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

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O but I must tell you of E.J. Brady’s latest madness(?). He proposes starting a
sort of Elbert Hubbard farm for ‘literary incapables’ (not his title) down
Mallacoota way. Private printing press, five pounds a week all round, work
not indispensable, free sunsets and none of the cruel distractions ordinary
honest men have to face such as rent, firing, butcher’s bills, complaining
wives and squalling children. God knows how he wants to work it. But there
is heaps of room for satire. Esson is his fellow-lunatic and actually blames
The Bulletin for not supplying Q (Quinn?) with three quid every Saturday
whether he works for it or not. What a race of Spartans we would raise on
idiotic methods of this sort. Every poet his verandah post. Can’t you see the
Brady-Esson Sanatorium for Decayed Dreamers? Beer spouting from
Government bores everywhere, sandwiches (?), air-fans and silk wrappers.
Bayldon on an eiderdown communing with the soul of Caley; Quinn supported
on the laps of two angels, Norman Lilley handing bananas round with words
of praise and encouragement. McLeod roasting at the stake with bleeding hot
guineas dropping out of him…
McCrae went on to suggest Mallacoota Melodrama Farm with characters provided
(villain, heroine, hero, comic etc.) each in separate houses, with the student spending
a week with each. He illustrated this proposition with delightful pen-sketches and
then concluded:
We all seem to claim genius and growl at conditions and circumstances. It
never occurs to us that the real reason of failure is often dependence on others
(sich as Esson would like), consequent apathy, laziness, a too-good climate,
fairly easy money and so on. We are Chattertons inside out, rich in
surroundings, poor only in intellect.
Good God! A sermon to the Preacher!
Yours, Hugh McCrae. 1
Although McCrae’s response was all fun and there was much truth in his view that the
conditions under which writers worked would not either make or break good literary
production, there was a very favourable response to Brady’s please that action be
taken to check the cheap improts and some relief be given to those working on the
local scene. Even McCrae saw the necessity of this move when, as a result of these
views, Brady drafter a memorial to the Prime Minister and Minister of the Australian
Commonwealth on the Protection of Australian authors and artists in 1911, had it
signed by Lawson, McCrae, Quinn, Fisher and others and submitted it to the
Government. A duplicate of this is in Mitchell Library. It is addressed to the Labor
Government, “Knowing that the objective of the Federal Labor Party sets forth the
establishment of a free and enlightened community…” It states that under existing
conditions the market is flooded with “cheap and frequently pernicious importations
from Europe and America, thus helping to deprive Australian brain-workers, and
others, of the means of livelihood” and “robbing the country of the probable fruits of
genius, which might, under less cruel conditions contribute to her national honour and
advancement.” The memorial asked, as a first step, that the Government impose an
import duty of 33 1/3% on foreign magazines and foreign novels to ensure that this
class of literature is issued and printed in this country.
1 Hugh McCrae to A.G. Stephens, 6.10.1910 in Mitchell. The section quoted is from a long postscript
to this letter which is in the Papers of A.G. Stephens, Vol.1. Dulcie Deamer wrote to Brady, giving her
approval, but said it would have to be confined to men only, as women “in bulk” would cause the
failure of the scheme.