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

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As well as editing The Native Companion, operating his press agency and acting as an
accredited advertising representative for Truth in the Australian states, 1 Brady
continued a busy social life. He was among a number of writers, poets and artists
who met regularly at the current centre of Melbourne’s Bohemian life. R.H. Croll
gives a detailed picture of Fasoli’s small Italian restaurant where the famous and
would-be famous gathered to eat, drink and yearn. Croll also tells of the memorable
night when the gathering drank to welcome the first Brady number of The Native
Companion, July 1907. 2
Brady himself has recalled some of the regular visitors to Fasoli’s. 5 Strauss, copartner
with Brady and Lothian in the business side of The Native Companion,
Randolph Bedford (“bold and boiterous”), William Moore (author of a two-volume
review of Australian art and artists), John Shirlow, “Alex Sass” (Alex William, who
did the cover designs for The Native Companion), Hal Gye, Percy Lindsay, C.J.
Dennis, Web Gilbert, G.G. McRae, Edward Dyson, Louis Esson, Blamire Young,
Ernest O’Ferral, Frank Wilmot and Robert Croll rubbed shoulders first at Lonsdale
Street, then at King Street, discussing what was latest in literary and artistic
production, grumbling about the continual poverty of writers and proposing ways of
creating a community which would appreciate their creative talents.
But in spite of the moral and practical support of the Fasoli’s crowd, the inevitable
happened and The Native Companion joined the graveyard already littered with
countless similar small magazines which had dared to spring forth in an inhospitable
and “barbarian” Australian society. 3 When the magazine ceased publication, Brady
disappeared from Fasoli’s and Melbourne. There was great speculation as to his
whereabouts. Miss Prichard tells now it was rumoured that he had committed suicide
and “the Bohemian fraternity in Melbourne, of whom he was a luminary, mourned the
loss of his wit and geniality”. 4 But Brady was not dead. He and a companion or two
were “celebrating”. Although he had a reputation as a drinker, he rarely drank to
excess. He stated that his life had been 80% teetotal, 15% moderately “wet” and 5%
“very wet”. This has been confirmed by the close friends consulted. 5 This particular
bout ended in a hiking trip through East Gippsland and the country around Mallacoota
with a coach and boat trip home to Sydney and Melbourne. The beauty of the
Mallacoota region impressed him tremendously and he had visions of making his
home there. “We had, by happy accident, found an Australian Arcadia where Virgin
Nature abided, an Arcadia yet innocent of progress, still undisturbed by despoiling
hands”. 6 The influence of this paradise was to be profound and long lasting.
1
Letter Norton to Brady, 14.9.1907, in National Library
2
R.H. Croll, I recall (Melbourne, 1939)
“Let Us To Fasoli’s” Focus, August 1947, pp 16-18
3
Brady later regretted the demise of the magazine. He wrote to Oscar Mendelsohn, 6.5.1947, that it
was “doubling its circulation every months when Strauss and Lothian gave it up, for reasons still
somewhat obscure.. I had offers to carry on, but liked none of them well enough, and my family could
not stand Melbourne winters, so I let it go and was sorry afterwards.”
4
“Brady” manuscript. See Footnote to p. 27
5
Brady to J.K. Moir, 10.12.1937, in La Trobe Library. The same opinion was expressed by
Mendelsohn and Tracey.
6
Dreams and Realities (Melbourne, 1944), p.121