E W Cole: Chasing the Rainbow (Arcade Publications, 2007) by Lisa Lang will intrigue both those who fondly recall hours spent pouring over the Cole’s Funny Picture Books in their childhood as well as any reader interested in Australian history. Lang unfolds a fascinating tale of a man who was one of Australia’s most dynamic and far-thinking entrepreneurs.
E W Cole: Chasing the Rainbow
As might be expected from a man daring enough to trademark the rainbow, Edward Cole’s life story is a fascinating tale of an unusual man.
Twenty years old and ready to make his fortune in the Victorian goldfields, Edward Cole arrived in Melbourne Australia in 1852. It didn’t take long for this resourceful young man to realise that there were easier ways to earn money than the back-breaking efforts required to mine gold and his first business venture involved selling lemon-flavoured water to the miners of Forest Creek.
Many years after these humble beginnings, Edward Cole was to try his innovative marketing methods on the crowds of Melbourne. Cole moved from selling pies to selling books and his attention-grabbing marketing drew crowds to his eventual shopfront at the Coles Book Arcade.
Filled with details of Cole’s outlandish marketing techniques, writing pursuits and family life, E W Cole: Chasing the Rainbow reveals a man who was far more than a book seller and publisher. Cole’s interests included the publishing of pamphlets about the need for racial tolerance (which opposed the White Australia policy generally supported at the time), the value of education and his visions for the future of the human race. Refusing to be limited by the traditional practices and social customs of the time, Cole challenged Melbourne society with his approach to both his business and personal life.
Edward Cole was a man who lived true to his own personal convictions of the equality of mankind and value of education and reading, often risking financial loss to stand by his beliefs. While Cole is remembered for his entertaining Cole’s Funny Picture Books, Lang reveals a man who was also innovative, intellectual, idealistic and forward-thinking.
Coles Funny Picture Books
Coles Funny Picture Books are a cherished childhood memory for many Australian’s born in the 1970s and earlier. First published in 1879, these scrapbook-style volumes contained poems, optical illusions, humorous illustrations and snippets of information about a variety of subjects. Distinctively presented with a black cover emblazoned with a rainbow and white print, these books offered entertainment to Australian children for more than one hundred years.
The bright rainbow of the cover carried the marketing slogan of the Cole’s Book Arcade as well as putting forward Cole’s personal beliefs and philosophies including phrases such as ‘The happiness of mankind, the real salvation of the world must come about by every person in existence being taught to read and induced to think’ and ‘All men are brothers. The people everywhere that we do not know are as nice as the people that we do know'.
While some illustrations and stories would be unlikely to be approved for modern publication, the Cole’s Funny Picture Books represent the decades before and after Australian Federation at the turn of the 20th century. As Lang reveals in E W Cole: Chasing the Rainbow, they are also evidence of the passion and dedication of a fascinating and deep-thinking man.
Edward Cole – An Early Australian Entrepreneur
Lisa Lang’s story of Edward Cole, from his arrival in Melbourne in the 1850s to his death in 1918 in his home surrounded by his family, is a tale of both a fascinating individual and an interesting period of Australian history.
The palm-sized format book features numerous photographs of Cole and his family, illustrations from his Funny Picture Books and images of Melbourne in the late 1800s. The stories from Cole’s life, both personal and professional, are intriguing and E W Cole: Chasing the Rainbow is a very readable and enjoyable snapshot of an early Australian entrepreneur, businessman and publisher.
Review copy details:
E W Cole: Chasing the Rainbow (ISBN: 978-0-9804367-0-9, 89 pages)
Join the Conversation