Henry Lawson

Throughout his later years, the writer fought against his dire poverty, and his addiction to alcohol. In this struggle, he was helped extensively by his landlady, Mrs Isabel Byers.

In 1922, the renowned Australian writer succumbed to cerebral haemorrhage, at Mrs. Byer's house, in Sydney's Abbotsford, suburb.

Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson was born to Niels Hertzberg Larsen and his wife, Louisa, in the town of Grenfell, New South Wales, on June 17, 1867. Niels, who later changed his name to Peter Lawson to sound more English, was a miner from Norway. His wife was a homemaker who later became a feminist writer and publisher.

On October 2, 1876, the young boy began his schooling at Eurunderee, New South Wales. Due to an infection in his ear, he suffered from partial hearing impairment, which became worse by the time he turned fourteen. With his hearing ability completely gone, a teacher, John Tierney, helped the shy boy cope with studies.

When later Henry joined a school in Mudgee, New South Wales, another teacher, Mr. Kevan, was also kind to the deaf boy, and instilled in him a love for poetry. Since the child couldn't hear, reading formed a major role in his education. He was particularly fond of English writers, Frederick Marryat and Charles Dickens.

By then, his parents, who had a troublesome marriage, were separated, and his mother, Louisa was living in Sydney with her other children. In 1833, Henry moved to his mother's house, after assisting his father in his work, at the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales.

While living with his mother, he studied at night, while going to work in the morning. Despite his best efforts, the young Lawson ended up failing in his matriculation exams.

On October 1, 1887, Henry's first work of literature, a poem titled 'A Song of the Republic', was published in 'The Bulletin' magazine. He also published the poems, 'The Wreck of the Derry Castle' and ‘Golden Gully'.

He also began contributing to 'The Republican' a newspaper owned by his mother, Louisa. Within the next three years, he had published a few more poems, including 'Andy's Gone with Cattle', and 'Faces in the Street', making a name for himself as a poet.

In 1891, the young poet worked for the journal, 'Boomerang', but quit after 7-8 months. He also wrote for and edited a Brisbane newspaper, 'The Worker', founded by journalist, William Lane. He applied for the job of an editor to 'The Australian Worker', in Sydney, but was rejected.

Lawson continued to contribute his poetry to 'The Bulletin', in Sydney, on a regular basis. The magazine sponsored a trip for the poet to New South Wales, in 1892, where he found employment in an oil field, at the Toorale Station.

He also found that the picture of greenery depicted in poems about the state of New South Wales, was a myth, and the reality was that it was an extremely dry region.

Amongst the innumerable short stories written by this writer, 'The Drover's Wife' is the most popular. The story deals effectively with a person's emotions, especially the feeling of being lonely. This story forms a part of the syllabus for many schools, as well as the basis of several screen and stage adaptations.