E. J. Brady

E. J. (Edwin James) Brady (7 August 1869 – 22 July 1952) was an Australian journalist and poet.

E. J. Brady
Born
Edwin James Brady

(1869-08-07)7 August 1869
Died22 July 1952(1952-07-22) (aged 82)
NationalityAustralian
Other namesNedi Woolli
Occupationpoet and journalist

Personal life

From Irish parents, Brady was born at Carcoar, New South Wales, and was educated both in the United States[1] and Sydney.[2] He worked as a wharf clerk, a farmer, and journalist, and edited both rural and city newspapers.

Aged 82, Brady died in 1952 at the Pambula Public Hospital of a heart condition.[3] He was survived by his second wife, and six children from his first marriage.

Career

Brady was a friend and correspondent of Sir Edmund Barton, the first Australian prime minister, and poets Will H. Ogilvie (1869–1963), Roderic Quinn (1867–1949)), Banjo Paterson (1864–1941) and Henry Lawson (1867–1922).[3] In 1910, Brady helped to save Lawson's life.

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.[4]

Working at Grafton's Daily Examiner in New South Wales, Brady wrote under the pen-name Nedi Woolli.[5] 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. He later took over The Grip newspaper, but 'it went 'straight on the rocks' '.[5]

Brady later established a writers' and artists' colony at Mallacoota, Victoria in 1909,[6] and he continued to live there until his death. 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.[7] His last work Two Frontiers was published in 1945.[3] He also sought to write the biography of The Bulletin co-founder J. F. 'Archie' Archibald.[8]

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.[9]

I'll call you to the beaches,
And you shall bide with me
Along the river reaches
And by the open sea.[10]

Bibliography

Poetry

  • 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
  • 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

  • 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
  • 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

Further reading

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

References

  1. "Mr. E. J. BRADY". Table Talk (759). Victoria, Australia. 18 January 1900. p. 10. Retrieved 1 August 2018 via National Library of Australia.
  2. Webb, John B. (1979). Brady, Edwin James (1869–1952). Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian National University. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  3. "Edwin James BRADY dies in N.S.W." The Mercury. CLXXII (25, 456). Tasmania, Australia. 23 July 1952. p. 3. Retrieved 1 August 2018 via National Library of Australia.
  4. "E. J. BRADY'S poems". Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (17, 792). New South Wales, Australia. 21 October 1933. p. 7. Retrieved 1 August 2018 via National Library of Australia.
  5. "More about E. J. BRADY". Daily Examiner (7148). New South Wales, Australia. 4 March 1953. p. 2. Retrieved 1 August 2018 via National Library of Australia.
  6. "Poets at Mallacoota". The Register (Adelaide). LXXV (19, 763). South Australia. 16 March 1910. p. 7. Retrieved 1 August 2018 via National Library of Australia.
  7. "Industrial Australia". The Sun (4825). New South Wales, Australia. 24 April 1926. p. 4 (LAST RACE FOOTBALL). Retrieved 1 August 2018 via National Library of Australia.
  8. "E. J. BRADY as biographer". Smith's Weekly. XXV (52). New South Wales, Australia. 26 February 1944. p. 4. Retrieved 1 August 2018 via National Library of Australia.
  9. 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.
  10. "Our Illustrations". The Queenslander (2392). Queensland, Australia. 20 January 1912. p. 29. Retrieved 1 August 2018 via National Library of Australia.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.