Hordern House Rare Books

Hordern House Rare Books – founded by Anne McCormick and Derek McDonnell – is recognised as one of the world’s leading dealers in rare books, specialising in the literature of discovery and exploration throughout Australia and the Pacific region, with a particular emphasis on voyages, rare printed and manuscript Australiana, and natural history.

Hordern House produces several catalogues each year, supplemented by regularly posted web catalogues, each highlighting a particular theme of collecting interest. All current catalogues are available for download or purchase from our website.

Hordern House also maintains its own publishing arm and has issued many works of special interest to collectors and those keen on Australian history and voyages.

Most recently, we published the fourth and final volume in the Encyclopedia of Exploration by Raymond Howgego, a monumental work lauded and acclaimed by critics and institutions around the world as a “must have” reference for any serious researcher or collector of voyage material. The total Encyclopedia in four volumes amounts to over 4500 articles in approximately 3660 pages, some 3.7 million words.

In the Australian Maritime Series – published in conjunction with the Australian National Maritime Museum – we have released scholarly editions, including facsimiles of the rare original books, of works including George Hamilton’s A Voyage Around the World in His Majesty’s Frigate Pandora, Jacob le Maire’s Mirror of the Australian Navigation, and the latest title Georg Forster’s Cook Der Entdecker.


For a complete list of Hordern House publications, please visit www.hordern.com or the website dedicated to the Encyclopedia at www.explorersencyclopedia.com.

Hordern House occupies a distinguished Victorian building at 77 Victoria Street in Potts Point, Sydney. They are open from 9.00am to 5.00pm, Tuesdays to Fridays, or by prior appointment, and can be contacted via their website, or by calling (+61) 02 9356 4411.