HENRY LAWSON

'Henry Lawson'^[1] (17 June, 1867 - 2 September, 1922) was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period.

Contents

Early life

Poet

Later years

Collections of Poetry and Prose

Popular Poems, Short Stories and Sketches

Recurring Characters

Recurring Themes of Lawson's Stories

See also

References

External links

Early life

Lawson was born in a tent on the Grenfell goldfields of New South Wales. His mother was Louisa Lawson (née Albury), a prominent suffragist and owner/editor of ''The Dawn'' journal which was partly responsible for Australia becoming one of the first countries to introduce adult female suffrage. His father was Niels Herzberg Larsen, a Norwegian-born miner who went to sea at 21, arrived in Melbourne in 1855 and joined the gold rush.
Lawson, Henry (1867 - 1922) Brian Matthews Larsen travelled to different goldfields, and at Pipeclay (now Eurunderee, New South Wales) met Louisa and married her on 7 July 1866; he was 32 and she, 18. On Henry's birth, the family surname was anglicised and Niels became Peter Lawson. The newly-married couple were to have an unhappy marriage.
Henry Lawson attended school at Eurunderee from 2 October 1876 but suffered an ear infection at around this time that left him with partial deafness and by the age of fourteen he had lost his hearing entirely. He later attended a Roman Catholic school at Mudgee, New South Wales around 8 km away; the master there, Mr. Kevan, would talk to Lawson about poetry. He was a keen reader of Dickens and Marryat and serialised novels such as ''Robbery under Arms'' and ''For the Term of his Natural Life''; an aunt had also given him a volume by Bret Harte. Reading became a major source of his education because, due to his deafness, he had trouble learning in the classroom.
In 1883, after working on building jobs with his father and in the Blue Mountains, Lawson joined his mother in Sydney at her request. Louisa was then living with Henry's sister and brother. Lawson studied for his matriculation, but failed.

Poet

Lawson's first published poem was 'A Song of the Republic' which appeared in The Bulletin, 1 October 1887; his mother's radical friends were an influence. This was followed by 'The Wreck of the Derry Castle' and then 'Golden Gully', where memories of the goldfields were an influence.
Lawson received an offer to write for the Brisbane ''Boomerang'' in 1891, but he lasted only around 7-8 months as the ''Boomerang'' was soon in trouble. He returned to Sydney and continued to write for the ''Bulletin'' who in 1892 paid for an inland trip where he experienced the harsh realities of drought-affected New South Wales. This became a source for many of his stories in subsequent years.
Most of his work focuses on the Australian bush, such as the desolate 'Past Carin', and is considered by some to be among the first accurate descriptions of Australian life as it was at the time. Lawson was a firm believer in the merits of the sketch story, commonly known simply as 'the sketch,' claiming that ''"the sketch story is best of all."''^[2][3] Lawson's Jack Mitchell story, ''On The Edge Of A Plain'', is often cited as one of the most accomplished examples of the sketch.^[3]
Like the majority of Australians, Lawson lived in a city, but had had plenty of experience in outback life, in fact, many of his stories reflected his experiences in real life. In Sydney in 1898 he was a prominent member of the Dawn and Dusk Club, a bohemian club of writer friends who met for drinks and conversation. He married Bertha Bredt Jr., daughter of Bertha Bredt, the prominent feminist and socialist. With Bertha Bredt Jr, had two children, son Jim (Joseph) and daughter Bertha.

Later years

During his later life, the alcohol-addicted writer was probably Australia's best-known celebrity. At the same time, he was also a frequent beggar on the streets of Sydney, notably at the Circular Quay ferry turnstiles. He was gaoled at Darlinghurst Gaol for drunkenness and non-payment of alimony, and recorded his experience in the haunting poem "One Hundred and Three" - his prison number - which was published in 1908. He refers to the prison as "Starvinghurst Gaol" because of the meagre rations given to the inmates.
On his death in Abbotsford, Sydney in 1922, he was given a state funeral, attended by the Prime Minister W. M. Hughes and the Premier of New South Wales Jack Lang (who was the husband of Lawson's sister-in-law Hilda Bredt), as well as thousands of citizens. He is interred at Waverley Cemetery.
Henry Lawson was featured on the former paper Australian ten dollar note issued in 1966 when decimal currency was first introduced into Australia. This note was replaced by polymer notes in 1993. Lawson was pictured against scenes from the town of Gulgong in NSW.^[5]

Collections of Poetry and Prose

★ ''Short Stories in Prose and Verse (1894)

★ ''In the Days When the World was Wide (1896)

★ ''While the Billy Boils'' (1896)

★ ''On the Track'' (1900)

★ ''Over The Sliprails'' (1900)

★ ''The Country I Come From'' (1901)

★ ''In the Days When the World was Wide and Other Verses''

★ ''Joe Wilson and His Mates'' (1901)

★ ''

★ ''The Romance of the Swag'' (1907)

★ ''Send Round the Hat'' (1907)

★ ''The Rising Of The Court, and Other Sketches in Prose and Verse'' (1910)

★ ''Triangles of Life and Other Stories'' (1913)

★ ''Children of the Bush''

Popular Poems, Short Stories and Sketches

★ "" (poem)

★ "Freedom on the Wallaby" (poem, 1891)

★ " (poem, 1891)

★ "" (poem, 1893)

★ "Scots of the Riverina" (poem, 1917)

★ "" (poem, 1896)

★ "Up The Country" (poem, 1892)

★ "The City Bushman" (poem, 1892)

★ "" (short story, 1892)

★ "The Bush Undertaker" (short story, 1892)

★ "The Loaded Dog" (short story, 1901)

★ "" (short story,1900)

★ "" (short story)

★ "" (short story, 1896)

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

★ "The Union Buries Its Dead" (short story, 1893)

★ "" (essay)

★ "" (essay, 1887)

★ "" (essay, 1888)

Recurring Characters

★ 'Joe Wilson'

★
★ ""

★
★ "A Double Buggy at Lahey Creek"

★
★ ""

★
★ ""

★ 'Jack Mitchell'

★
★ ""

★
★ "On The Edge Of A Plain"

★
★ ""

★
★ ""

★
★ ""

★
★ "Bill, the Ventriloquial Rooster"

★
★ ""

★
★ ""

★
★ ""

★ 'Steelman and Smith'

★
★ ""

★
★ ""

★
★ ""

★
★ ""

★
★ ""

★ 'Dave Regan, Jim Bently and/or Andy Page'

★
★ "The Loaded Dog"

★
★ ""

★
★ ""

★
★ ""

★
★ ""

Recurring Themes of Lawson's Stories

Main articles: Themes of Henry Lawson's works

Many of Henry Lawson's short stories explore similar themes:

★ Roles of women

★ Roles of men

★ Roles of children

★ Loneliness / Isolation

★ Hardship

★ Importance of Humour

★ The Emotional Impact of Bush Life

★ Mateship

See also

★ The Bulletin Debate

References

1. He is sometimes shown as ''Henry 'Herzberg' Lawson'', or ''Henry 'Archibald' Lawson''; however, the name on his birth certificate is simply ''Henry Lawson'', and he never used any other variants in his published works
2. 'Three or Four Archibalds and the Writer'
3. ''The Penguin Henry Lawson Short Stories'' (First published 1986) Edited with an introduction by John Barnes - Introduction
4. ''The Penguin Henry Lawson Short Stories'' (First published 1986) Edited with an introduction by John Barnes - Introduction
5. Museum of Australian Currency Notes Accessed on June 7, 2007

External links

★ Henry Lawson Online - Poems, Stories, Books, Photos, People, Places, Facts, etc...

★ Henry Lawson Books - Has details of all known books by Henry Lawson published and for sale

★

★ Poetry Archive: 125 poems of Henry Lawson

★ Henry Lawson and Louisa Lawson Online Chronology

★ Henry Lawson - Essays, Short Stories and Verse Collections