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

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his withdrawal from active politics (he could have tried again) and for his resignation
from other positions, and was indicative of a lack of that perseverance and solidity
which achievement of his aims demanded. So many tasks were left incomplete or
were finished prematurely without due revision and care that this characteristic more
than any other seems to have been responsible for his lack of greater success. This led
to an appearance of dilettantism which was only disproved by th3e occasional long
task where his staying power was demonstrated for all to see.
There was a restlessness in Brady which militated against steady achievement. The
grass was always greener somewhere else, although it is to his credit that he
determined to endure the conditions for writers in Australia rather than flee overseas
as so many others did. This restlessness helped to explain his marital difficulties. His
personal attributes were such that his relationships with men were generally more
harmonious than with the opposite sex, although he had a long and enduring
relationship with Norma which belied the story of his early family troubles.
It was these personal characteristics which led to Brady’s lack of greater
achievement. Although tremendously idealistic, he failed to translate those ideals into
practical action. Too many of his activities could be met by the same criticism
Mendelsohn made of Knights of Arcadia – “too much of Brady whimsy without the
usual salutary antidote of the Brady commonsense.” 1 Eustace Tracey too, commented
upon this lack of practical application, telling Brady that in the light of his own
publishing experience he could see that had Brady applied himself he could have been
“the greatest publisher in this Commonwealth” and exclaimed: “Why, of why didn’t
you do the things you visualised and could have implemented with the mind and hand
of a master?” 3 Any student of Brady’s career is left with the same question and can
only regret that in his personality there were not more of those qualities which keep
the dreamer and the visionary in touch with the mundane and practical.
Allied to this lack was the fact that what abilities the man did possess, and they were
considerable, were spread so thinly over the field of endeavour that in any one area
the standard of achievement was not spectacular. There are signs that suggest that had
he concentrated on politics alone, or on publishing, on poetry or prose writing he
would have reached a high standard; the constant diffusion of abilities resulted from
the very versatility of the man. He felt this with regret, but too late. At eighty he
wistfully read some of his juvenile verses and concluded: “I should have written less
and with more care. I should have learned the lessons of the academics … and
moulded my work on the classics. I did not do it – just wrote as the mood or impulse
came.” 3 It is not necessary to agree with the view of Ewers that Brady had less
success than he deserved because of his choice of themes – that in writing about the
sea he was using a universal theme which was not sufficiently identifiable as a
national theme and yet not universal enough to be seen in the genre of sea verse, 2 for
the range of themes in Brady’s poetry was immense. Rather, his personality
illustrated the old proverb, for he was indeed “jack of all trades, master of none” in
large measure. When the opportunities did present themselves for him to rise above
the unfortunate conditions of economic stringency and creative rejection, he failed to
make the most of them. The retainer offered by The Bulletin was a case in point, as
also was his editorial opportunity on The Native Companion, which he relinquished
when a little more effort would have resulted in his staying on. Characteristically he
regretted it later on.
1 Oscar Mendelsohn to Brady, 23.3.1949, in National Library.
2 John K. Ewers, Creative Writing in Australia (Melbourne, 1962), p.39.