CompuServe Thread

Steve… The books you listed are Paul Downing's works and are very good. Len Cram (who spoke twice to the Opal Society this spring and early summer while in the US & Canada researching opal sites) has produced a number of small, now out of print books on Australian opal. He just released a larger (80 pages) version a few weeks ago "Beautiful Opal: Australia's National Gem". Len is world renowned for his photography of opal, especially Lightning Ridge black stones. Nearly every page is graced with one or more of pics of wonderful stones and he has written the text as well. Nicely done commentary both anecdotal and historical on opal from Australia. I've been working several weeks now on a mini-bilbiography of the AOS newsletters from the past 24 years. I have also been going through a lot of other material and yes I have come across several opal bibliographies compiled both by individauls and the Opal Society. I can't say when I'll have them compiled since I'm doing this on a "volunteer" basis (g). At this point I can't offer much in the way of what's currently in print except the Len cram book above. With Paul Downing's works you've got some of the best material in print as far as I know. -Russ