George Robertson and 'John O'Brien'

[Stephen Whiteside]

I'm currently reading "George Robertson - A Publishing Life in Letters". It was first published in 1982, but I haven't got around to it until now.

It's a great read, full of correspondence between George Robertson (of Angus & Robertson) and all his authors - Banjo Paterson, Henry Lawson, Mary Gilmore, C. J. Dennis, Christopher Brennan, John Le Gay Brereton, Leon Gellert, Zara Cross, Norman Lindsay, May Gibbs, 'John O'Brien' - the list just goes on and on.

I was particularly fascinated by the chapter relating to O'Brien/Hartigan.

It goes something like this. GR sent the poems to David McKee Wright to edit. He did the job very thoroughly, and made the comment that they should sell well, but they weren't really poetry. He also thought them very imitative of Paterson and Lawson.

There is also a suggestion that there was a Catholic/Protestant thing at play, although it's a bit confusing. At one point McKee Wright is described as a 'Sinn Feiner', at another point as a Protestant - wouldn't have thought he could be both.

The problem for GR is that MKW was at that time poetry editor for the Bulletin, which meant he would have given it an unfavourable review.

GR manipulates the situation by asking C. J. Dennis if he would write to the Bulletin, asking if he could review 'Around the Boree Log' when it arrives. (To save Dennis time, GR writes the letter. Dennis just has to sign it.)

Dennis replies that he would be happy to review the book, but could GR get somebody else to write the review, and he will just sign that, too?

They almost fall victim to their own slickness. The Bulletin offers to send Dennis a copy of the book. It would have looked a bit suspicious if he said he had already read it, so he had to hold his review back for a seemly period, which meant it going in to one issue later than what GR had wanted. It all worked out well in the end, though, of course, as we all know.

[Stephen Whiteside]

Fair enough. I wondered about that.

[Robyn]

Hi Stephen,
Further to you comments about O'Brien/Hartigan.
Although Hartigan is often associated with Narrandera, he is claimed in our parts as a local poet, as he was born and schooled in Yass. However he often plays second fiddle in publicity to Banjo Paterson, who is also claimed as a local prodigy. So a group of Yass/Binalong poets and singers have decided to raise the profile of O'Brien/Hartigan and are getting together and presenting a Storyteller afternoon on November 4 as part of the Yassarts trail. It will be at the school he attended (Mt Carmel), which has just opened its lovely new Hartigan Centre.
Consequently I've been doing a bit of research on the priestly poet and there are some great stories out there. I've only just started so am looking forward to learning more.
So thanks for your comments, which give me another lead to follow up!
Cheers
Robyn

[Stephen Whiteside]

Strange poem, Marty. Ghostliness is obviously highly contagious!

Sounds like an exciting project, Robyn. There is quite a lot of interesting information about O'Brien in this book.

[Neville Briggs]

Interesting point in your piece Stephen, that these 'classic' bush poets had their work, as you say, thoroughly edited. So how much was their work and how much of it the work of some editor ?? We know Henry Lawson wasn't too pleased with his work being edited, he said so in a poem called " My Literary Friend "

Maybe we have it all wrong, maybe the tidy syllabic/stress counts and perfect rhymes were not the intention of the poets but the imposition of pedantic editors.

[Stephen Whiteside]

It's worth reading the book, Neville. You start to get a good sense of it all. Sometimes GR would recruit two independent editors, who would give very different reports. Often GR would return the edited MS to the author for his/her comments - sometimes even giving them the last word. On more than one occasion, most of the edited changes were removed, the MS largely reverting to its original form prior to publication. Sometimes the authors appreciated the suggestions, and sometimes they didn't. In the case of Banjo Paterson, it seems fairly clear he didn't even read his books after they had been published. It would appear that he was not even aware of the edited changes or, if he was, he just didn't care. It's not all about Paterson and Lawson, though. There is a long roll call of eminent authors mentioned in the book.

[Neville Briggs]

In the case of Banjo Paterson, it seems fairly clear he didn't even read his books after they had been published. It would appear that he was not even aware of the edited changes or, if he was, he just didn't care.

That's astonishing. Why on earth would he not take any interest in the published product ??

[keats]

That's astonishing. Why on earth would he not take any interest in the published product ??

That's not abnormal in the Arts, Neville. Many Authors, Actors and Musicians have never perused the final product. Most Poets I know never listen to their CDs and few read their books after being published. Probably sick of the sight/sound of them by release time. With all the proof reading and proof listening done, most presume that it will be released exactly that way. Any changes from there to print (which shouldn't happen) may well then be overlooked.

[Stephen Whiteside]

Yes, in the case of Paterson (his prose, not his poetry), GR pretty much banked on the fact that Paterson would never be any the wiser about the edited text. I think he just couldn't be bothered with the hassle of talking to him directly about it. He got away with it, too, so his judgement on the matter proved quite sound.