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DAVID ROWBOTHAM, REVISED VITAE - WRITER,
AUSTRALIA
DAVID ROWBOTHAM
[1]
DAVID ROWBOTHAM, REVISED VITAE – WRITER, AUSTRALIA
Introduction & Portrait - Rowbotham (18 pages)
December 21, 1999:
(1) The National Library of Australia, Canberra, has acquired for its Pictorial Collection the 1958 Archibald Prize Portrait of David Rowbotham,
painted by the Australian artist Andrew Sibley,
now of Melbourne, where it was formerly owned by the Melbourne art collector and opthalmologist Dr Jeff Long. The Librarian, Pictorial Acquisitions, Kirsten Bird, reports the library is excited by the acquisition. It was the Prize’s runner-up. The Rowbotham picture has joined a collection of (so far) 40,000 works devoted to the history of Australia, and stemming from the 19th Century onwards. The portrait will be selectively shown in public exhibitions in Australia, and selectively featured on the Internet – a World Wide Web site entitled IMAGES 1, available to the world. It will be available to cultural authors,
and to students and the public for education and
research. This supports national recognition.
(2) The portrait, in reproduction, will be available to Rowbotham himself for his own professional representation on the Internet; which is under way at the request of family (for “posterity”), friends, libraries, booksellers, and Society of Authors. The representation will consist of photo, portrait,
biography, a list of all books, bibliography,
critical appraisals, a statement about his work, and an anthology of his best work, with author’s CD reading of his own work, and Email facility for interviews and questions.
Appearance on the Internet is another way of the future for writers, especially veteran ones who have produced a body of work. For people do not now read so much, the Internet has become a new visual means of becoming acquainted with the works of authors of whatever country.
(3) Postgrad student Stephany Steggall, of the author’s hometown of Toowoomba, is doing a thesis on him that Univ.Qld. considers rare. She is also
writing a short biography of him for reproduction in a Darling Downs anthology celebrating, for 2000, the history of the town and region shown through the achievement of its figures.
(4) Contemporary Poets, 2000, published by St James Press, Michigan. Only a selected few Australian poets are published in this massive book. It is regarded as the world’s foremost reference book on poetry.
Rowbotham is highly represented
DETAILS OF [2] rowbotham ACTIVITIES - with CV, concentrating on Rowbotham’s achievements and initiatives in four ways:
(1) First, in the last 10 years, the 1990s. Rowbotham is now 75. Queensland born, he is the oldest living and still practising Australian poet, author and journalist. He is the only surviving Australian poet of World War 11.
(2) Secondly, since his retirement from company journalism with The Courier-Mail in 1987, after 17 years as, first, that paper’s inaugural fulltime arts and literary editor (1970-80), and then as its first staff literary editor and chief theatre critic (1980-87).
These two periods cover the last 29 years.
(3) Thirdly, since he joined The Courier-Mail in 1955, after three years working for his hometown paper, The Toowoomba Chronicle (1952-55), and four years freelance journalism in Sydney and London.
(4) Fourthly, from the immediate postwar period 1945-46.
The item about him in Who’s Who in Australia is recommended to give a strict chronological order, and precise dates, to his life and work.
The following statements are presented to show Rowbotham’s Activities Abroad and how they can be connected to his Activities At Home.
(1) He has significantly promoted Australian Literature abroad and helped introduce a valuable sense of internationalism, of (through literature) Australia’s place, and the place of his hometown, city and State in the world.
(2) He has importantly contributed to a shift of territorial emphasis in the study of Australian and overseas literature, extending it from the city to new frontiers; from the countryside and the country towns and capital cities (especially Brisbane), to the world which he has always brought back with him, and into his work.
(3) Through contacts established abroad, he has provided a pathfinding service for many writers and artists who have followed; many of whom, writers, painters, actors, have been people he helped get started in their careers (they might have left the State, but they keep in touch with him, and he with them).
(4) This “contact” service has contributed to Rowbotham’s own development as evidenced in his books; and it has been remarked upon by Australian and overseas scholars and critics.
DETAILS OF ACTIVITIES [3] rowbotham
(5) Other writers, to their advantage, have emulated his overseas programmes and experience.
NB. Arguably, nothing like the rigorous, disciplined overseas programme he undertook in the 1980s (1981-1990) had been previously attempted by an Australian writer.
Visits overseas are, however, recorded since 1951-52 when, after working as a a fulltime editorial assistant on The Australian Encyclopaedia edited by A.H. Chisholm, he worked part-time for The Encyclopaedia Britannica, London. All this will be listed below.
All papers in evidence are held at the National Library of Australia, ACT. There are considerable shelves of all Rowbotham’s papers covering all his manuscripts, including more than 1000 Book Reviews and 3000 Theatre Reviews and a History of Theatre in many scrapbooks. The Collection is regarded by the library as one of its most comprehensive manuscript and historical Collections. Reports from the National Library, and the National Library’s Internet, manifest use by other writers, and by scholars, and by other Australian libraries.
TRAVEL [4] rowbotham
* 1972. Became the first Australian writer to travel round the world under the aegis of the (then) Commonwealth Literary Fund, now the Literary Fund of the Australia Council, and the assistance of Qantas. Guest lecturer Hawaii and Berkeley Universities, and guest broadcaster from coast to coast, involving 40 campuses, USA, for the (then) News and Information Service of the Dept. of Foreign Affairs. Writers and academics were visited in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Washington and Richmond (Va). British visit was supported by the British Arts Council.
Result: American and European poems. Addresses and contact numbers afterwards were freely given (as they have always been), through the Literary Fund, and with permission of contacts, to Australian writers who followed. Especially the poets who, ever since, have visited the Library of Congress, Washington, with its special poetry department and reading programmes. Australian programmes get presented. Requests from this department, and from American publishers and editors for work by Australian writers, have always been passed on to the Council, to other organisations, and to individual writers in Australia.
* 1974. Cultural visitor to Singapore, Hong Kong, and Tokyo, per courtesy of Australia Council (Literary Fund). Addresses and readings to high schools in Singapore and Hong Kong; in Tokyo Guest Lecturer at the (then) Japan-Australia Cultural Association, consisting of businessmen and scholars.
Result: Asian series of poems (mss with Univ.Qld. Library). And further translations between Australia and Asia. Rowbotham is aware that, at all times, he can not take open credit. Credit, unless claimed where it can be supported, has to be given. It has been given officially insofar as the Australia Council has welcomed his reports and sought further information for the assistance of other writers going overseas under Council auspices.
* 1976. Cultural Visit to Italy, per courtesy of Australia Council and Alitalia, on the occasion of the visit of the Queensland Youth Orchestra when it was chosen to represent Australian musical youth at Rome and Florence. Quite a number of visits abroad have been planned to coincide with visits by performing arts
TRAVEL [5] rowbotham
companies. Another example was the occasion of the visit by Graeme Murphy’s Ballet Company to the USA. This has joined Literature to Music, Theatre and Opera, and has also brought Rowbotham’s profession of arts and literary journalism into many projects. Reporting on Australian culture abroad.
Result: As above. And Italian poems; and translation in Italy; and generous invitation to return – which Rowbotham accepted. These returns, especially to Italy and USA, have proved to be vital follow-ups. The USA in particular occupies a large part in his biography.
* 1981. Australian Delegate World Congress of Poets, San Francisco. Attended under the auspices of Dept. of Foreign Affairs and the Fellowship of Australian Writers.
Gave readings; and went on to give readings in Chicago, New York, Washington, Santa Fe (NM), Los Angeles and San Francisco again. Revisited Library of Congress; Univs: Berkeley, North-Western, New York, New Mexico.
Result: More American poems. Was able to assist Foreign Affairs with a report on the congress. Managed to secure publication, in translation, in the Australian Press, of some of the best of foreign-country poets present at the Congress. Summary of literary scene, and opportunities, in USA given to Australia Council for dissemination among writers. Rowbotham’s American poems have been well received in the USA, and have been cited as contributing to the growing internationalism of literature in Australia.
* 1985. Visit to England to finalise research on biography, with assistance from Literary Fund. Visit to Old Country Lincolnshire, and other places of ancestry in Germany.
Result: Notes from this project went immediately into Rowbotham’s work. And all notes, reports, diaries, photos, drafts, notebooks, everything to do with the discipline of all journeys, research and appearances by Rowbotham abroad as reader, lecturer and representative of his country, are now held in his Collection with the National Library of Australia, Canberra. Details are on the National Library Internet. The Collection has been acknowledged (in correspondence) as one of the most comprehensive and important collections the Library has ever received. It contains correspondence with almost a century of selected Australian and overseas writers.
TRAVEL [6] rowbotham
* 1988. From now on, having chosen what to him had become his overseas country of greatest value and interest, Rowbotham acted entirely on his own initiative, arranging finance free of any obligation to the Australia Council but nonetheless fulfilling an obligation made so longstanding by so much previous assistance. He visited the USA again, attracted to the High Mississippi by the legends prevalent there, one of which is now in a prose-work entitled “Death At Maiden Rock”, awaiting publication in Australia and USA.
Then he went on to Switzerland, tracing a legend coeval with the Mississippi one.
* 1989. Returned to the Mississippi via New York and Washington DC; spending two months in USA, and then returning to Australia via London and Hong Kong, keeping in touch with new events and contacts.
Result of 1988/1989: As above. Plus advice given to Gale Publications about Australian literature. Plus large correspondence, while abroad, with the Literary Fund of the Australia Council which in 1988/89 had awarded Rowbotham an Emeritus Fellowship of Australian Literature because of
his “contribution to the National Heritage” (quoted from a letter now with the National Library).
* 1990. Spent the best part of a whole year in the USA, reporting to the Australia Council (Literary Fund) the suggestions about writers-in-residence, and visiting readers and lecturers in High Mid-West Region of America, which, till then, had often missed out on visits etc.
Result: Rowbotham’s activities over an extensive stay, including his interviews with American writers, libraries and Universities, and his correspondence and reporting, were acted upon. Since then, professors and poets from Minnesota have come to Australia for writers’ festivals, and Australian writers have gone to Minnesota.
No open credit can be taken for what has happened. Nonetheless there has been an important shift in territorial emphasis.
Rowbotham’s CV is aligned with his achievements and activities since and before his “retirement” in 1987. As the Separate Statement shows, so much of what he has done in the last ten years can not be separated from, especially, the long discipline of writing, research, and projects abroad of the 1980s.
SIGNIFICANT CAREER [7] rowbotham
The statement and this CV will stress what in particular makes his career all the more significant to Australia now, when he is the country’s oldest or most senior practising author and journalist. He has become one of the major and most influential Australian poets of this century, helping to move Australia, with its rare qualities, among the world. To this, the attached reviews attest. And they show, too, that he may be regarded as our finest war poet, his war poems surfacing slowly, written not during, but after, active service.
The viewpoint here is that his international activities in association with his national and regional ones have elevated his writing and other wide achievements today to a major level.
CV SINCE 1988/89: TITLES[8] rowbotham
The publication titles from 1954 to 1980 are compressed as follows:
(1) Ploughman and Poet, poems, 1954. (2) The White Cottage, an uncollected story, Sydney Bulletin, 1955. (3) Town and City: Tales and Sketches, short stories, 1956. (4) Inland, poems, 1958. (5) All the Room, poems, Grace Leven Prize for Poetry, 1964. (6) The Man in the Jungle, novel, 1964. (7) Brisbane, a monograph, Current Affairs Bulletin, Sydney University, 1964. (8) Queensland Writing, Editor (FAW, Brisbane, 1965). (9) Bungalow and Hurricane, poems, 1967. (10) Focus on David Rowbotham, a life (with John Strugnell), 1969. (11) The Makers of the Ark, poems, 1970. (12) The Pen of Feathers, poems, Second Prize Poetry NSW Captain Cook Bicentenary Celebrations $30,000 Literary Competitions, 1970. (13) Mighty Like a Harp, new poems in Selected Poems 1975. (14) Selected Poems 1975. (15) Maydays, poems, 1980.
Gap in book (but not periodical) publication between 1980 and 1990s due to rigorous overseas visiting, reading and lecturing programme (reported in separate statement).
Publication titles since 1991. Books:-
(1) Honey Licked from a Thorn, in New and Selected Poems, 1945-1993.
(2) David Rowbotham 1945-1993: Penguin Book of New and Selected Poems, 1994.
(3) The Ebony Gates: New and Wayside Poems, 1996.
(4) The Pacific Star, poems, 2000 (with publisher).
(5) When Only The Town Was Motherland, Memoir.
(6) A Brisbane Memoir, prose, 2001 (with publisher).
(7) Death at Maiden Rock, prose, 2001 (with publisher).
Because the volume of books being published has enormously increased, Rowbotham’s own books take a while to come out. The Pacific Star is due to appear in 2000.
Newspapers and Magazines: Recent periodical publication in the following (and more):
(1) The Melbourne Age
(2) The Sydney Morning Herald
(3) The Australian
(4) The Australian’s (monthly) Review of Books
(5) Southerly (University of Sydney)
(6) The Australian Weekend Review
(7) The Bulletin, Sydney
(8) Parnassus: Poetry in Review (New York City)
ANTHOLOGIES [9] rowbotham
Anthologies (a full selection) –
(1) Poets of Australia ed. George Mackaness, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1946.
(2) Australian Poetry 1946 ed. T. Inglis Moore, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(3) Australian Poetry 1947 ed. F.T. Macartney, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(4) Australian Poetry 1948 ed. Judith Wright, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(5) Coast to Coast short stories 1948 ed. Brian Elliott, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(6) Australian Poetry 1949-50 ed. Rosemary Dobson, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(7) Australian Poetry 1951-52 ed. Kenneth Mackenzie, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(8) Coast to Coast short stories 1951-52 ed. Ken Levis, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(9) Modern Australian Poetry ed. H.M. Green, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1952.
(10)Australian Poetry 1953 ed. Nan McDonald, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(11)Coast to Coast short stories 1953-54 ed. C.B.
Christesen, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(12)Australian Poetry 1954 ed. Ronald McCuaig, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(13)Australian Poetry 1955 ed. James McAuley, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(14)Australian Signpost: Short Stories ed. T.A.G.
Hungerford, Cheshire, Melbourne, 1956.
(15)A Book of Australian Verse ed. Judith Wright, OUP, 1956.
(16)Australian Poetry 1957 ed. Hal Porter, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(17)Coast to Coast short stories 1957-58 ed. Dal Stivens, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(18)Australian Poetry 1958 ed. Vincent Buckley, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(19)The Penguin Book of Australian Verse ed. Howarth, Slessor & Thompson, Penguin, 1958.
(20)Australian Poetry 1959 ed. Nancy Keesing, Angus and Robertson, Sydney.
(21)Selected Australian Stories ed. Brian James, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1959.
(22)Australian Poetry 1960 ed. A.D.Hope, Angus &
Robertson, Sydney.
(23)Modern Australian Verse ed. Howarth, Slessor & Thompson, Penguin, 1961.
(24)Australian Poets Speak ed. Colin Thiele & Ian Mudie, Rigby, Adelaide, 1961.
ANTHOLOGIES [10] rowbotham
(25)Australian Poetry 1962 ed. Geoffrey Dutton, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(26)Australian Poetry 1963 ed. G.A.Wilkes, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(27)Australian Short Stories, Second Series ed. Brian James, OUP, 1963
(28)Modern Australian Verse ed. Douglas Stewart, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1964.
(29)From the Ballads to Brennan ed. T. Inglis Moore, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1964.
(30)Australian Poetry 1965 ed. John Thompson, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(31)Australian Poetry 1966 ed. David Campbell, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(32)Australian Poetry 1967 ed. Max Harris, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(33)Short Stories of Australia: The Moderns ed. Beatrice Davis, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1967.
(34)Commonwealth Poets of Today ed. Howard Sergeant, John Murray, London, 1967.
(35)A Book of Australian Verse ed. Judith Wright, second edition, OUP, 1968.
(36)Australian Poetry 1968 ed. Dorothy Auchterlonie, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(37)New Impulses in Australian Poetry ed. Hall & Shapcott, UQP, Brisbane, 1968.
(38)Australian Poetry 1969 ed. Vivian Smith, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(39)Australian Poetry 1970 ed. Rodney Hall, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(40)Modern Australian Poetry ed. David Campbell, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1970.
(41)Australian Poetry 1971 ed.Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(42)The Wide Brown Land and Other Verse ed. Douglas Stewart, Pacific Books, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1971.
(43)Square Poets ed. M. Freer, Qld. FAW, 1971.
(44)Comic Australian Verse ed. Geoffrey Lehmann, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1972.
(45)The Penguin Book of Australian Verse ed. Harry Heseltine, 1972.
(46)Australian Poetry 1972 ed. R.F. Brissenden, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
(47)Penguin Book of Australian Verse ed. Heseltine (1972-1988 editions, and others).
(48)Australian Poetry 1973 ed. J.M.Couper, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
ANTHOLOGIES [11] rowbotham
(49)Classic Australian Short Stories ed. Stephen Murray-Smith & Judah Waten, Oxford, 1974.
(50)Australians Aware: a collection of Australian poems and paintings, ed. Rodney Hall, 1975.
(51)Australian Verse Since 1805 ed. Geoffrey Dutton, Rigby, 1976.
(52)The American Pen Guest Ed. Margaret Trist, P.E.N. American Center, New York City, 1976.
(53)Contemporary American and Australian Poetry ed. Shapcott (UQP, 1976). Early anthology indicative of international place. There has also been an Italian anthology edited by Bernard Hickey; and a Russian one. Author was published in a Cambridge University anthology edited by Vincent Buckley and published in the 1950s. Many anthologies have been loaned and lost.
(54)Poems from The Age 1967-79 ed. R.A. Simpson, 1979.
(55)The Collins Book of Australian Poetry ed Rodney Hall, Collins Publishers, Australia, 1981.
(56)The New Oxford Book of Australian Verse ed. Murray, 1986.
(57)Oxford Book of Australian Verse ed. Murray (1986-1996 editions).
(58)Anthologies of Australian Religious Poetry ed. Les Murray, Collins Dove 1991 and 1996.
(59)Chapter Into Verse ed. Atwan and Wieder, Oxford University Press, UK and USA, 1993.
(60)Queensland Words and All ed. Manfred Jurgensen, Outrider, 1993
(61)Australian Love Poems ed. Jennifer Strauss, Oxford, 1993.
(62)Australian Ghost Stories ed. Gelder, Oxford, 1994.
(63)New Writing Around the World ed. Jurgensen, Outrider, 1994.
(64)From All Walks of Life ed. Perkins and Hay,
CQUPress, 1995.
(65)Lesen und Schrieben ed. von Volker Wolf, A. Francke Verlag, Tubingen and Basel, 1995.
(66)Cheating and Other Infidelities ed. Manfred
Jurgensen, Phoenix, Brisbane, 1995.
(67)Australian Verse: An Illustrated Treasury ed. Davis and Grant, State Library of NSW Press, 1996.
(68)Oxford Book of Modern Australian Verse ed. Porter, 1996.
(69)Family Ties ed. Strauss, Oxford, 1998.
(70)The Moment Made Marvellous ed. Shapcott, UQP, 1998.
(71)50 Years of Queensland Poetry 1940s-1990s ed. Neilsen & Horton, CQUPress 1998.
(72)World Literature Today, University of Oklahoma.
THEATRE [12] rowbotham
During his career, the Author has been represented in, conservatively, at least 200+ Australian and overseas anthologies, including school anthologies not listed here.
Now 75, David Rowbotham has been writing and publishing for more than 50 years, from 1945 to 2000. His short stories, poetry, book and theatre criticism have been represented in Australian and overseas anthologies since 1947.
His newspaper reviews and place as an Australian theatre critic are recorded in – A HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN DRAMA (1973, 1978) by Leslie Rees, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
A special selection of his Book and Theatre Reviews is waiting to be catalogued for the National Library of Australia, where the recent acquisition of his 1958 (runner-up) Archibald Prize Portrait by Andrew Sibley has renewed interest in the whole field of his work.
The ACQUISITION of his Portrait from its Melbourne owner and private collector (a friend of the author) by the National Library’s Pictorial Division, means the portrait, of historical besides artistic value, will be shown in Australian gallery collections.
IMPORTANT REFERENCES [13] rowbotham
Historical, Reference, Critical and Biographical Books: (A short selection to 1999, but including earlier indicative books):
(1) Jindyworobak Anthologies, general editor Rex Ingamells, 1946-1950.
(2) A Historical Outline of Australian Literature, Frederick T. Macartney, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1957.
(3) Argosy, March edition, London, 1958.
(3) A History of Australian Literature ed. H.M.Green, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1961; and revised by Dorothy Green, 1980s
(4) The Literature of Australia: Critical Essays,
Geoffrey Dutton, 1964, second edition 1976.
(5) New Impulses in Australian Poetry, ed. Hall and Shapcott (UQP, 1968).
(6) Henry Lawson: Criticism 1894-1971 ed. Colin Roderick, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1972. “Book Review by David Rowbotham”.
(7) University of Queensland Press, 1973-74 Book
Catalogue and Complete List.
(8) Creative Writing in Australia, John K.Ewers, revised edition 1974.
(9) Writers of The Bulletin:The Boyer Lectures, Douglas Stewart, ABC Publications, Sydney, 1977
(10)Modern Australian Poetry 1920-1970 by Herbert C. Jaffa (Detroit, Gale, 1979).
(11)The Australian Book of Lists, Cassell, 1980.
(12)Dictionary of Australian Quotations ed. Stephen Murray-Smith (Heinemann, 1984).
(13)Australian Literary Studies Vol.11, No.3, May 1983 ed. L.T. Hergenhan. “Three Talks – David Malouf, Les Murray, David Rowbotham”.
(14)Snow on the Saltbush, history, by Geoffrey Dutton (Penguin, 1985).
(15)Downs Artists: A Changing Landscape ed Durack and King (Darling Downs Institute Press, 1985).
(16)Contemporary Australian Poetry ed. Tsaloumas (UQP, trans. for Greek distribution, 1986).
(17)A History of Australian Literature by Ken Goodwin (Macmillan, 1986).
(18)Milestones in Australian History 1788 to the Present, by Robin Brown, foreword by Manning Clark (Collins, 1986).
(19)Oxford Literary Guide to Australia ed.Pierce, 1987.
(20)New Literary History of Australia ed. Hergenhan (Penguin, 1988).
(21)Penguin New Literary History of Australia ed Webby, 1988.
(22)Contemporary Poets ed. Chevalier (St James Press, Chicago, 1990).
IMPORTANT REFERENCES [14] rowbotham
(23)Who’s Who of Australian Writers (Thorpe, and National Centre for Australian Studies, 1991)
(24)Kenneth Slessor, biography, by Geoffrey Dutton (Viking, 1991).
(25)Oxford Companion to Australian Literature ed. Wilde, Hooton, Andrews, 1985, 1986, 1991.
(26)International Authors and Writers Who’s Who ed.Kay, UK, 1991.
(27)Men of Achievement ed. Kay (IBC, Cambridge, 1992).
(28)Dictionary of International Biography ed. Kay
(Cambridge, 1993/94).
(29)Who’s Who of Australian Writers (Thorpe, and
National Centre for Australian Studies, 1995).
(30)Contemporary Poets ed. Riggs (St James Press, 1996).
(31)Contemporary Poets 2000 ed. Riggs (St James Press, Michigan)
(32)The Australian Roll of Honour: National Honours and Awards 1975-1996, Sydney, 1997.
(33)Oxford Australian Literary History ed Bennett and Strauss, 1999.
(34)International Authors and Writers Who’s Who 2000 ed. McIntyre, Indianapolis, 1999.
Recent Special Events [15] rowbotham
(1) June 10, 1998. Rowbotham’s long poem, “Humdingers – The Great Depression”, appeared in The Australian’s Review of Books, causing – said the Editor Kate Legge – a “huge response”. There was a special demand for the issue. The response from readers was large. The reponse from other poets was even larger; poems began to swamp the ARB. Rowbotham received personal response, per phone, letter and fax, from readers in Tasmania, New South Wales and Queensland. His report to the ARB was quoted by Kate Legge in her application to the Australia Council that year for further funding for the ARB. Professor Edmund Campion, Literature Board Chair for that years, was glad to get the report, and funding was duly given. The poem struck a chord. It was a dramatic narrative about the effect of the Great Depression, followed by the Second World War, on a small country-town family. It was unique to Australian poetry. All this is mentioned because the the author’s work over the years has never been compromised to fashionable movements in literature. It has stood its ground, and grown of its own accord, a point recognised by his few surviving peers of the postwar revival-years of Australian poetry.
(2) September 22, 1999. The official launch in Sydney of the Special Sixtieth Anniversary Issue of Australia’s oldest academic and literary magazine, Southerly, edited by Professor Elizabeth Webby of the University of Sydney. To this issue Rowbotham was the contributor of longest standing, his first work having been published in the magazine after the war in 1947. His major contribution to the issue was an extract from his Memoirs, entitled “The Fight for Sydney”, which recalled his years as a young writer in Sydney and the other writers he met and became friends with there. The memoir presented material, and a viewpoint, that only he could give. It was of archival value. And it demonstrated how the help he received from older writers in Sydney contributed to his policy of helping, later, a whole new generation of younger writers in Brisbane. Quite a group of Australian writers prominent today as novelists, short-story writers and poets were influenced and assisted by his presence when they were in Queensland. Besides this, many poets interstate, in their younger years, found that their work was significantly influenced by his, published as it was nationally. Assistance to young writers, and academics, continues, at home, and through festivals.
MORE SOURCES [16] rowbotham
Some recent (but including some earlier) major critical works, articles, essays, etc., concerning Author and his Books:
(1) Australian Poetry by Vernon Young, in Parnassus 7 (New York City) 1, 1978. pp.76-95.
(2) Modern Australian Poetry 1920-1970 by Herbert C. Jaffa (Detroit, Gale, 1979).
(3) David Malouf in Australian Literary Studies 10 (Brisbane), 3, 1982.
(4) A History of Australian Literature by Ken Goodwin (Macmillan, 1986).pp.152-153.
(5) Oxford Literary Guide to Australia ed. Pierce, 1987. p.114.
(6) New Literary History of Australia ed. Hergenhan (Penguin, 1988). pp.476,486.
(7) Penguin New Literary History of Australia ed Webby, 1988.
(8) Contemporary Poets (of the World) ed. Chevalier (St James Press, Chicago, 1990). Rowbotham, David (Harold) by Thomas Shapcott. pp.829-830
(9) Oxford Companion to Australian Literature ed. Wilde, Hooton, Andrews, 1985, 1986, 1991. pp.600-601.
(10)Powerful Poetry by Manfred Jurgensen, in The Courier Mail, 5 February 1994.
(11)The Self as Springboard by Martin Duwell, in The Australian (National) Weekend Review, 26 March 1994.
(12)The Age of Vigilance by David Gilbey in the Australian Book Review No.159, April 1994. p.38.
(13)No One Anywhere Wise Enough by Noni Durack in The Australian Book Review, No.159, April 1994, pp.39-40.
(14)Contemporary Poets (of the World) ed. Riggs (St James Press, Chicago, 1996). Rowbotham, David (Harold) by Thomas Shapcott. p.929.
(15)Preface by David Myers to The Ebony Gates by David Rowbotham (Central Queensland University Press 1996). pp.xi-xiii.
(16)The Fight for Sydney: A Memoir by David Rowbotham, in Southerly, Vol.59, No.3 and 4, Spring and Summer 1999, Special Sixtieth Anniversary Issue. pp.94-101.
(17)Thesis: David Rowbotham, by Stephany Steggall, English Dept., University of Queensland, 1999.
(18)A Note on This Selection, David Rowbotham: New and Selected Poems 1945-1993, Penguin 1994.
(19)Contemporary Poets (of the World) 2000 ed. Riggs, St James Press, Michigan.
NB: The Penguin contains a new volume of poems written since 1988/89; entitled “Honey Licked from a Thorn”.
UNIVERSITIES [17] rowbotham
Visits, Readings, Lectures, Associations, with following Universities: AUSTRALIAN:
(1) James Cook University, Townsville
(2) University of Queensland, Brisbane
(3) Griffith University, Brisbane
(4) Queensland University Technology, Brisbane
(5) University of New England, Armidale
(6) University of Sydney
(7) Macquarie University, Sydney
(8) University of New South Wales, Sydney
(9) Australian National University, Canberra
(10) University of Melbourne
(11) University of Adelaide
(12) University of Western Australia
OVERSEAS:
(13) University of Singapore
(14) Tokyo University
(15) University of Hawaii, Honolulu
(16) Berkeley (University of California), San Francisco
(17) San Francisco State University
(18) UCLA, Univ. of California, Los Angeles
(19) Northwestern University
(20) University of Chicago
(21) New York University
(22) University of New Mexico
(23) University of Minnesota (Spoke on theatre. Amongst his National Library Collection are a whole series of scrapbooks which give a history of theatre in Australia)
(24) Rochester University College, Minnesota
(25) Lincoln University, UK
(26) Cambridge
(27) Oxford
* NINE (9) of these Universities – mostly overseas ones – would fall into limited Activities from 1988/89 to 1999:
1. University of Sydney (Professor Webby)
2. Berkeley (in memory, Professor Josephine Miles)
3. San Francisco State (various)
4. UCLA (Professor Sundquist)
5. University of Chicago (Resident Professor Saul Bellow)
6. New York University (Emeritus Professor Herbert
Jaffa)
7. University of New Mexico (Emeritus Professor Tony Hillerman)
8. University of Minnesota (Prof. Keith Harrison)
9. Rochester Univ. College (Principal)
* NB. University Activities into the 1990s patterned on past practice. Whole list given as overall view of this. Most visits halted 1996 (age a difficulty). But, if no staff changes, associations kept by Letter, Fax, Phone.
NATIONAL HERITAGE [18] rowbotham Literature and the Arts.
Through personal assistance, and through own poetry and prose work, including reviews and interviews, influenced many of what was to become a whole new generation of Australian writers (poets, short-story writers, novelists) who are prominent now in Australia and abroad.
CONTINUING WORK AT 75. This is an accepted matter of admiration and inspiration among both young and older writers, some of the younger of whom consult him, and the older of whom send complimentary copies of their books to him, and correspond with him. One of the oldest, active authors in Australia, maintaining interest in the Arts.
CONTRIBUTION TO THE NATIONAL HERITAGE. This view of his life and work, defined by the Australia Council, and which continues, points to the regard his Australian peers have for his work, and its value to the Arts.
INTERNATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE. Because of his work and wide overseas travel during which he has established association with Universities, Libraries, and Writers abroad, and written of the places he has visited, he has helped create an important goodwill between Australia and other countries. In this, he was a pioneer, as he has been in his writing work. He has helped introduce Australian culture to the reading world, and vice versa, his Literary Journalism as well as his Books playing a signal part in this.
BRINGING AUSTRALIAN AND OVERSEAS WRITERS TOGETHER. His literary reviews, and interviews, of writers at home and abroad have brought these writers together as a global community, and stressed Australia’s place in the international .scene.
RARE POSITION. Few Australian writers have been so positioned - as author, journalist and cultural traveller – to show how Australia and overseas can be joined. Overseas writers, academics and other citizens have been guests at his home. Likewise men and women bearing letters of introduction have been warmly received abroad.
SHIFT IN TERRITORIAL EMPHASIS. After his visits to the USA, other writers, with Government support, have emulated his PATHFINDING programmes among US frontiers previously neglected, expanding Australian readers' consciousness of that nation and continent.
ENDS
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