Henry Lawson Selected Stories

Description

An essential collection of Henry Lawson's best-loved stories. Rogues, larrikins and the lost people - these timeless stories range from inspired, laconic comedies to pathos and tragedy. this selection showcases Lawson's range as a fiction writer and highlights his profound influence on how Australians see themselves. Here are delightful tales, thrilling tales, tales of love, of strife and of adventure, tales full of humour - stories of every mood, all alive with the magic of Lawson's genius, a genius which ranks with that of the world's greatest short-story writers. Includes 'the Drover's Wife', 'the Union Buries Its Dead' and 'the Loaded Dog'. 'Lawson's genius remains as vivid and human as when he first boiled his literary billy' - the Bulletin 'A book of honest, direct, sympathetic, humorous writing about Australia from within is worth a library of travellers' tales ... the result is a real book - a book in a hundred. His language is terse, supple, and richly idiomatic. He can tell a yarn with the best.' - the Academy on While the Billy Boils

Henry Lawson was born in Grenfell, NSW, in 1867. At 14 he became totally deaf, an affliction which many have suggested rendered his world all the more vivid and subsequently enlivened his later writing. After a stint of coach painting, he edited a periodical, The Republican, and began writing verse and short stories. His first work of short fiction appeared in the Bulletin in 1888. He travelled and wrote short fiction and poetry throughout his life and published numerous collections of both even as his marriage collapsed and he descended into poverty and mental illness. He died in 1922, leaving his wife and two children.