Bertram Stevens (critic)
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- For the Australian politician, see Bertram Stevens
Bertram Stevens (8 October 1872 – 14 February 1922) was Australian journal editor (Single Tax; Native Companion; Art in Australia; Lone Hand) literary and art critic, anthologist (An Anthology of Australian Verse [which contained five poems by Henry Lawson]; The Golden Treasury of Australian Verse).
Stevens was born at Inverell, New South Wales, the son of William Mathison Stevens and moved with his family to Sydney where he was educated at public schools, he was a great reader and became a man of wide knowledge and culture. In 1895 he began a fifteen-year period as a solicitor's clerk and it was intended that he should study law. During this time he read widely and worked as a freelance journalist, coming into contact with a number of literary figures, in 1904 he edited My Sundowner and other Poems by John Farrell with a memoir. In 1906 he prepared An Anthology of Australian Verse, in which he was much hampered by copyright restrictions, but he had a much freer hand in The Golden Treasury of Australian Verse, which appeared in 1909. the first anthology of Australasian verse of any importance. In the same year he had the difficult task of succeeding Alfred Stephens as editor of the 'Red Page' of The Bulletin. David Scott Mitchell gave him access to his library of Australiana.
At the end of 1911 Stevens became editor of the Lone Hand and conducted this journal for seven years. He was one of the founders and was joint-editor of Art in Australia from its beginning in 1916 until his death. He also did literary criticism for the Sydney Mail and other journals, published editions of Australian poets, prepared other anthologies, and edited books on leading Australian artists. Much of his literary work is listed in Serle's Bibliography of Australasian Poetry and Verse and Miller's Australian Literature.
Stevens campaigned for the land policies of Henry George, temporarily winning Henry Lawson to the cause. He was a founding member of the Dawn and Dusk Club. Stevens was very involved with attempts at rehabilitating Henry Lawson at Yanco, New South Wales and Edwin Brady's property at Mallacoota, Victoria.
Stevens died suddenly at Sydney, on 14 February 1922. He left a widow, two sons and a daughter. At the time of his death he was vice-president of the New South Wales Institute of Journalists. He had been preparing A History of Australian Literature for some years before his death, but this was never published. Many of his papers are at the Mitchell library, Sydney.
[edit] References
- Serle, Percival. (1949). "Stevens, Bertram". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
- Ken Stewart, 'Stevens, Bertram William Mathyson Francis (1872 - 1922)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 12, MUP, 1990, pp 77-78.
- This article incorporates text from the public domain 1949 edition of Dictionary of Australian Biography from
Project Gutenberg of Australia, which is in the public domain in Australia and the United States of America.
