(First in a Little Darwin series by Peter Simon )
Renewed interest is being shown in the NZ born outspoken author , Jean Devanny, who was closely involved with leading Australian literary figures and engaged in fascinating wartime correspondence with an American serviceman twice named the US Poet Laureate. It will also be shown that she corresponded with people in the NT, including author Frank Hardy. I recently perused her personal papers and letters which are held in the Special Collections section of Townsville's James Cook University Library.
While there I learned that an American Fullbright Scholar and an academic Canberra lawyer had recently accessed the Devanny papers.
When I lived on nearby Magnetic Island some years ago , carrying out research into the life of Townsville accountant , songwriter and entertainer , the late John Ashe (1907-1994) , a forgotten major force in Australian country music, I became interested in Devanny ( 1894-l962), about whom I was slightly aware, as I heard she had spent time with her husband on the island .
Ashe , an outgoing conservative , had been friendly with Devanny and chided her about her enthusiastic support for Communism. When she boasted there was no unemployment in Russia, his response that nobody was unemployed in a prison made her laugh. Ashe said there was a drinking class in Australia, nobody had worked for years. Devanny guffawed so much she reportedly almost fell in the gutter. He also caused her to laugh when he said fancy people wanting to escape Heaven when there was a report of people being shot trying to cross the Berlin Wall.
There were similar exchanges between them when he called on her when she was at home, dying from leukemia. He was in the small group that saw the train off from Townsville Railway Station in which was Devanny’s body to be cremated in Rockhampton. Through the Ashe project I came into possession of the above copy of Devanny’s controversial first novel , The Butcher Shop , published in l926, about life on a sheepfarm in NZ , which condemned sexual oppression in marriage and was banned on both sides of the Tasman.
There were similar exchanges between them when he called on her when she was at home, dying from leukemia. He was in the small group that saw the train off from Townsville Railway Station in which was Devanny’s body to be cremated in Rockhampton. Through the Ashe project I came into possession of the above copy of Devanny’s controversial first novel , The Butcher Shop , published in l926, about life on a sheepfarm in NZ , which condemned sexual oppression in marriage and was banned on both sides of the Tasman.
A 1981 reprint , with an introduction and notes by Heather Roberts and notes on the banning of the book by Bill Pearson , it was published by Auckland University Press. The handwritten inscription on the front free endpaper reads : To John (Ashe)...In memory of your dear friend Jean Devanny and her daughter Patricia Hurd , with fond regards. It was signed Michael Hurd ( Patricia and Ronald Hurd’s son ).
Pat, fiercely active in many spheres like her mother , embraced Communism, eventually withdrew from the party and joined the ALP ; tragically, she drowned in a friend’s swimming pool in Townsville and Ashe delivered her eulogy.
Ronald Hurd, Pat’s husband, was a seaman who had fought in the International Brigade against the Fascists in Spain; when he was a West Australian Seamen’s Union official he underwent an operation in Darwin .
After quickly boning up on Jean Devanny’s biographical details and extensive writing, I began to gather information on the island about her from time to time , intending to one day write something about this liberated , up–the- workers woman , who made rousing speeches, spoke openly of sexual matters , took a great interest in the plight of Aborigines , the environment and had a close relationship with the naturalist , radiologist and toxicologist, Dr Hugo Flecker , after whom the deadly box jelly fish was named Chironex fleckeri in honour of his research into the stinger.
The editor of the Magnetic Times newspaper, George Hirst, was helpful in supplying me with leads about individuals who had dealings with Devanny and pointed out dwellings in which she stayed while on the island .
Hirst also assisted the Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of Queensland, Carole Ferrier, when she came to the island doing research for her comprehensive book, above, JEAN DEVANNY Romantic Revolutionary, Melbourne University Press , 1999. NEXT: Devanny's early life , brought up in a strong union background in New Zealand, mixing with activists who became prominent politicians and an unusual book in the Little Darwin library which belonged to one of those key players during a turbulent time in Kiwi politics.
