As a result of always interesting conversations with 93- year-
old Vane Lindesay , who lives in Melbourne , following up
events , people , bookshops ,
magazines and literary
publications mentioned in his part
autobiography , with leads and additional information from him , Little
Darwin has been
working on a series of
new posts . Following
is one dealing with
past prominent writers
who had a strong Northern
Territory involvement .
FRANK HARDY : As mentioned previously in
this blog , Vane,
in Darwin the
day of the
Japanese bombing , came into
contact with Communist author Frank Hardy
during WWll when
they worked on the Army Education publication SALT
in Melbourne . Also there was the
artist Ambrose
Dyson , nephew of internationally known satirical artist Will Dyson , close
to Hardy, who
drew scraperboard illustrations for Hardy’s
controversial novel POWER WITHOUT GLORY , which
saw Hardy acquitted on a
charge of criminal libel . Hardy gave Vane one of those
scraperboard works which
graced chapter six of the book and is still in his possession.
Vane later
did illustrations for Hardy’s
Billy Borker yarns , first made popular in an ABC television series , some of which were written in the
Northern Territory . Hardy
also became involved with the Gurindjis
and
wrote a book about their struggle
for land rights , The Unlucky
Australians .
XAVIER HERBERT :
Famous for his
1938 novel Capricornia , about the Northern Territory . One of the many
book jackets Vane
designed while working for the publisher F.W.
Cheshire was for Herbert’s 1963 part
autobiography , DISTURBING ELEMENT .The
cover had been discussed with Herbert and he
seemed pleased with the finished
work.
BILL
HARNEY: Author, poet , caretaker of Ayers Rock (Uluru ). Vane did illustrations for the literary magazine Australian Letters , started in Adelaide by
Max Harris, Geoffrey Dutton and Bryn Davies ,
which ran for 10 years and commissioned drawings and paintings by Clifton Pugh, Russell Drysdale, Lawrence Daws, Arthur Boyd , Tom Cleghorn , Eric Smith, John Perceval and Sidney Nolan.
One of the many writers associated with the magazine was Harney . An early anonymous piece
heaped enormous praise
on Harney and his book Life
Among the Aborigines , despite saying it
was a model of abominable writing .
The author of the extraordinary Harney write up, almost
certainly Max Harris , according to Vane Lindesay , opens with the sweeping statement that Bill
Harney
is one of the most important
human beings in Australia, “ for he belongs
to a species
that is dying
out almost as rapidly as the platypus.”
It has to be one of the most unusual book reviews ever published in Australia. Harney, it said, was a national myth, a national " character", whose importance consisted more in the yarns that are told about him than the yarns he spins so magnificently . It continued :-
In the stale little flats of King's Cross, in the coffee shops of Collins Street urbanised Australians like myself who scarcely could distinguish a bull roarer from a yam, tell the latest about old Bill Harney as if we'd known him for years... with something of the same kind of self-delusion that can give such an air of authenticity to the racecourse tout's inside knowledge of "stable plans for the autumn handicaps ."
Did you hear about old Bill Harney in London last year ... he went over about that new book of his they're publishing there. It seems Bill was having his first look at Park Lane. As you know these days the Mayfair aristocracy and the French whores from Wardour Street compete for footpath space in Park Lane to exercise the ubiquitous French poodles that all seem to own . Bill took one quick look at the dog faeces fouling the pavements, the aimless millings of dogs and elegance, and commented ,"Cripes! We've walked in on a black's camp!"
It went on to explore why Australia had made a Davy Crockett image myth out of the gravel voiced corpulent poet ...
There is a simple sociological explanation which is not quite enough. The age of the real Territorian is passing. Bond's chalets, tourism, U.S.A. scientists, a great army of white-collar workers, air transport, all these things are rapidly de-tribalising the Territory, as it were . And the Territory yesterday is the urban Australian's dream of escape , a vast and timeless Walden . If any evidence this dream is needed, one has only to point to the insatiable postwar demand for outback literature , a demand for the indigenous which has never developed on such a scale in the history of the country . This is simply a very likely consequence of industrialisation and urbanisation , and the individual's sense of loss of mental freedom.
So far as I know Harney is the only man who can genuinely articulate the quality of living we associate with the Territory. He's the real thing .When he comes to write a book unlike literary blokes he just can't lose , because he is what he is .
The writer went on to say that Harney, with the known gift of the gab, had used every embarrassing cliché in his book. It had to be regarded as a mammoth monologue, to be heard not read, then the full charm emerged . He trembled to think what "the thin blooded litterateur critics of the English book world would do to our Ayers Rock ranger."
In his autobiography, Vane Lindesay said the second edition of Australian letters carried a first class article , Camels and Afghans , written by a genuine bushman , H.M. Barker. Another article, circa l958 , covering Professor A.P. Elkin's recording of Arnhem Land music on HMV , a photograph showing a bearded Aborigine with music sticks in a studio being recorded for ethnologist Norman Tindale.
Vane Lindesay illustrated , above , a short story by Finke, NT , teacher Marie Healey. Kadaitja men were killers who wore boots made from feathers held together by dried blood to hide their tracks and killed those who broke tribal law . The sub editor of the story should have been speared because the artist's surname was incorrectly given as Lindsay. Healey , a graduate of Perth university, had done freelance journalism and was Mrs Marie Mahood, wife of a stock inspector and artist.
