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Kenneth Adolf Slessor (March 27, 1901–June 30, 1971)[1] was an Australian poet and journalist. He is one of Australia's leading poets, notable particularly for the absorption of modernist infuences into Australian poetry.

Contents

Life

Slessor was born in Orange, New South Wales. [1] His family moved to Sydney in 1903. Slessor attended Mowbray House School (1910-1914) and the Sydney Church of England Grammar School (1915-1918) [1], where he began to write poetry. His first published poem was in 1917 about a digger in Europe, remembering Sydney and its icons. Slessor received his leaving certificate in 1918 and joining the Sun newspaper as a journalist. In 1919, seven of his poems were published. Slessor married Noela Glasson, who was 28, on the 18th of August 1922

Career

He made his living as a newspaper journalist, mostly for the Sydney Sun, and was a war correspondent during World War II (1939 – 1945).[1] Slessor counted Norman Lindsay, Hugh McCrae and Jack Lindsay among his friends.

The bulk of Slessor's poetic work was produced after the Second World War. His "Five Bells", relating to Sydney Harbour, remains probably his best known poem, followed by "Beach Burial", a tribute to Australian troops who fought in World War II.

In 1965, Australian writer Hal Porter wrote of having met and stayed with Slessor in the 1930s. He described Slessor as:

"...a city lover, fastidious and excessively courteous, in those qualities resembles Baudelaire, as he does in being incapable of sentimentalizing over vegetation, in finding in nature something cruel, something bordering on effrontery. He prefers chiselled stone to the disorganization of grass".[2]

Bibliography

Poetry Collections

  • Thief of the Moon (1924)
  • Earth-Visitors (1926)
  • Cuckooz Contrey (1932)
  • Darlinghurst Nights (1933)
  • Funny Farmyard (1933)
  • Five Bells: XX Poems (1939)
  • One Hundred Poems, 1919-1939 (1944)

Essays/Prose

  • Bread and Wine (Sydney, 1970)

Edited

  • Australian Poetry (1945)
  • The Penguin Book of Modern Australian Verse (Melbourne, 1961)

Trivia

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d "MS 3020 Papers of Kenneth Adolf Slessor (1901-1971)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved on 2008-08-29.
  2. ^ Porter (1965) p. 40

References

  • Porter, Hal (1965) "Melbourne in the Thirties" in London Magazine, 5(6): 31-47, September 1965

External links

Persondata
NAME Slessor, Kenneth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Slessor, Kenneth Adolf
SHORT DESCRIPTION Australian poet and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH March 27, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Orange, New South Wales
DATE OF DEATH June 30, 1971
PLACE OF DEATH
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