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20. Lawson, Henry, 1867-1922

In the days when the world was wide and other verses / by Henry Lawson. (Sydney : Angus and Robertson ; London : Young J. Pentland, 1896)

Short stories in prose and verse

Henry Lawson was born at Grenfell on the NSW goldfields. His family was poor and he had little education, working with his father on the family’s selection and on building contracts, then in Sydney as a coach-painter. His mother Louisa had left the father and become part of the radical republican circles in Sydney. She became editor of the monthly, The republican in 1887, and published her son’s first story in its pages. In 1888 she began her own feminist journal, The Dawn. She published a novel, Dert and do (1904) and a volume of verse, The lonely crossing (1905)

Henry established himself as a contributor to The Bulletin, and in 1894 his mother published his first book, Short stories in prose and verse.  This includes what was to become his most famous story, “The drover’s wife”.  His reputation was established after Angus & Robertson published two of his books in 1896, While the billy boils and In the days when the world was wide.  In 1900 he left with his family for London in an attempt to gain international recognition. Although he wrote some of his best work during this period, he was unsuccessful and returned to Australia in 1902 with his marriage in trouble and his problems with alcohol worse. He continued to have stories and poems published; his books continued to appear and sell well, but his personal life steadily disintegrated. His contemporary reputation rested mainly on his poems, but he is now best-remembered as a master of the short story, set on the small farms in the NSW bush.

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