This edition of Henry Lawson’s Selected Stories follows the definitive versions of those stories as they appeared in Colin Roderick’s comprehensive Henry Lawson: The Master Storyteller: Prose Writings, published by Angus & Robertson in 1984. This present selection, and readers of Lawson’s work, owe a huge debt to the late Professor Roderick’s meticulous editing and Lawson scholarship.
The chronology of Henry Lawson’s life is an edited version of that which appeared in Henry Lawson: Twenty Short Stories and Seven Poems selected by Colin Roderick and published by Angus & Robertson in 1947.
Sydney, 2001
In Lawson there was a deep, enduring and genuine appreciation of the nobility in mankind that is independent of worldly fortune. He sought the good in man, and to him it was all the more precious whenever it surmounted satanic forces that might have been expected to destroy it. In Lawson’s world the heroic in man is exalted above the harshness of the bush, the grim of the slum, the pitilessness of the gaol. His work mirrors the yearning of man to refine the human condition. The integrity of his work rests on the two strong pillars of love and hope. No one has expressed Lawson’s creed, as man and as artist, more succinctly than he has himself. In 1889, at the very beginning of his career, he wrote:
“Brotherhood and Love and Honour! is the motto for the world—”
And five years later:
“’Tis the hope of something better that will save us in the end.”
Peter Hertzberg Larsen (later Lawson), Norwegian immigrant, marries, 7 July, at Gulgong, Louisa Albury, of Guntawang, near Mudgee.
1867
Henry Archibald Lawson born on Grenfell diggings 17 June. His parents return to Eurunderee, near Mudgee.
1870
Lawson’s father selects at Eurunderee.
1871
Peter Lawson joins the rush to Gulgong.
1872
Lawson’s first visit to Sydney.
1873
Peter Lawson returns to Eurunderee.
1874
Gold rush to Eurunderee.
1875
Henry George Hanks opens a school in the vicinity of Eurunderee, which Lawson attends.
1876
Henry and Charles Lawson enrolled, 2 October, at the newly-opened school at Eurunderee under John Tierney. Henry’s deafness begins.
1877
Lawson’s twin sisters, Gertrude and Annette, born in April. Annette dies in December.
1878
Peter Lawson builds the new Eurunderee school. Louisa Lawson begins publishing verse.
1879
Lawson sent to the Roman Catholic school at Pipeclay Creek.
1880
Lawson leaves school to assist his father as a carpenter. Correspondent for the Mudgee Independent. Stays at Granville with his grandparents while having his defective hearing investigated. Works as a carpenter.
1881
In the Blue Mountains with his father.
1882
Works with his father carpentering and painting at Rylstone.
1883
Peter and Louisa Lawson separate. Henry moves with his mother to Granville and becomes apprenticed as a coach painter to Hudson Brothers, railway contractors (“Grinder Brothers”). Attends night school.
1884
Lawson a painter in Newcastle for Hudson Brothers. Fails at clerical work. xi
1885
In Melbourne, seeking to have his deafness cured. Works at his trade for a time.
1886
In Sydney, unemployed.
1887
Begins publishing verse with “The Song of the Republic” (Bulletin, December).
1888
Louisa Lawson begins The Dawn. “Faces in the Street” (verse), and “His Father’s Mate” (prose) in the Bulletin. Goes to work painting at Mount Victoria, where he meets Arthur Parker (“Mitchell”). Takes to drink, and is sent back to Sydney. Peter Lawson dies 31 December.
1889
In Albany, Western Australia, painting houses. On return to Sydney, joins the Republican.
1890
Joins the staff of the Boomerang, Brisbane (“Joe Swallow”). Is represented in Archibald and Broomfield’s A Golden Shanty.
1891
In Sydney after the failure of the Boomerang. “When Your Pants Begin to Go.” Visits Eurunderee and becomes engaged (for a few weeks) to Bridget Lambert.
1892
Humps his bluey with Jim Grahame from Bourke to Hungerford. “Song of the Darling River.”
1893
To New Zealand, where he works as sawmill hand and telegraph linesman.
1894
In Sydney. Helps with the Worker. His mother issues his Short Stories in Prose and Verse.
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