A CRITICAL BIOGRAPHY OF EDWIN JAMES BRADY 1869 - 1952 John B. Webb. M.A. Submitted to the University of Sydney in fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. 1972 Contents CHAPTER ONE BIOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT 1869 – 1912 1 CHAPTER TWO – BIOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT 1913 – 1952 28 CHAPTER THREE POLITICAL VIEWS AND THEIR EXPRESSION. 47 CHAPTER FOUR UTOPIAN THEORIES AND CO-OPERATIVE EXPERIMENTS 72 CHAPTER FIVE BRADY’S VERSE. 83 CHAPTER SIX PROSE WRITINGS 105 CHAPTER SEVEN BRADY AS EDITOR AND JOURNALIST 146 CHAPTER EIGHT LITERARY ASSOCIATES 165 CHAPTER NINE CONCLUSION 187 EPILOGUE 194 A SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 196 II PUBLISHED MATERIAL. 201 APPENDIX ONE 207 PSEUDONYMS USED BY BRADY 207 APPENDIX TWO ADVERTISING FOR MALLACOOTA COMMUNITY FARM 209 APPENDIX THREE ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION OF MALLACOOTA COMMUNITY FARM. 210 PREFACE The main collection of Brady’s papers and manuscripts is in the National Library of Australia at Canberra. When this study was begun in 1969 the papers were randomly contained in fifty-five boxes. As this study progressed, the Library staff made some attempt to classify them so that the general contents of each box, and the folders within them, was known, but all the boxes were renumbered, so that folder numbers and box numbers no longer agree. The collection is not fully catalogued (a mammoth task), but main manuscripts are easily accessible, as are some subject groups such as the short stories or letters to artists and writers. Various drafts of some manuscripts, such as Brady’s history of the Labor Party (The Red Objective), are scattered throughout many boxes , usually in chapter form. The pages of some works are unnumbered, but close identification has been given where feasible. Brady adopted the American spelling of “our” words – “or” (flavor, labor). This practice has been retained in the case of direct quotation; otherwise the change has been made to “our”, with the exception of “Labor Party” and “Labor” movement. 1 Chapter One Biographical account 1869 – 1912 “A wand’ring foot, the Celts contend. Though yet a man grow old, Will itch for roaming till the end: Nor peace their sons shall hold Whose fathers, where the rainbows bend Have sought the Crock of Gold.” Brady, “The Wandering Foot” 2 Edwin James Brady was born at Carcoar, New South Wales on 7th August 1869, son of Edward and Hannah Brady. His family was a proud one with a long tradition in Northern Ireland and the United States. Brady later traced the family back to Hugh Brady, first Protestant Bishop of Meath in Ireland, who was instrumental in the establishment of Trinity College, Dublin; and beyond him to “certain chiefs of Thomand” who traced themselves back to Oilill Olum, a prominent figure who, esteemed as a poet, died in 234 A.D. In referring to his ancestry Brady remarked that “my pedigree has always been longer than my purse.” 1 2 On several occasions Brady outlined this ancestral history, telling particularly of the character of his grandfather, Edmund, and of his “respected” father, Edward John, who fought in the Civil War and against Indians in the United States before he came to Australia to become a trooper in the Mounted Police Force, where he put his experience to good use in chasing criminals and bushrangers in central and western New South Wales. Being born into such a family and to such a father had its difficulties. As the young Brady saw it: I arrived in the world of Life with a smile on my face and fists clenched – the smile because I saw at once that this Earth was a very beautiful and amusing place; the shut fist because I realised that I would have to fight, being a trooper’s son (and only child) and Lawmen anything but popular in the Australian back blocks towards the end of the bushranging period.3 The smile and the clenched fist were often visible in the years of development, but the smile was notably absent when the family returned to Oberon after a short period at Condobolin. To a boy used to roaming the wide, sun-drenched paddocks with his dog, Oberon Public School came as a great shock. Edwin Brady ran away. But the inevitable return came and soon an insatiable appetite for reading was apparent. He had soon read Orr’s Circle of the Sciences, which, with an illustrated History of the Bible comprised the family library. Under the impetus of demand however, the size of the collection grew considerably. When his father rode regularly into Bathurst, he was enjoined to bring back candy and books. The Arabian Nights, The Swiss Family Robinson, Shakespeare and Campbell’s poems were later recalled as favourites which were read “from the first streak of light” each morning. In 1880 the Brady family moved to Washington for two years, where the young boy became an object of great attention and curiosity at the local school. He argued with his schoolmates the merits of the political systems of the two countries and, no doubt swamped by superior numbers, became convinced of the virtues of republicanism. Two of his report forms from this school, Grade Five, show he received full marks for Deportment and Scholarship – a performance which no doubt would have amazed some of his political opponents later on, had they been aware of it. 1 In his Personalia, p.1, in Mitchell Library 2 Principally Two Frontiers (Sydney 1944) 3 Autobiographical letter Brady to Carroll, 21.10.46, In Mitchell Library 3 The educational environment of Washington proved thoroughly satisfactory to Brady who appreciated its tranquillity after “eleven or twelve years of almost-daily encounters in which blackened eyes and blooded noses figured, to say nothing bruises and abrasions.”1 But the temporary respite had to come to an end. Urged principally by the mother’s homesick longing for Australia, the family returned in 1882, settling in Sydney and beginning Brady’s long association with this favourite city. Although he often left it for Melbourne and other places, he retained a fondness for its busy streets, its harbour, and its commercial and cultural activity. Brady, along with Roderic Quinn and Christopher Brennan, attended St. Francis’ School in Haymarket in 1882, but the next year saw him at St. Mary’s School, from where he passed the Civil Service Examination in October. Then Quinn and Brady went on to the Marist Brother school at Harrington Street while Brennan proceeded to Riverview.2 Brother Wilbred Staunton greatly influenced Brady at this school, and influence recognised when River Rovers was dedicated to ”Brother Wilbred – a candid critic and a keen sportsman. Who imbued my youthful mind with a love of literature, and inspired my spirit with true Australian sentiment”. From this school Brady passed the Junior Public Examination in 1884. Even at this early stage of Brady’s development, there were signs of some of those facets of personality apparent in the mature man. In a series of reminiscence which was published in Southerly after Brady'’ death, considerable light was shed upon some of the influences which moulded him, as well as upon some of his preoccupations and beliefs. He stated that Life’s Highway was not an autobiography in the usual sense, but a book of reminiscence and personal experience which he wished to record before his arrival “at the Universal Inn”.3 Although the manuscript had been earlier submitted to Angus and Roberston, the rejection slip was accompanied by the readers’ reports, which described it as “full of interest” but “discursive and often disconnected” – both legitimate comments.4 Brady attributed his emotional sensitivities to his Celtic Forebears and made much of certain experiences of childhood which left a lasting impression. In addition to the fear engendered by a terrible “Something” which lived at the bottom of the well, there was a traumatic experience of almost fatal proportions when the young child pulled a basin of boiling bread and milk over him. This left physical scars but also mental traces in the form of nervousness and a sense of impending doom which were never quite outgrown: I went down in to the Valley of Shadow and there I beheld stange new forms. When I read Edgar Allan Poe’s “Ulalume” it all came back to me. By a route obscure and lonely Haunted by ill angels only I journeyed on and on. One face among four is more present than others – the face of a man with a grey beard. Sometimes as he bent over, his beard brushed my cheek. 1 Brady to Carroll, 21.10.46, in Mitchell Library 2 Walter Stone, Biblionews. Vol 11 No. 11, October, 1949 3 From the Foreword written by Brady, when Life’s Highway was in manuscript. It was reproduced as extracts in Southerly No. 4 1953 to No. 4 1955. 4 Enclosure with a letter, Angus and Robertson to Brady, 1.6.1939, among Brady’s papers in National Library. 4 After days had gone, days and nights of suggering for a child, it came that I was to die. Will you believe me that I knew that the time had come for me to die? Where is one room of all the rooms of my years that I remember best. In that room there is a table with a lamp burning, a couch and a bed. There are four people in the room – my father, my mother, the doctor and myself. My mother is kneeling; my father stands rigid, erect, outside the circle of lamplight. I sense his presence rather than see him there. Dr Eaton bends over the table.