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

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Brady fully applauded Lawson’s anti-establishment verses, not appreciated in the
Stock Exchange but fully popular with the “army of the rear”, and of course, added
his revolutionary voice to Lawson’s. This “man of genius, a man of the people and a
great Australian” could well be given some of the doubt, could well be forgiven some
eccentricities in the light of his achievements, and Brady sympathetically plays down
these personal idiosyncrasies. Lawson’s undue sensitivity, his nervousness, his
inability to know when to stop in the consumption of alcohol all occasioned much
literary comment, but Brady believed that some of this at least was a literary pose, in
the same category as the tale Lawson once told in convincing his audience that his
mother had come from gipsy stock, a story which his mother strongly denied and
disapproved of. Brady explains his motive in thus decrying criticisms of Lawson’s
well-publicised excesses by stating:
I am not appearing here as an apologist for this faults or the human
weaknesses of a man whose name will occupy an honored place in the
literature of our country when most of his ‘right-living’, ‘right-thinking’
contemporaries are forgotten. I am not here to defend a great inspired
intellect against small scandal; but to ‘fix’, with the hyposulphite of sound
judgement, prints from negatives of Lawson taken in the studio of life. 1
Lawson’s nobility of character, his sense of humour, his simplicity and directness,
patriotism and forgiveness are all commented upon and documented by example from
Lawson’s life in the country or the city and sometimes illustrated by reference to the
poetry, or less frequently, his prose. In giving more emphasis to the poetry Brady
does his subject less than justice, as it is now generally agreed that Lawson’s prose
will determine his standing in the annals of literature. Some of the anecdotes told
have been recounted elsewhere; others are less well-known. One worth retelling has
Archibald looking at a group photograph in Tyrrell’s bookshop, distinguishing
Lawson in it and remarking to Brady: “I’ve known that man for over twenty years. I
have never known him to say a wise thing or write a thing that was really bad.” On
hearing of Archibald’s comment, Lawson grinned broadly. “Ted,” said he in his
curious lisping drawl, “he was telling the truth. I always adapt my conversation to the
intelligence of my audience.” 2 Touche!
Brady instances Lawson’s forgiveness, not only in his own case, but also in the
attitude he once held towards the Scottish character. In an early poem, angered by
comparisons of himself with Burns, whom he did not admire, he gave an
uncomplimentary picture of that people in “The Scots”. Later relenting, he wrote the
more sympathetic “Scots of the Riverina”, but Brady overstates the case when he
holds that this poem “displays him at his poetic best”. 3 He quotes from the poem the
lines which constitute, in his opinion, the “last splendid verse”:
The hurricane-lamp in the rafters dimly and dimly burned;
And the old man died at the table when the old wife’s back was turned.
Face down on his bare arms folded he sank with his wild grey hair
Outspread o’er the open Bible and the name rewritten there
One can agree when Brady writes that this illustrates Lawson’s mastery of the simple
emotion (but a number of the short stories would have provided a far better
illustration), but one must have distinct reservations when reading Brady’s comment:
“Here we find feeling and inspiration reduced in the crucible of artistic experience to
pure gold.”
1 P.495.
2 P. 490.
3 P.490.