher and information about Hesperian Press'. West Australian, 27 Dec. 1984, p.103.
- ^ "Home". Hesperian Press.
- ^ Collection of material relating to Hesperian Press Battye Library '3rd Floor Ephemera Stack' PR13854
- ^ "Home". explorationswa.com.au. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 5 July 2011.
- ^ Hobby, Nathan (29 March 2007). "WA publisher profile : Hesperian Press". State Library of Western Australia.
- ^ Rothwell, Nicholas. "Hard country". The Australian.
- ^ a b c d Allam, Lorena; Collard, Sarah; Archibald-Binge, Ella; Evershed, Nick; Ball, Andy (3 August 2025). "The killing code: strange symbols in a WA settler's diaries lay bare frontier atrocities". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
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