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

171
His conclusions that Lawson’s personality was “the shell and not the kernel of
genius” moved partly towards Stephens’ view, which was sound, that in spite of
strengths and weaknesses there was a core, a “something” which enabled Lawson to
see and write about his surroundings in a way that few’ if any, had done before him in
Australia. Brady wrote as a friend when he said of Lawson that he found “a great
charity for his fellows and their faults, a love of truth, a hatred of lies, and an almost
child-like innocence of body, soul and mind.” 1 And with these aspects of the man
most other writers of essays in the volume agree.
It was a more bitter Brady who contributed an article some sixteen years later on the
subject of “Henry Lawson’s Statue” – bitter because his own circumstances had
deteriorated but bitter also because he regarded it as ironic that a man who had firsthand
acquaintance with poverty during his life-time should have so much money
expended upon him after his death. He drew parallels between this behaviour and that
of the members of the first Labor Government, of which he, Lawson, and other young
writers of the nineties had such great expectations, but when elected to office, they
expended their energies more on remaining in power rather than helping writers or
bringing about the kind of society envisioned by their supporters and by their own
election promises. Using the opportunity of the sadness of the occasion and its
poignancy for him personally, he deplored the hardships which Australian writers
underwent in pursuit of their vocation. Stressing their importance in the community,
he saw intellectual achievement as the mortar which bound the bricks of nationality
together. “The loos mud of the sporting tracks is a poor substitute.” 2 Recalling
Lawson’s poverty, he pointed out that things had not changed much – the path of
letters in this country was till “a by-road of flint and thorn ending at the gates of the
cemetery”. Sardonically, he saw occupation by the Chinese as the only possible
change of providing an amelioration of conditions.
As well as visiting Brady regularly while in Sydney, first in Redfern, then at
Annandale and Stanmore along with Quinn and Daley, Lawson was constantly in
touch by letter, but he was a casual correspondent. He displayed this casualness,
which partly explained his poverty, by producing a letter from Blackwood (the
English publisher) asking for more short stories. Lawson, although as impecunious as
ever, neglected to reply to it. The letter, unanswered, was pinned over the Brady
fireplace where it remained for a long time. As the time, Lawson was earning only
three pounds a week in a statistician’s office.
The story behind Lawson’s visit to Mallacoota is told in Mann by Brady. The actual
telegram which initiated the visit is now in Mitchell Library., still pathetic in its
succinctness. It reads: “Lawson in gaol. Can secure release if he leaves Sydney for
two or three months. Can you take him? We can finance.” 3 Anxious to help, Brady
wired his willingness and soon Lawson and Tom Mutch joined the camp in the bush,
thus producing quite a few stories worth telling, but familiar to most students of
literature in Australia. The tale about Lawson’s damper appeared in several different
versions, each revealing his attempts at self-sufficiency and mateship. 4 As “Denton
Prout” points out, two poems came from Lawson’s visit. 5 One of these, “Getting’
Back” was published in The Bulletin in July of that year, telling how a middle-aged
poet ingratiated himself into the affections of a bush girl by helping to milk the cows
and separate the milk. Prout regards this as somewhat of a confession from Lawson
bout an incident which happened when staying with Brady.
1
P.505.
2
“Henry Lawson’s Statue”, Focus, June, 1947, p.5.
3
Dated 3.1.1909.
4
“The Voice of Australia”, pp500-502.
5
Denton Prout (C.W. Phillips,) Henry Lawson: The Grey Dreamer (Adelaide, 1963), p.255.