Captain of the Push

When A Larrikin Chief Ruled The Rocks

by Kenneth Roberts

Lansdowne Press, 1963 [First Edition], black and white photographic plates, hardcover, dust-jacket

Very Good Condition, a little edge and shelf wear, a little rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, no inscriptions, dust-jacket shows some edge and shelf wear with rubbing, chipping, tears and creasing to edges and corners, top and bottom of spine, general rubbing (see photographs)

"at the northern end of the city of Sydney, and almost in the shadow of the famed Harbour Bridge, is a half-square-mile pocket of land, which, from the days of Australia's founding fathers, has been known as The Rocks.
It is as Captain of the Push - The Rocks push, toughest of them all - that we first meet Larry Foley in this book.  In fairness to Foley's reputation, however, it must be said immediately that his excursion into pushdom is seen by the author as an aberration, completely out of character with the rest of his life.
In tracing how Foley rose above the pushite environment to become the greatest bare-knuckle fighter of his time and the founder of scientific boxing in Australia, Kenneth Roberts has turned his searchlight into many seldom explored corners of Australia."