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

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In the 1880”s and 90’s literature in Australia was an integral part of the complex and
closely-woven patter of a democratic society in a state of flux. Characterised by
utopianism and faith in the ultimate success of Labor and socialist principles, stirred
by the heady thought of complete, independent identity and the sense of freedom of
movement which would ensue, the emerging nationhood was epitomised by The
Bulletin, journals like The Worker and writers such as Dyson, Lawson, Furphy,
O’Dowd, Marie Pitt, Ada Cambridge, Daley and Brady. There was little connection
with the disintegrating romanticism of the European tradition, for since Harpur and
Kendall the voice of the writer had been striving for a more national statement and in
the songs of the bush balladists this uniqueness became more and more apparent.
Literature was intellectually and emotionally at this stage, as never before in
Australian history, a powerful reflection of, response to, and even progenitor of this
fluid and vital society. The zenith of the ballad and other national literary forms (the
short stories of Lawson and Dyson, the revolutionary verses of Lawson, Daley and
Brady) coincided roughly with the highest idealism of the Labor cause. There was a
considerable fusion in the popular mind of Labor and literary figures (Mann, Francie
Adams, Tillett, the Lane brothers, Lawson and Brady), especially as most were from
a working-class background and had been forced into the Labor camp by economic
exigencies and difficult social conditions of the times. As with one voice they
extolled the common man, sought further freedom for his spirit and better conditions
of employment for his body. The independend spirit of the country-dweller was held
up as a desirable model for the city-worker to emulate. The mateship of the country
needed its city equivalent in the solidarity of the workers through unionism and a
more general militancy against the harshness of drab occupations and their poor
returns.
The 1890’s saw a long series of defeats and disillusionments for Labor. The
commercial boom had subsided, making economic conditions, especially for those on
a low wage, more difficult than ever. There was a lessening of the spirit of reform.
The rosy glow was waning from the appeal of Labor. Lane’s experiment had failed
and there was a limit to the time one could forget present ills by dreaming of better
conditions in the future. Further, those Labor members who had achieved success and
election to office soon forgot the ideals which had previously inspired them and
concerned themselves more with remaining in office than with fulfilling election
promises or achieving idealistic party programmes. The general effect was a cooling
of social ardour, reflected in a lessening of literary zeal and a decline in the quality, if
not the quantity, of literature. Some individual writers experienced a noticeable
deterioration in quality, as did Lawson (evident in the later verse), subsided into
conservatism (as did Brady, to a degree), left the country for greener fields or turned
to a kind of shallow prettiness (evident in some of the work of Lindsay and McCrae).
Brady, as much as any other writer or poet, was an example of this sudden firing and
subsequent cooling of literary idealism. In his case, actual political involvement had
fed the springs which created revolutionary verse and wit political failure and
withdrawal, even though not final, came a corresponding literary waning and dispersal
of energies. For him the political solution to the problems of the worker had been less
successful than envisaged and he gave more weight and energy to the commercial
enterprise. True, he had not abandoned the call to unionism, socialism and reform,
but his own activities in political journalism of the early 1890’s gave way to his press
agencies and more general journalism.