A Bridge to the Master... Meher Baba (Black & White Edition) Paintings & Drawings, Poems & Essays by Oswald Hall Edited & Introduction by Paul Smith Oswald Hall (1917-1991) Oswald Hall was one of the first, if not the first seeker of God to recognize Meher Baba as a Perfect Master and later as the Avatar in Australia. Oswald Hall was a dynamic person who lifted you up with his love and enthusiasm for life and art and poetry and... everything. He seemed to have some knowledge about most things and his description of Meher Baba when Baba came to his house in Eltham in 1956 was the nail that finally hit the head of any doubt I may have had about Baba at that time. For the following twenty years over many late night drinks and smokes we discussed and argued about almost every subject in the universe, but mainly about Baba and the great Sufi poets, wine and painting and culture and our own poetry and writing and his wonderful paintings that filled his house, mainly of Meher Baba (many of these are lost to us today). In his essay on Oswald's paintings Christopher Heathcote states "the pen and ink drawings Hall produced in the period 1944-46 (pages 34-42)... are undoubtedly the most important early Australian surrealist drawings that have come to light in recent years." In my opinion his later paintings related to Meher Baba were of equal importance. His poetry is sometimes quite obscure but is always fascinating and spiritually surrealist as are his paintings... his masterpieces 'The Brood in Exile', 'Intimations of Song' 'The Royal Verge' and many others must be among some of the most important Australian poetry composed in the mid-twentieth century. His essay on Art... 'The Source of Style' and on Meher Baba 'The Bridge to the Master' are more relevant today than they were when they we written around forty years ago. Oswald Hall was an original and his life and works are still with us today in the memories of all who knew him and now in this book for others to know his ideas and inspirations. Paul Smith, from the Introduction. Black & White Edition. 8" X 10" (21 cm X 30 cm). 338 pages. New Humanity Books amazon.com/author/smithpa