DELIGHTFUL SATURDAYS WITH MY FAVORITE AUTHORS AND POETS (25)

HENRY LAWSON

( Image and information: Wikipedia)

Henry Lawson was a great Australian poet. He was also popular for writing fiction during the colonial period along with his contemporary, Banjo Paterson. He’s regarded as Australia’s greatest short story writer.

Henry Lawson was born as Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson on 17 June 1867, at Grenfell goldfields, New South Wales, Australia. His father, Niels Hertzberg Larsen, was a Norwegian-born miner who came to Melbourne in 1855, to join the gold Rush with his partner, William Henry John Slee. Niels married Louisa Albury and they anglicised their surname following which Niels became Peter Lawson. They had an unhappy marriage. Louisa participated in the women’s movement and edited a women’s paper called The Dawn (published May 1888 to July 1905). She also published her son Henry’s first book and her own book called Dert and Do, a simple story of 18,000 words .

Henry Lawson first went to school at Eurunderee from 2 October 1876. Unfortunately, he had an early infection which affected his hearing. He became partially deaf but completely lost his ability to hear by the age of fourteen.His master, John Tierney, helped him with his studies. Lawson shifted to a Catholic school at Mudgee, New South Wales around 8 km away. His new master, Mr Kevan, would teach Lawson about poetry. To make up for his hearing impairment, Lawson took up reading. He admired Dickens and Marryat and also read Australian novels such as Marcus Clarke’s For the Term of His Natural Life (1874) and Rolf Boldrewood’s Robbery Under Arms (1882); an aunt had also given him a volume by Bret Harte.

Lawson worked with his father in building construction jobs in the Blue Mountains and moved on to live with his mother, Louisa, and his siblings in Sydney, at her request. He worked during the day and studied at night for his matriculation with the hope of joining a University. He failed in his exams. That didn’t deter him from taking up writing and composed a a poem titled William Street.

He had a brief relationship with Mary Gilmore in 1890 but she called off the engagement. Lawson married Bertha Bredt, Jr., daughter of Bertha Bredt, the prominent socialist, in 1896 which ended in a divorce in 1903, due to his indulging in domestic violence . He had son Jim (Joseph) and daughter Bertha.

He started having problems like alcoholism and mental illness because of which he was committed to spend days in Darlinghurst Gaol and psychiatric institutions. He died due to cerebral haemorrhage on 2 September 1922 (aged 55) at Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He was the first Australian writer to receive a state funeral.

His best works

Collections:

Short Stories in Prose and Verse (1894) – short stories, prose, poetry

While the Billy Boils (1896) – short stories

In the Days When the World was Wide and Other Verses (1896) – poetry

Verses, Popular and Humorous (1900) – poetry

On the Track (1900) – short stories

Over the Sliprails (1900) – short stories

On the Track, and, Over the Sliprails (1900) – short stories

Popular Verses (1900) – poetry

Humorous Verses (1900) – poetry

The Country I Come From (1901) – short stories

Joe Wilson and His Mates (1901) – short stories

Children of the Bush (1902) – short stories, prose, poetry

When I Was King and Other Verses (1905) – poetry

The Elder Son (1905) – poetry

When I Was King (1905) – poetry

The Romance of the Swag (1907) – short stories, prose

Send Round the Hat (1907) – short stories

The Skyline Riders and Other Verses (1910) – poetry

The Rising of the Court and Other Sketches in Prose and Verse (1910) – short stories, prose, poetry

For Australia and Other Poems (1913) – poetry

Triangles of Life and Other Stories (1913) – short stories

My Army, O, My Army! and Other Songs (1915) – poetry

Song of the Dardanelles and Other Verses (1916) – poetry

Selected Poems of Henry Lawson (1918) – poetry

Posthumous collections

Poems of Henry Lawson (1973)

The Best of Henry Lawson for Young Australians (1973)

The Drover’s Wife and Other Stories (1974)

The World of Henry Lawson (1974)

The Poems of Henry Lawson (1975)

Poems of Henry Lawson : Volume Two (1975)

Favourite Stories (1976)

Henry Lawson : favourite verse (1978)

Henry Lawson Poems (1979)

Henry Lawson’s Mates : The Complete Stories of Henry Lawson (1979)

The Essential Henry Lawson : The Best Works of Australia’s Greatest Writer (1982)

A Camp-Fire Yarn: Henry Lawson Complete Works 1885-1900 (1984)

A Fantasy of Man: Henry Lawson Complete Works 1901-1922 (1984)

Henry Lawson Favourites (1984)

Henry Lawson, The Master Story-Teller : Prose Writings (1984)

The Penguin Henry Lawson Short Stories (1986)

The Songs of Henry Lawson (1989)

The Roaring Days (1994) (aka The Henry Lawson Collection Vol. 1)

On the Wallaby Track (1994) (aka The Henry Lawson Collection Vol. 2)

Popular poems, short stories and sketches

Australian Loyalty” (essay, 1887)

“Faces in the Street” (poem, 1888)”

Andy’s Gone with Cattle” (poem, 1888)”

United Division” (essay, 1888)”

The Teams” (poem, 1889)”

A Neglected History” (essay)

“Freedom on the Wallaby” (poem, 1891)”

The Babies of Walloon” (poem, 1891)”

The Bush Undertaker” (short story, 1892)

“The City Bushman” (poem, 1892)”

Up The Country” (poem, 1892)”

The Grog-an’-Grumble Steeplechase” (poem, 1892)”

The Drover’s Wife” (short story, 1892)

“Saint Peter” (poem, 1893)”

The Union Buries Its Dead” (short story, 1893)”

Steelman’s Pupil” (short story, 1895)”

The Geological Spieler” (short story, 1896)

“The Iron-Bark Chip” (short story, 1900)

“The Loaded Dog” (short story, 1901)”

A Child in the Dark, and a Foreign Father” (short story, 1902)

“Triangles of Life, and other stories” (short stories, 1916)

“Scots of the Riverina” (poem, 1917)

His poem

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