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

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He was sufficiently astute and masterful to feel that having his hand at the helm of
even a modest magazine gave him a security and a sense of purpose which he so often
lacked. Here was another chance to put into practice his ideals in regard to literature
in Australia, to encourage indigenous writers and to have a platform for getting across
to some Australians at least, his belief in his country’s worth – a worth which could
only be fully extended and achieved if his fellows managed to get their sense of
values in correct order and work for social and cultural advance rather than display a
preoccupation with materialism and recreation.
One of the strong planks in his platform in The Native Companion was an advocacy
of some sort of protection or assistance for Australian writers. This was not a new
topic. In the Centennial Magazine, to which Brady himself had contributed some of
his earliest material, there appeared a series of articles on “The Status of Literature in
Australia” by G.B. Barton. 1 This series looked at literature through the eyes of the
Government, the publishers, the newspaper proprietors, and was followed by a reply
from C.T. Clarke – “The Sorrows of Australian Authors”, setting out the difficulties
under which they worked. 2
Henry Lawson’s “Song of Southern Writers” 3 had made a plea for assistance to
Australian authors in the face of their many difficulties. Brady and Lawson, Quinn
and Daley had often discussed this question in their frequent get-togethers and now
Brady had the perfect platform from which to wield an influence for good on the
general public and the Government to secure a release from the stringencies of literary
life, a life usually accompanied by poverty and hardship. It is not surprising then to
find that the first issue of The Native Companion edited by Brady contained some
thoughts on this amtter. In a column named “The Midnight Oil” he wrote on
“Protection for Authors”;
I want to set up a clamour on behalf of Australian writers that will echo from
the Gulf to the Bight and bring results … As long as the cheap print of
England and Germany and the United States is allowed to enter Australian
ports duty free, there will be no room for any more printers, paper-makers,
type-founders, machinists, book-binders and starvation will remain chronic
with those who write and design … Book publishers must either print here or
pay customs taxes like other importers.
He cited the Copyright Acts of Canada and the United States as evidence of their
determination to protect their authors, publishers and printers and after inviting
interested writers, artists and publishers to contact his magazine, Brady concluded:
“Let us get up and sever the thongs that bind us with the sharp edge of a new
Australian Copyright Act”. 4
1 Centennial Magazine, Vol.11, No.1, August 1889, p.71.
2 Vol.11, No4, pp.300-305.
3 The Bulletin, 28.5.1892
4 The Native Companion, 1.8.1907, p.49.