Seaforth Mackenzie (author)

Kenneth Ivo Brownley Langwell Mackenzie (Pen name: Kenneth Seaforth Mackenzie) (25 September 1913 – 19 January 1955), was an Australian poet and novelist.^[1]

He was born in South Perth ^[2] , and grew up in Pinjarra, Western Australia, attended Guildford Grammar School and died by accidental drowning in Tallong Creek near Goulburn, New South Wales. His experiences at Guildford in part inspired his novel of 1937 The Young Desire It ^[3]. His novel Dead Men Rising was about the Cowra breakout of which he had first hand experience having been stationed there at the time of the event.

He had received a number of literary grants and awards, as well as a year before his death ^[4] and left a number of works which have been since edited and published ^[5] His life in Sydney included involvement with the world of Norman Lindsay and Hugh McCrae and archival records show significant influence from them ^[6]

Novels

• The Young Desire it London, Cape. 1937
• Chosen People London, Cape. 1938
• Dead men Rising London, Cape. 1951
• The Refuge London, Cape. 1954

Poetry

• Our Earth Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1937
• The Moonlit Doorway Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1944

As editor

• Australian poetry, 1951-2 (selected by Kenneth Mackenzie) Sydney : Angus & Robertson, 1952.

Biographical material

• Jones, Evan (1969) Kenneth Mackenzie: Australian Writers and their Work Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
• Kinross-Smith, Graeme (1980) Australian Writers Melbourne: Thomas Nelson.

Notes