Edwin James Brady (7 August 1869 – 22 July 1952) was an Australian journalist and poet.[1]
E. J. Brady | |
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![]() Brady c. 1911 | |
Born | Edwin James Brady 7 August 1869 Carcoar, New South Wales, Australia |
Died | 22 July 1952 Pambula, New South Wales, Australia | (aged 82)
Other names | Nedi Woolli |
Occupation(s) | Poet, journalist |
Personal life
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
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
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
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[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
- 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
Manuscript Archives
- Guide to the Papers of E. J. Brady at National Library of Australia
- Edwin James Brady papers, 1892-1951, State Library of New South Wales A 3173 'Australia unlimited, why and how I wrote it. A 3174 'Murray River Irrigation. Clippings, articles, notes, correspondence' and maps, 1908-1950. A 3175 'Personalia': letters, notes, portraits and printed material about and by Brady's ancestors and relations, with personal notes and photographs, 1892-1951. A 3176/1-A 3176/2 'Utopias Ltd: William Lane's settlement in Paraguay, New Italy Mission and Madagascar, Ralahine, Civat-Hein and the Mallacoota Community farm.
- Edwin James Brady papers, 1899-1922 at State Library of New South Wales. A 1586 Australian artists' biographies, 1911, A 1726 Letters from Australian writers and others, 1899-1922, B 762 King's caravan : diary, 1899-1900, C 318 Verses, 1909-1911.
Further reading
- Coasts of Dream – a biography of E. J. Brady by Sarah Mirams, Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2018, ISBN 9781925801262
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/38px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png)