Henry Lawson was an
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n writer and poet. Along with his contemporary
Banjo PatersonAndrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, OBE was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales where he spent much of his childhood...
, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer". He was the son of publisher and feminist
Louisa LawsonLouisa Lawson was an Australian writer, publisher, suffragist, and feminist. She was the mother of the poet and author Henry Lawson.-Early life:...
.
Early life
Henry Lawson was born in a town on the
Grenfell goldfieldsGrenfell is a country town in the Central West of New South Wales, Australia, in Weddin Shire. It is 370 kilometres west of Sydney and five hours' drive from the city. It is close to Forbes, Cowra and Young. At the 2006 census, Grenfell had a population of 1,994.-History:Prior to European...
of
New South WalesNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
. His father was Niels Herzberg Lawson, a
NorwegianNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
-born miner who went to sea at 21 and arrived in
MelbourneMelbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
in 1855 to join the gold rush, along with partner
William Henry John SleeWilliam Henry John Slee, FGS, , Australian geologist, mines inspector, mining warden, was born Wilhelm Heinrich Johann Slee on 3 May 1836 at Rostock, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany, a son of Jacob and Regina Slee. More usually known as W.H.J...
. Lawson's parents met at the goldfields of Pipeclay (now Eurunderee
New South WalesGloucester Countys was one of the original Nineteen Counties in New South Wales, and is now one of the 141 Cadastral divisions of New South Wales. It includes the area around Port Stephens...
), Niels and
Louisa AlburyLouisa Lawson was an Australian writer, publisher, suffragist, and feminist. She was the mother of the poet and author Henry Lawson.-Early life:...
(1848–1920) married 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. Louisa, after family-raising, took a significant part in women's movements, and edited a women's paper called
Dawn (published May 1888 to July 1905). She also published her son's first volume, and around 1904 brought out a volume of her own,
Dert and Do, a simple story of 18,000 words. In 1905 she collected and published her own verses,
The Lonely Crossing and other Poems. Louisa likely had a strong influence on her son's literary work in its earliest days.
Peter Lawson's grave (with headstone) is in the little private cemetery at
Hartley ValeHartley Vale is a small village in the Blue Mountains area of New South Wales, Australia. It is approximately 150 kilometres west of Sydney and 12 kilometres south-east of Lithgow. It is in the Local Government Area of the City of Lithgow.-Description:...
, New South Wales, a few minutes' walk behind what was Collitt's Inn.
Henry Lawson attended school at Eurunderee from 2 October 1876 but suffered an ear infection at around this time. It left him with partial deafness and by the age of fourteen he had lost his hearing entirely. However, his master John Tierney was kind and did all he could for Lawson who was quite shy. Lawson later attended a
CatholicThe word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
school at Mudgee, New South Wales around 8 km away; the master there, Mr. Kevan, would teach Lawson about poetry. Lawson was a keen reader of Dickens and Marryat and novels such as
Robbery under Arms and
For the Term of his Natural Life; an aunt had also given him a volume by
Bret HarteFrancis Bret Harte was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California.- Life and career :...
. 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 in the Blue Mountains, Lawson joined his mother in Sydney at her request. Louisa was then living with Henry's sister and brother. At this time, Lawson was working during the day and studying at night for his matriculation in the hopes of receiving a university education. However, he failed his exams. At around 20 years of age Lawson went to the eye and ear hospital in
MelbourneMelbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
but nothing could be done for his deafness.
In 1896, Lawson married Bertha Bredt Jr., daughter of Bertha Bredt, the prominent socialist. The marriage was ill-advised due to Lawson's alcohol addiction. They had two children, son Jim (Joseph) and daughter Bertha. However, the marriage ended very unhappily.
Poetry and prose writing
Lawson's first published poem was 'A Song of the English' which appeared in
The BulletinThe Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...
, 1 October 1887; his mother's radical friends were an influence. This was followed by 'The Wreck of the
Derry CastleThe Derry Castle was a 1367 ton iron barque built at Glasgow in 1883, and initially operating out of Limerick, Ireland. In 1887 while voyaging from Australia to the United Kingdom with a cargo of wheat, it foundered off Enderby Island, in the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands, on a reef which now...
' and then 'Golden Gully.' Prefixed to the former poem was an editorial 'note:
Lawson was 20 years old, not 17.
In 1890-1891 Lawson worked in
AlbanyAlbany is a port city in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, some 418 km SE of Perth, the state capital. As of 2009, Albany's population was estimated at 33,600, making it the 6th-largest city in the state....
. He then 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 which, in 1892, paid for an inland trip where he experienced the harsh realities of drought-affected New South Wales. This resulted in his contributions to the
Bulletin Debatethumb|250px|right|[[Henry Lawson]] with [[J.F. Archibald]], the co-founder of [[The Bulletin]]The "Bulletin Debate" was a famous dispute in The Bulletin magazine from 1892-93 between two of Australia's most iconic writers and poets: Henry Lawson and Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson.- Origin :At the...
and became a source for many of his stories in subsequent years. Elder writes of the trek Lawson took between Hungerford and
Bourke-Transportation:Bourke can be reached by the Mitchell Highway, with additional sealed roads from town to the north , east and south . The town is also served by Bourke Airport and has Countrylink bus service to other regional centres, like Dubbo...
as "the most important trek in Australian literary history" and says that "it confirmed all his prejudices about the Australian bush. Lawson had no romantic illusions about a 'rural idyll'." As Elder continues, his grim view of the outback was far removed from "the romantic idyll of brave horsemen and beautiful scenery depicted in the poetry of
Banjo PatersonAndrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, OBE was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales where he spent much of his childhood...
".
Lawson's most successful prose collection is
While the Billy Boils, published in 1896. In it he "continued his assault on Paterson and the romantics, and in the process, virtually reinvented Australian realism". Elder writes that "he used short, sharp sentences, with language as raw as
Ernest HemingwayErnest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
or
Raymond CarverRaymond Clevie Carver, Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. Carver is considered a major American writer of the late 20th century and also a major force in the revitalization of the short story in the 1980s....
. With sparse adjectives and honed-to-the-bone description, Lawson created a style and defined Australians: dryly laconic, passionately egalitarian and deeply humane." 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. "The Drover's Wife" with its "heart-breaking depiction of bleakness and loneliness" is regarded as one of his finest short stories. It is regularly studied in schools and has often been adapted for film and theatre.
Lawson was a firm believer in the merits of the
sketch storyA sketch story, or sketch, is a piece of writing that is generally shorter than a short story, and contains very little, if any, plot. The term was most popularly-used in the late nineteenth century. As a literary work, it is also often referred to simply as the sketch.-Style:A sketch is mainly...
, commonly known simply as 'the sketch,' claiming that
"the sketch story is best of all." Lawson's
Jack MitchellJohn "Jack" Mitchell, often referred to only as Mitchell, is a recurring fictional character in the short stories and sketches by Australian writer Henry Lawson...
story,
On The Edge Of A Plain"On The Edge Of A Plain" is a sketch story by Australian writer Henry Lawson, featuring his recurring character Jack Mitchell. The story was originally published in The Bulletin on 6 May 1893, and was collected in While the Billy Boils in 1896...
, is often cited as one of the most accomplished examples of the sketch.
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 ClubThe Dawn and Dusk Club was an Australian bohemian club of writer friends from the late 19th century who met for drinks and camaraderie. Writer Henry Lawson was a prominent member of the club.-History:...
, a bohemian club of writer friends who met for drinks and conversation.
Later years
In 1903 he bought a room at Mrs Issabella Byers' Coffee Palace in North Sydney. This marked the beginning of a 20 year friendship between Mrs Byers and Lawson. Despite his position as the most celebrated Australian writer of the time, Lawson was deeply depressed and perpetually poor. He lacked money due to unfortunate royalty deals with publishers. His ex-wife repeatedly reported him for non-payment of child maintenance, resulting in gaol terms. He was gaoled at
Darlinghurst GaolDarlinghurst Gaol was an Australian prison located in Darlinghurst, New South Wales. The site is bordered by Victoria, Burton and Forbes streets, with entrances on Forbes and Burton Streets.-History:...
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.
At this time, Lawson became withdrawn, alcoholic, and unable to carry on the usual routine of life.
Mrs Byers (née Ward) was an excellent poet herself and although of modest education, had been writing vivid poetry since her teens in a similar style to Lawson's. Long separated from her husband and elderly, Mrs Bryers was, at the time she met Lawson, a woman of independent means looking forward to retirement. Bryers regarded Lawson as Australia's greatest living poet, and hoped to sustain him well enough to keep him writing. She negotiated on his behalf with publishers, helped to arrange contact with his children, contacted friends and supporters to help him financially, and assisted and nursed him through his mental and alcohol problems. She wrote countless letters on his behalf and knocked on any doors that could provide Henry with financial assistance or a publishing deal.
It was in Mrs Isabella Bryers' home that Henry Lawson died, of cerebral hemorrhage, in
AbbotsfordAbbotsford is a suburb in the Inner West region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Abbotsford is located 10 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Canada Bay...
, Sydney in 1922. He was given a state funeral. His death registration on the NSW Births, Deaths & Marriages index is ref. 10451/1922 and was recorded at the Petersham Registration District. It shows his parents as Peter and Louisa. His funeral was attended by the Prime Minister
W. M. HughesWilliam Morris "Billy" Hughes, CH, KC, MHR , Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923....
and the Premier of
New South WalesNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
Jack LangJohn Thomas Lang , usually referred to as J.T. Lang during his career, and familiarly known as "Jack" and nicknamed "The Big Fella" was an Australian politician who was Premier of New South Wales for two terms...
(who was the husband of Lawson's sister-in-law Hilda Bredt), as well as thousands of citizens. He is interred at
Waverley CemeteryThe Waverley Cemetery opened in 1877 and is a cemetery located on top of the cliffs at Bronte in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. It is noted for its largely intact Victorian and Edwardian monuments. The cemetery contains the graves of many significant Australians including the poet Henry Lawson and...
. Lawson was the first person to be granted a New South Wales state funeral (traditionally reserved for Governors, Chief Justices, etc.) on the grounds of having been a 'distinguished citizen'.
Honours
In 1949 Lawson was the subject of an Australian
postage stampA postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
.
He was featured on the
first (paper) Australian ten dollar noteThe banknotes of the Australian dollar were first issued on 14 February 1966, when Australia adopted decimal currency.- Former series :The $5 note was not issued until 1967...
issued in 1966 when decimal currency was first introduced into Australia. This note was replaced by a polymer note in 1993. Lawson was pictured against scenes from the town of
GulgongGulgong is a 19th century gold rush town in the Central-West of the Australian state of New South Wales. The town is located about north west of Sydney, and about 30 km north of Mudgee along the Castlereagh Highway. At the 2006 census, Gulgong had a population of 1,907 people...
in
NSWNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
.
Posthumous collections
- A Camp-Fire Yarn: Henry Lawson Complete Works 1885-1900 (1984)
- A Fantasy of Man: Henry Lawson Complete Works 1901-1922 (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
- "A Child in the Dark, and a Foreign Father
"A Child in the Dark, and a Foreign Father" is a short story written by the iconic Australian writer and poet, Henry Lawson. The story, often considered to be partially autobiographical, considers the rather bleak relationship between a man and his family....
" (short story, 1902)
- "A Neglected History" (essay)
- "Andy's Gone with Cattle" (poem)
- "Australian Loyalty" (essay, 1887)
- "Freedom on the Wallaby
"Freedom on the Wallaby", Henry Lawson's well known poem, was written as a comment on the 1891 Australian shearers' strike and published by William Lane in the Worker in Brisbane, 16 May 1891....
" (poem, 1891)
- "Saint Peter" (poem, 1893)
- "Scots of the Riverina
Scots of the Riverina is an Australian bush poem by Henry Lawson. It is set in the Riverina, New South Wales in the town of Gundagai. It tells of a boy who leaves home at the start of the harvest to move to the city, an unheard of and unforgivable thing for a Scot to do in the early 1900's,...
" (poem, 1917)
- "Steelman's Pupil" (short story)
- "The Babies of Walloon (poem, 1891)
- "The Bush Undertaker
"The Bush Undertaker" is a popular short story by Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson. Along with "The Drover's Wife", "The Bush Undertaker" is one of Lawson's first sketches, and is among the stories for which he first gained attention as an accommplished writer...
" (short story, 1892)
- "The City Bushman
The City Bushman is a poem by iconic Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson. It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 6 August 1892, under the title In Answer to "Banjo", and Otherwise...
" (poem, 1892)
- "The Drover's Wife" (short story, 1892)
- "The Geological Spieler" (short story, 1896)
- "The Iron-Bark Chip" (short story, 1900)
- "The Loaded Dog
"The Loaded Dog" is a humorous short story by Australian writer Henry Lawson. The plot concerns three gold miners and their dog, and the farcical consequences of leaving a bomb cartridge unattended...
" (short story, 1901)
- "The Teams" (poem, 1896)
- "The Union Buries Its Dead
"The Union Buries Its Dead" is a well-known sketch story by iconic Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson.The story takes place in Bourke, and concerns the burial of an anonymous union labourer, who had drowned the previous day "while trying to swim some horses across a billabong of the Darling."...
" (short story, 1893)
- "Triangles of Life, and other stories" (short stories, 1916)
- "United Division" (essay, 1888)
- "Up The Country
Up The Country is a popular poem by iconic Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson. It was first published in The Bulletin magazine on 9 July 1892, under the title Borderland, and started the Bulletin Debate, a series of poems by both Lawson and Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson about the true nature...
" (poem, 1892)
Recurring characters
- Joe Wilson
Joe Wilson is a fictional character appearing in several well-known short stories by Australian writer Henry Lawson.Joe Wilson first appeared in "Brighten's Sister-in-law," the first story Lawson wrote after his arrival to England, and the longest he had ever written up to that time...
- "Brighten's Sister-in-law"
- "A Double Buggy at Lahey Creek
"A Double Buggy at Lahey Creek" is a short story written by iconic Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson. It was Lawson's second story to include the character of Joe Wilson, however, chronologically, it is fourth and final in the Joe Wilson series....
"
- "Water Them Geraniums"
- "Joe Wilson's Courtship"
- Jack Mitchell
John "Jack" Mitchell, often referred to only as Mitchell, is a recurring fictional character in the short stories and sketches by Australian writer Henry Lawson...
- "Mitchell: A Character Sketch"
- "On The Edge Of A Plain
"On The Edge Of A Plain" is a sketch story by Australian writer Henry Lawson, featuring his recurring character Jack Mitchell. The story was originally published in The Bulletin on 6 May 1893, and was collected in While the Billy Boils in 1896...
"
- "'Some Day'"
- "Shooting The Moon"
- "Our Pipes"
- "Bill, the Ventriloquial Rooster
"Bill, the Ventriloquial Rooster" is a sketch story by Australian writer Henry Lawson. The sketch is one of many to include Jack Mitchell the swagman as the its main character and narrator...
"
- "Enter Mitchell"
- "Mitchell Doesn't Believe in the Sack"
- "Another of Mitchell's Plans"
- Steelman and Smith
Steelman and Smith are two fictional characters appearing in several well-known short stories written by popular Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson.-Steelman and Smith Short Stories:*"The Geological Spieler"*"Steelman's Pupil"...
- "The Geological Spieler"
- "Steelman's Pupil"
- "An Oversight of Steelman’s"
- "How Steelman told his Story"
- "A Gentleman Sharper and Steelman Sharper"
- Dave Regan
Dave Regan is a fictional character appearing in several well-known short stories written by popular Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson.A laid-back, somewhat mischievous young man, Dave is rarely found without the company of good mates Jim Bently and Andy Page.Arguably, Dave's character first...
, Jim BentlyJim Bently is a fictional character appearing in several well-known short stories written by popular Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson. The somewhat more sensible member of the group, Jim is rarely found without the company of good mates Dave Regan and Andy Page...
and/or Andy PageAndy Page is a fictional character appearing in several well-known short stories written by popular Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson. Andy is rarely found without the company of good mates Jim Bently and Dave Regan, and is generally the 'straight man' of the trio.Andy's character first...
- "The Loaded Dog
"The Loaded Dog" is a humorous short story by Australian writer Henry Lawson. The plot concerns three gold miners and their dog, and the farcical consequences of leaving a bomb cartridge unattended...
"
- "The Iron-Bark Chip"
- "Andy Page's Rival"
- "The Mystery of Dave Regan"
- "Poisonous Jimmy Gets Left"
External links