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

He also contributed to The Bird-O’-Freedom and the Freeman’s Journal. In his
unpublished biography of J.F. Archibald, Brady recounts how W.H. Traill, former
Managing-Director and Editor-in-chief of The Bulletin was elected in 1889 to
represent South Sydney. Later on, after sitting in two parliamentary sessions, and
after trying his hand at pig and poultry farming, Traill became editor of Truth and
promptly fired him and John Norton – Brady going on to the Sunday Times at more
money. Soon after, however, Norton returned to Truth where he “howled, snarled and
barked so well that he died worth a quarter of a million or so”. 1
Brady’s interests were lively and wide-ranging throughout his life – perhaps too much
so for his own good – and this width is beginning to be visible at this time. In
addition to his political activities, he wrote verse and prose of all kinds as well as
engaging in quite extensive cultural activities (meetings, concerts and plays). He
wrote to the Government Astronomer to get details of the planet Mars for scientific
articles he was writing, evidencing his marked interest in science topics. He was
introduced by the Hon. J.D. Fitzgerald, M.L.A. 2 to M. Kowalski, who was a wellknown
overseas conductor and composer, and who wanted to set to music some
Brady Lyrics. In fact, over the years, quite a number of Brady’s poems were set to
music by Kowalski, Alfred Hill, Horace Keats and others. Perhaps the best know of
these is “There’s Something at the Yardarm” made popular on record by Peter
Dawson. Brady also tried his hand, at this stage, at writing an oratorio in conjunction
with Kowalski, but when the conductor was recalled overseas the project lapsed. 3
Brady’s acquaintances and friends included the majore figures of his day, not only
political, but also literary and artistic: A.G. Taylor (first editor of Truth and the
Spectator), John Norton, King O’Malley, Edmund Barton, Dan Green, E.W.
O’Sullivan, J.C. Williamson, W. Holman, W.M. Hughes, Nt Gould (later to work
with Brady on The Arrow), David McKee Wright, Lawson, Quinn, George Gordon
McCrae and his con Hugh, John Farrell, Brunton Stephens, A.G. Stephens, J.F.
Archilbald, Victor Daley, A.B. Pterson and Barcroft Boake. There were many others
too, especially in the literary field – Joh Le Gay Brereton, F.J. Dwyer, James Ryan,
Edmund Fisher, Ure Smith and Mary Gilmore, Marie J. Pitt and Ethel Turner. Some
of these he lightly sketched in Life’s Highway: for example, P.J. Holdsworth, “whose
shiny pot hat and black frock coat, on the lapel of which a carnation perennially
flowered, were a feature of the nine 0’clock trams leaving Woollaahra for the city”; or
Ernest Favenc “a portly, dignified old gentleman, an optimist regarding ‘waste spaces’
of far-bac country which he was instrumental in opening up” 4 Brady recalled that the
“most interesting” figures in the public life of the 1890’s were William Lane, John
Norton, W.M. Hughes and J.T. Lang of whom he wrote: “They may differ in
personality, but they are each possessed or possess the quality of audacity to a marked
degree.” 5
1
“The Voice of Australia”, C. Mann (ed.) The Stories of Henry Lawson: Third series (Sydney, 1964)
p. 54.
2
Letter Fitzgerald to Brady, 24.3.1892, in Mitchell Library
3
“Musicians I have Met”, Focus, September 1947. Tells the story of the oratorio “The Birth of Music”,
the main characters of which were Jubal the Dreamer, Naamah, his sister and Tubal Cain the artificer.
4
Southerly No. 1 1954, p. 54
5
“The Pre-Ninety Period”, The Red Objective
13