A CRITICAL BIOGRAPHY OF EDWIN JAMES BRADY - Mallacoota ...

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There are a few incidents which increase our knowledge of A.G. Stephens, with
whom Brady had a slight difference of opinion. While editing Brady’s “The Whaler’s
Pig” Stephens transferred the setting from the Sea of Okhotsk, called by whalemen
the Okart Sea, to Baffin Bay, because he could not find it on the office map. Brady
pretended to be (and probably was) outraged, but Stephens pacified him and returned
it to its rightful place in The Ways of Many Waters which was then on the stocks.
Brady adds: “I regret that icy coolness between us now, for Stephens was a good
Australian and carried a warm heart under his egotism. He extended a great kindness
to Furphy and brought that timid genius Shaw Neilson forward. He stood high above
other literary critics in his time.” 1
Brady cites E. Morris Miller’s naming of sixty poets who published books of verse in
the Australian colonies before 1880, only four or five of whom will survive
poetically. But from 1880 to 1935 over one hundred and forty appeared, of whom
perhaps thirty will be remembered. From this distance, both these estimates would
seem over-generous, but the point is well made that The Bulletin (and this was
Archibald) was influential in the development of such verse and its preoccupations
with national themes. In addition, when one considers the other Bulletin publications,
the Story Book, the Reciter, Melba’s Gift Book and the many publications of
individual poets and authors (including Brady), taken all in all “they established John
Archibald’s right to be regarded as the father of modern Australian literature.” 2
Whatever Brady’s own achievement, it owes much to Archibald’s sympathy and
encouragement. He always told Brady that “McFee of Aberdeen” was his best poem;
when Brady stated that he preferred “Ice Virgins” Archibald replied that it was “too
literary” for him. One can be sure that Archibald would not make a similar
assessment of his biography as Brady wrote it. “If this country ever lifts itself from
foggy lowlands dependency to clear national heights, he will stand out as an
incarnation of its native spirit.” This is a fair assessment of Archibald’s contribution,
but from the vantage-point of long association with him, Brady should have been able
to tell more of Archibald as a man, explaining his motivations and throwing more
light on his personal characteristics. In neglecting to do this the biography fails as an
effective creative work. A saving grace is the addition of the reminiscences from
Lindsay and others. Of these Norman Lindsay’s is probably the best. When these
too, are considered, and Brady can claim only the initiative which led him to collect
them, there emerges an interesting picture of the time, some amusing and entertaining
stories, a few glimpses of the man who is writing and some minor facets of the
biography’s subject, to whom much is owed but whose debt is still to be paid. 3
The final example of biography is Doctor Mannix: Archbishop of Melbourne, 4 an
undistinguished “pot-boiler” not sufficiently objective to be worth consideration,
although Brady showed his awareness of the difficulty attached to biographies. Early
in Dr. Mannix, Brady states that he has to check an increasing tendency which
“threatened to convert me into an enthusiast rather than an historian.” The fact that he
did not check this tendency means that the book degenerates to the level of
propaganda. He further states his intention of drawing a wide circle around his
subject, the better to view him in context, but so wide is the circle and so filled with
irrelevancies that the target runs the severe risk of not being hit at all.
1 P. 153.
2 P. 111.
3 A biography of Archibald is at present being written by Sylvia Lawson under the auspices of the
Commonwealth Literary Fund and the Australian Journalists’ Association.
4 Melbourne, 1934. Published in the Library of National Biography (Dominion Series).