Every day brings a new story. And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books.
Today is the story of June 17th
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It is the 168th day of the year, leaving 197 days remaining in 2022.
Lawson told his stories during the early days of colonial Australia, writing realistic if pessimistic tales he found while wondering the outback of his country. He also wrote poetry and ballads, and is considered one of Australia's best early writers.
He began his career as a newspaperman for The Bulletin, a now-defunct paper published in Sydney that was popular and influential in the country's early years. Lawson was 20 when his first work was published, and he wrote mostly poetry for the nationalist, republican daily. (Nationalist, in this case, means in favor of forming a pro-Australian culture, and republican means anti-monarchist.) His first verse was called A Song of the Republic.
Lawson's writing was often interrupted by heavy bouts of drinking.
His work has sometimes been compared to Hemingway -- sparse, if vivid writing, with lonely, independent characters who have a mix of humanism and pathos. His descriptions of the outback, such as in the short story The Drover's Wife, are realistic: bleak, solitary, and desolate.
He also favored what he called a sketch story -- a description of a place or people that is short, to the point, and often without a plot.
Lawson has been honored with a statue in Sydney, as well as having his depiction on postage stamps and on the Australian 10-dollar bill.
He died in 1922 in Sydney.
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