Henry Lawson

One of the great observers of Australian life, Henry Lawson looms large in our national psyche. Yet at his best Lawson transcends the very bush, the very outback, the very up-country, the very pub or selector's hut he conveys with such brevity and acuity: he make specific places universal. Henry Lawson is too often regarded as a legend rather than a writer to be enjoyed. In this selection Lawson is revealed as an author whose delightful, humorous, wry and moving short stories continue to delight generations of readers. This is the essential Lawson collection - the classic of Australian classics. 'Lawson's sketches are beyond praise.'Joseph Conrad 'Lawson gets more feelings, observation and atmosphere into a page than does Hemingway.'Edward Garnett

Biography of a Book traces the life of an iconic Australian literary work in the lead-up to, and for a century after, its initial publication: Henry Lawson's 1896 collection While the Billy Boils. Paul Eggert follows Lawson's gradual development of a pared-back bush realism in the early 1890s, as he struggled to forge a career, writing short stories and sketches for the newspapers. Lawson's famous collection came out at a decisive moment for the development of a fully professional Australian literary publishing industry, then in its infancy in Sydney. The volume's editing, design and production were collaborative events that changed the feel and nature of Lawson's writing. He had to give ground on his texts and their sequencing. The collection went on to be reprinted and repackaged countless times. Its production and reception histories act like a geological cross-section, revealing the contours of successive cultural formations in Australia. In unravelling the life of Lawson's classic work Eggert's book-historical approach challenges and clarifies established understandings of crucial moments in Australian literary history and of Lawson himself

HUMOROUS VERSES - CONTENTS. - PAQE MY LITERARY FRIEND Once I wrote a little poem which I thought was very fine, . . 125 MARY CALLED HIM MISTER Theyd parted but a year before-she never thought hed come, . . 127 REJECTED She says shes very sorry, as she

Henry Lawson was a deeply divided man. He was a soul burdened with an insatiable craving for love, a combative spirit with impossible hopes that mankind might sort itself our. Yet, he openly loathed huge sections of humanity and sang the blessings of war. Manning Clark intimately reconstructs Lawson's agonising, and ultimately unsuccessful search for fulfilment of genius and happiness. The great irony is that Lawson's poetry inspired the feeling that life was worth living.

Reproduction of the original. The publishing house Megali specialises in reproducing historical works in large print to make reading easier for people with impaired vision.

Explores the life of Henry Lawson's iconic Australian 1896 short-story collection While the Billy Boils, from its creation and publication to its evolving public perception over the years. Examines the literary history and publishing industry of Australia, from the 1890s to the present.

The extraordinary rise, devastating fall and enduring legacy of an Australian icon Henry Lawson captured the heart and soul of Australia and its people with greater clarity and truth than any writer before him. Born on the goldfields in 1867, he became the voice of ordinary Australians, recording the hopes, dreams and struggles of bush battlers and slum dwellers, of fierce independent women, foreign fathers and larrikin mates. Lawson wrote from the heart, documenting what he saw from his earliest days as a poor, lonely, handicapped boy with warring parents on a worthless farm, to his years as a literary lion, then as a hopeless addict cadging for drinks on the streets, and eventually as a prison inmate, locked up in a tiny cell beside murderers. A controversial figure today, he was one of the first writers to shine a light on the hardships faced by Australia's hard-toiling wives and mothers, and among the first to portray, with sympathy, the despair of Indigenous Australians at the ever-encroaching European tide. His heroic figures such as The Drover's Wife and the fearless unionists striking out for a better deal helped define Australia's character, and while still a young man, his storytelling drew comparisons on the world stage with Tolstoy, Gorky and Kipling. But Henry Lawson's own life may have been the most compelling saga of all, a heart-breaking tale of brilliance, lost love, self-destruction and madness. Grantlee Kieza, the author of critically acclaimed bestselling biographies of such important figures as Banjo Paterson, Joseph Banks, Lachlan Macquarie and John Monash, reveals the extraordinary rise, devastating fall and enduring legacy of an Australian icon. PRAISE FOR GRANTLEE KIEZA OAM 'Engagingly written ... one of the most nuanced portraits to date' The Australian 'Vivid, detailed and well written' Daily Telegraph 'A staggering accomplishment that can't be missed by history buffs and story lovers alike' Betterreading.com.au 'A free-flowing biography of a great Australian figure' John Howard 'Clear and accessible ... well-crafted and extensively documented' Weekend Australian 'Kieza has added hugely to the depth of knowledge about our greatest military general in a book that is timely' Tim Fischer, Courier-Mail 'The author writes with the immediacy of a fine documentary ... an easy, informative read, bringing historic personalities to life' Ballarat Courier