E. J. Brady

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E. J. Brady
Brady c. 1911
Born
Edwin James Brady

(1869-08-07)7 August 1869
Carcoar, New South Wales, Australia
Died22 July 1952(1952-07-22) (aged 82)
Pambula, New South Wales, Australia
Other namesNedi Woolli
Occupation(s)Poet, journalist

Edwin James Brady (7 August 1869 – 22 July 1952) was an Australian journalist and poet.[1]

Personal life[edit]

From Irish parents, Brady was born at Carcoar, New South Wales, and was educated both in the United States[2] and Sydney, Australia.[1] Among his school friends were Christopher Brennan and Roderic Quinn.[3]

He worked as a wharf clerk, a farmer, and journalist, and edited both rural and city newspapers.

His political leanings were as a confirmed socialist, and secretary of the first Socialist League of Australia, in Sydney, 1890.[4][5][6] It was suggested that Brady and fellow poet Henry Lawson contemplated with becoming 'New Australians' at the 1893 New Australia settlement in Paraguay, away from the influences of capitalism.[7]

Career[edit]

Brady was a friend with poets Will H. Ogilvie (1869–1963), Roderic Quinn (1867–1949)), Banjo Paterson (1864–1941) and Henry Lawson (1867–1922).[8] Several of those individuals were also members of the Bohemian group, the Dawn and Dusk Club,[9][5] with Brady being the last.[10] In 1910, Brady took Lawson on a poets' retreat, restoring Lawson's health.[11][12]

He was the editor of the Australian Workman, Sydney's first trade union newspaper, in 1891-92. The Bulletin and the Sunday Times were the repositories for many of his poems and prose.[13] In 1899, equipped with a notebook, gun, and camera, Brady drove a wagon from Sydney to Townsville (although intending to reach the Gulf of Carpentaria) and back, recording the lives of the settlers.[14]

Working at Grafton's Daily Examiner in New South Wales, Brady wrote under the pen-name Nedi Woolli.[15] The first name was an extension of Quinn's name for Brady, and the last name being an indigenous name relating to the Yamba area; with Quinn normally calling him Ned.[15] He later took over The Grip newspaper, but 'it went 'straight on the rocks' '.[15]

Brady later established a writers' and artists' colony at Mallacoota, Victoria in 1909,[16] and he continued to live there until his death.

He chronicled an eventful journey down the Murray River in a small motor boat from Albury to the coast in 1911 in River Rovers.[17]

A passionate nationalist, he achieved his greatest fame with his book Australia Unlimited, a bestseller from its appearance in 1918, which urged dramatic increases in the national population. In 1926, a book entitled Industrial Australia was being written about the history and growth of industry within the country.[18] His last work Two Frontiers was published in 1945.[8] He also sought to write the biography of The Bulletin co-founder J. F. 'Archie' Archibald.[19] Publishers refused to print the biography.[6]

Lines from his poem Far and Wide have been used in the Melbourne tourism advertisement running on ESPN2 and Tennis Channel during the 2016, 2017, and 2018 Australian Open.[20]

I'll call you to the beaches,
And you shall bide with me
Along the river reaches
And by the open sea.[21]

Later life[edit]

Brady, given as tall and debonair,[22] in 1890 married Marion Cecilia Walsh; and in June 1895,[23] married Annie Creo Dooley née Stanley, in June 1895. Aged 72,[22] he married Florence Jane Bourke in 1942 in Victoria, and had a daughter.

After retiring, he continued living in a tent home in Mallacoota.[6]

Aged 82, Brady died in 1952 at the Pambula Public Hospital of a heart condition.[8] He was survived by his third wife, and six children from his first marriage.[4]

Bibliography[edit]

Poetry[edit]

  • The Ways of Many Waters, 1899
  • The Earthen Floor, Grip Newspaper Company, 1902
  • Bushland Ballads, 1910
  • Bells and Hobbles, 1911
  • The House of the Winds, 1919
  • Wardens of the Seas, Endeavour Press, Sydney, 1933[24]
  • They Shall Be Remembered: A poem dedicated to the heroes of Second World War, also called Australia Remembers: Pte. C. J. Williams, Stubbs Publishing, 1946

Prose[edit]

  • Sydney Harbour, Builder Printing Works, 1903
  • Sydney: The Commercial Capital of the Commonwealth, Builder Printing Works, 1904
  • Picturesque Port Phillip, George Robertson & Co, 1911
  • The King's Caravan: Across Australia in a Wagon, Edward Arnold, 1911
  • The River Rovers, George Robertson & Co, 1911
  • Tom Pagdin pirate, NSW Bookstall, 1911 — illustrated by Lionel Lindsay
  • Australia Unlimited, 1918 — of one thousand quarto pages in size, a picturesque description of Australia's life and resources, selling of 10 000 copies, and costing £2/2/– each. It took six years to research and write[4]
  • The Land of the Sun, Edward Arnold, 1924
  • The Overlander: Prince's Highway, Ramsay Publishing, 1926
  • Doctor Mannix: Archbishop of Melbourne, Library of National Biography, 1934
  • Two Frontiers, Frank Johnson, 1944 — biography of Edward John Brady (1830–1914)
  • Dreams and Realities, co-authored with Leslie Rubenstein, York Press, 1944

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Webb, John B. (1979). "Brady, Edwin James (1869–1952)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  2. ^ "Mr. E. J. BRADY". Table Talk. No. 759. Victoria, Australia. 18 January 1900. p. 10. Retrieved 1 August 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ Stone, Walter (October 1949). "Roderic Quinn (1869-1949)". Biblionews. 2 (11).
  4. ^ a b c "E. J. Brady dies–great Australian poet". The Herald. No. 23, 450. Victoria, Australia. 22 July 1952. p. 3. Retrieved 27 March 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ a b "Australian Socialism". Barrier Daily Truth. Vol. XXXIII, no. 9986. New South Wales, Australia. 20 June 1941. p. 4. Retrieved 27 March 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ a b c "E. J. Brady, rebel writer, fighter for Socialism". Tribune. No. 751. New South Wales, Australia. 30 July 1952. p. 5. Retrieved 27 March 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ "Our colony". The West Australian. Vol. XLVIII, no. 9, 449. Western Australia. 8 October 1932. p. 5. Retrieved 27 March 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ a b c "Edwin James BRADY dies in N.S.W." The Mercury. Vol. CLXXII, no. 25, 456. Tasmania, Australia. 23 July 1952. p. 3. Retrieved 1 August 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ^ "Death of a literary pioneer". The Dandenong Journal. Vol. 91, no. 33. Victoria, Australia. 20 August 1952. p. 11. Retrieved 27 March 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ^ "Books of the Day". The Age. No. 27103. Victoria, Australia. 28 February 1942. p. 5. Retrieved 27 March 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. ^ "Poets at Mallacoota". The Register (Adelaide). Vol. LXXV, no. 19, 763. South Australia. 16 March 1910. p. 7. Retrieved 27 March 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. ^ "Henry LAWSON". The Northern Star. Vol. 48. New South Wales, Australia. 28 July 1923. p. 14. Retrieved 27 March 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. ^ "E. J. BRADY's poems". Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate. No. 17, 792. New South Wales, Australia. 21 October 1933. p. 7. Retrieved 1 August 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. ^ "Passing of E. J. BRADY Last Of The Bush Balladist". Worker. Vol. 63, no. 3393. Queensland, Australia. 28 July 1952. p. 2. Retrieved 27 March 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ^ a b c "More about E. J. BRADY". Daily Examiner. No. 7148. New South Wales, Australia. 4 March 1953. p. 2. Retrieved 1 August 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. ^ "Poets at Mallacoota". The Register (Adelaide). Vol. LXXV, no. 19, 763. South Australia. 16 March 1910. p. 7. Retrieved 1 August 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. ^ Brady, E.J. (1911). River Rovers (First ed.). Melbourne: George Robertson & Co.
  18. ^ "Industrial Australia". The Sun. No. 4825. New South Wales, Australia. 24 April 1926. p. 4 (Last race football). Retrieved 1 August 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  19. ^ "E. J. BRADY as biographer". Smith's Weekly. Vol. XXV, no. 52. New South Wales, Australia. 26 February 1944. p. 4. Retrieved 1 August 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  20. ^ McFARLANE, Hannah (4 August 2016). "Australian Poetry Library goes global". Sydney Publishing: Important, interesting, Australian books based on high quality research. University of Sydney. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  21. ^ "Our Illustrations". The Queenslander. No. 2392. Queensland, Australia. 20 January 1912. p. 29. Retrieved 1 August 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  22. ^ a b "On the record". Glen Innes Examiner. New South Wales, Australia. 28 July 1952. p. 2. Retrieved 27 March 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  23. ^ "Family notices". The Australian Star. No. 2302. New South Wales, Australia. 22 June 1895. p. 1. Retrieved 27 March 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  24. ^ "Federation". The Telegraph (Brisbane). Queensland, Australia. 28 October 1933. p. 6 (Latest final cables). Retrieved 27 March 2022 – via National Library of Australia.

Manuscript Archives[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • Coasts of Dream – a biography of E. J. Brady by Sarah Mirams, Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2018, ISBN 9781925801262

External links[edit]

Wikisource has original works by or about:
E. J. Brady
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