Henry Lawson was an Australian poet, story writer and journalist, associated in most people’s minds with the Australian outback, the bush. He wrote about swaggies, drovers, shearers, and small farmers on the land, the country’s pioneers. His work is sentimental at times, but preserves the salty humour of the typical Australian, self depreciatory but always ready for another go at his luck.
Background
Ethnicity:
Lawson's mother was an Australian and his father was a Norwegian.
Henry Lawson was born on 17 June 1867 at Grenfell in New South Wales, Australia, to Niels Larson, a Norwegian miner who had changed his name to Peter Lawson, and his wife Louisa. Lawson had an unhappy childhood and his parents separated when he was young. He was a lonely and unpopular child at school, often unable to attend due to isolation and moving from place to place with his parents. His isolation was made even worse when he was left partially deaf due to a childhood illness.
Education
Henry Lawson attended school at Eurunderee from 2 October 1876 but suffered an ear infection at around this time. However, his master John Tierney was kind and did all he could for Lawson who was quite shy.
Lawson later attended a Catholic school at Mudgee, New South Wales around 8 km away; the master there, Mr. Kevan, would teach Lawson about poetry.
Career
After school Lawson moved to the Blue Mountains to work as a builder with his father. In 1883 he moved to Sydney to live with his mother and became an apprentice coach painter to Hudson Bros Ltd, studying at night to matriculate.
Unable to cure his deafness, find a better job or succeed in his studies, Lawson began to write. Inspired by his mother's Republican friends, his first published poem, ''A Song of the Republic'' appeared in the Bulletin in 1887. His first published short story, ''His Father's Mate'', appeared shortly after his father's death. He began working as a journalist, writing articles for the Republican as well as publishing verse.
In 1891 Lawson was hired by the Brisbane publication the Boomerang, contributing prose and verse, as well as writing for the Worker. However, the Boomerang ran into trouble and Lawson was let go. He then divided his time between odd jobs, writing and carousing.
Falling into a rut, J. F.Archibald sent Lawson to Bourke at the Bulletin's expense. The memory of this time, with its drought and hardships, would color his work for the rest of his life. Work inspired by this period includes ''The Bush Undertaker'', ''The Union Buries its Dead'' and the short story collection While the Billy Boils in 1896. The same year another book was published, In the Days When the World was Wide and Other Verses.
Returning from a trip to the Western Australian goldfields, Lawson began drinking heavily in the company of his friends. His wife Bertha moved to New Zealand to try to remove Lawson from their influence, however when Bertha fell pregnant they returned to Sydney and Lawson returned to his old friends and habits. Lawson became obsessed with wanting to write in England and, sponsored by Earl Beauchamp, he finally took his family to England in 1900. Joe Wilson and his mates was written and published in London, however, the climate and ill health forced the family to return to Sydney in 1902.
Lawson entered a decline. His wife left him, he drank heavily and attempted suicide. He was gaoled for failing to pay maintenance and spent time in mental hospitals. Although he was writing, his worked suffered and critics accused him of maudalin sentimentality. Works from this period include The skyline riders and other verses (1910), Triangles of life and other stories (1913) and My army, o my army! and other songs (1915). The Commonwealth Literary Fund granted him a pension of one pound a week but his alcoholism and deterioration continued.
He died of a cerebral haemorrhage at Abbotsford on 2 September 1922.
Republicanism ran through Lawson's early writings; in this he reflected the determination of colonial Australia in its final phase to create an exemplary nation - as when he wrote, in A Song of the Republic (1887).
Views
Lawson was touched by the theories of American social philosophers.
Membership
In Sydney in 1898 Lawson was a prominent member of the Dawn and Dusk Club, a bohemian club of writer friends who met for drinks and conversation.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Chris Wallace Crabbe, in Australian Literary Studies writes: ''Henry Lawson remains unquestionably our greatest short story writer.''
Stephen Murray-Smith, in his biography Henry Lawson: “Lawson had genius, but not the driving ambition or staying power that lakes genius to its goal. To put it another way, he had the insights of genius but not its perspectives.”
Interests
Literature
Philosophers & Thinkers
Edward Bellamy and Henry George
Writers
Dickens and Marryat
Connections
In 1896, Lawson married Bertha Bredt Jr., daughter of Bertha Bredt, the prominent socialist. The marriage ended very unhappily. Bertha filed for divorce. A judicial separation was granted and was declared in June 1903. They had two children, son Jim (Joseph) and daughter Bertha.