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Article: The camaraderie of not caring: misreading Henry Lawson.(Literature)
- Article from:
- Quadrant
- Article date:
- November 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Quadrant Magazine Company, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE LEGEND OF Henry Lawson which arose after his death was that of a man who had been there at the birth of the nation in the great days of the Bulletin, and who had partly created it himself. It was Lawson the depicter of rabble-rousing republicanism, of back-blocks camaraderie, and of mateship nationalism. The legend became part of the larger triumph of the nineties. This was the Lawson taught in schools, the legend of Lawson as success.
But we get a very different picture if we look at Lawson's own life and writing unimpeded by later impressions. In addition we now have available his journalism, reprinted in Autobiographical and Other Writings 1887-1922, ...