{{Short description|Australian poet and writer (1876–1957)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} {{Use Australian English|date=May 2015}} {{Infobox person | name = Will Lawson | image = Will Lawson.jpg | caption = Lawson (undated) | birth_name = William Lawson | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1876|9|2}} | birth_place = Durham, England | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1957|10|13|1876|9|2}} | death_place = Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | occupation = Poet, author | spouse = | children = | relatives = }} '''Will Lawson''' (2 September 1876 – 13 October 1957), born in Durham, England, was a popular bush poet, novelist, journalist and historian of Australia.<ref name=CESMR>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article100046079 |title=Cessnock Rotary Club |newspaper=The Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder |volume=31 |issue=4004 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=12 January 1943 |access-date=11 February 2023 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Many of his works had sailing or stage coach themes.<ref name=SSSJ1914>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article126218903 |title=Our book column |newspaper=The Sydney Stock and Station Journal |volume=XXVI |issue=73 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=22 December 1914 |access-date=11 February 2023 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
== Early life ==
Born at Gateshead, Durham, England, the family was of Scandinavian descent, with the family name originally of Larsen.<ref name=Tele1953>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article248588323 |title=Balladist recalls Bohemian Sydney |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) |volume=XVIII |issue=107 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=25 July 1953 |access-date=11 February 2023 |page=19 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Moving with his family to New Zealand at the age of four, they first lived in Wellington, New Zealand.<ref name=Tele1953 />
The family moved to Brisbane, Australia around 1885, where Lawson received some education, then moved back to Wellington, New Zealand,<ref name=CESMR /><ref name=Tele1953 /> where he worked as a clerk in an insurance office, and began writing poems for ''The Bulletin''.
Lawson was a fireman on the Wellington & Manawatu Railway Company, and wrote a poem ''Firin’ on the Mail'':<ref>{{cite book |last= Troup |first= Gordon |title=Footplate: The Victorian Enginemans's New Zealand |accessdate= |edition= |orig-date= |year= 1978 |publisher= A.H. & A.W. Reed |location= Wellington |isbn= 0-589-01096-4 |oclc= |page= 140 }} </ref> : Fill her tank and give her coal : Clear her fires, and then : Let the big-wheeled Yankee roll : Down the grades again.
For World War I, Lawson was rejected by the New Zealand military for the mounted infantry because of his diabetes.<ref name=Tele1953 /> He wrote a book on the Trentham Military Camp in WWI.
== Career ==
In 1912 Lawson returned to Australia and joined the staff of Sydney's ''Evening News'', also writing for ''Smith's Weekly'' and ''The Bulletin''.
In 1924 and 1925 Lawson went to San Francisco as the publicity officer for the Union Steamship Company.<ref name=CESMR /> In 1929, he then undertook an extensive tour of the 'Far East'.<ref name=CESMR />
From 1932, Lawson has been freelancing literature.<ref name=CESMR />
He was associated with the Sydney Bohemian artistic scene and such well-known figures as poet and later politician Randolph Bedford (1868–1941), journalist and writer Edward Dyson (1865–1931), illustrator Will Dyson (1880–1938), artist Livingston Hopkins (1846–1927), landscape painter Percy Lindsay (1870–1952), and poet Roderic Quinn (1867–1949).
Although not related to poet Henry Lawson (1867–1922),<ref name=Can1957>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91239949 |title="Will" LAWSON dies in Sydney |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=31 |issue=9,299 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=14 October 1957 |access-date=11 February 2023 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> they were lifelong friends,<ref name=CESMR /><ref name=Tele1953 /> and a friend of his widow Bertha.
== Later life ==
Lawson died in Sydney in 1957, aged 81.<ref name=Can1957 />
Some literary historians did not know whether to list Lawson as an Australian or a New Zealand writer, although Lawson considered himself Australian.<ref name=Tele1953 />
==Selected works==
===Poetry===
* ''The Red West Road'' (1903) * ''Light love'' (1904)<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22486250 |title=Light love |newspaper=Camperdown Chronicle |volume=XXX |issue=4881 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=17 December 1904 |access-date=11 February 2023 |page=50 (Unknown) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> * ''Between the Lights'' (1906) * ''Stokin' and Other Verses'' (1908) * ''The tug that went a-trawling'' (1909)<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article37401627 |title=The tug that went a-trawling |newspaper=Western Mail |volume=XXV |issue=1,252 |location=Western Australia |date=25 December 1909 |access-date=11 February 2023 |page=26 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> * ''The Three Kings'' (1914)<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103055494 |title=The Three Kings |newspaper=The Land |volume=XX |issue=1007 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=3 October 1930 |access-date=11 February 2023 |page=8 (The Countrywoman) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> * ''To the Fallen'' ({{circa|1917}})<ref>{{cite web|url= https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH1Hist-t1-front-d4.html |title= To the Fallen |publisher= New Zealand Electronic Text Collection, Victoria University of Wellington |date= 1917 }}</ref> * ''Bush Verses'' (1943) * ''Bill the Whaler'' (1944)
===Novels===
* ''Red West Road'' (1906)<ref name=CESMR />
* ''The Laughing Buccaneer'' (1935), based on the career of blackbirder 'Bully' Hayes<ref name=Tele1953 /><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51590157 |title=Laughing Buccaneer |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly |volume=6 |issue=17 |location=Australia, Australia |date=1 October 1938 |access-date=11 February 2023 |page=Front cover (Laughing Buccaneer) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
* ''When Cobb and Co. was King'' (1936), possibly his best-known book<ref name=Can1957 /><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article97978110 |title=Another coach robbery |newspaper=Sunday Mail (Brisbane) |issue=334 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=13 September 1936 |access-date=11 February 2023 |page=33 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103105779 |title=Will Lawson's Cobb and Co. In Third Edition |newspaper=The Canberra Times |date=31 October 1959 |accessdate=24 September 2013 |page=13 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
* ''Old Man Murray'' (1937)<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article116336060 |title=OLD MAN MURRAY |newspaper=The Riverine Herald |issue=19,879 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=27 December 1938 |access-date=11 February 2023 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
* ''Harpoons ahoy!'' (1938)<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article37847303 |title=Harpoons ahoy! Chapter 10 |newspaper=Western Mail |volume=55 |issue=2,722 |location=Western Australia |date=28 April 1938 |access-date=11 February 2023 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
* ''In Ben Boyd's Day'' (1939), considered to be his best to date, in a historical setting of a gentleman adventurer<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article171220341 |title=Will LAWSON's historical novel |newspaper=The Manning River Times and Advocate for the Northern Coast Districts of New South Wales |volume=71 |issue=8868 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=6 September 1939 |access-date=11 February 2023 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
* ''Red Morgan Rides'' (1940)
* ''Bound for Callao'' (1942)<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139413652 |title=Bound for Callao |newspaper=Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate |issue=20,177 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=10 June 1941 |access-date=11 February 2023 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
* ''Black Diamonds'' (1945) * ''The Lady of the Heather'' (1945) * ''Forbidden Gold'' (1945) * ''Paddle Wheels Away'' (1945) * ''Gold in their Hearts'' (1950), republished as ''Mary Smith's Hotel'' (1957)
With fellow author Tom Hickey:
* ''Galloping Wheels'' (1947)
* ''Moira of Green Hills'' (1950), set in the paddle-steamer days of trade between the Hunter River and Sydney, about an Irish colleen Moira.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225708785 |title=Historical novels on Australia |newspaper=The Northern Star |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=27 October 1950 |access-date=11 February 2023 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206409548 |title=Migration story of the Eighties |newspaper=The Age |issue=29,804 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=4 November 1950 |access-date=11 February 2023 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
=== Short stories ===
* ''A stokehold tragedy'' (1909)<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article21833311 |title=A stokehold tragedy |newspaper=The Queenslander |issue=2282 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=4 December 1909 |access-date=11 February 2023 |page=47 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
* ''A pack track knight'' (1913)<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263943410 |title=A pack track knight |newspaper=Australian Town and Country Journal |volume=LXXXV |issue=2287 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=3 December 1913 |access-date=11 February 2023 |page=62 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
* ''The buggy ride'' (1935)<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27995183 |title=The buggy ride |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=30,523 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=31 October 1935 |access-date=11 February 2023 |page=18 (Women) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
===Miscellaneous===
* ''The Three Kings, and other verses'' (1914), 250 pages of many verses and poems, including ''The Old Ngahauranga Road'', published by Angus & Robertson, being sold for the cost of 2 shillings 7 pence.<ref name=SSSJ1914 />
Edited: * ''Australian Bush Songs and Ballads'' (1944)
Historical:
* ''Historic Trentham 1914–1917: The story of a New Zealand Military Training Camp'' (1917).<ref>{{cite web|url= https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH1Hist.html |title= Historic Trentham 1914-1917 |publisher= NZETC |date= 1933 }}</ref>
* ''Pacific steamers'' (1928), about the development of steam shipping on the Australian, and West American coasts. It contained 237 pages with illustrations, and sold for 16 shillings.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article160010110 |title=Our reference library |newspaper=Daily Commercial News and Shipping List |issue=12,294 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=23 January 1928 |access-date=11 February 2023 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
* ''Blue Gum Clippers and Whale Ships of Tasmania'' (1949), in conjunction with the Shiplovers' Society of Tasmania, Georgian House, Melbourne.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44925216 |title=Shipping History and Romance |newspaper=The Advertiser |location=Adelaide |date=3 June 1950 |accessdate=24 September 2013 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
==Sources==
* Wilde, William H, Hooton, Joy, Andrews, Barry ''Oxford Companion to Australian Literature'' Oxford University Press, 2nd ed. 1994 {{ISBN|0 19553381 X}}
==External links== * [https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lawson-william-will-7122 Australian Dictionary of Biography] entry * {{cite web|url= https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH1Hist.html |title= Historic Trentham (Camp) 1914-1917: booklet by Will Lawson |publisher= NZETC |date= 1917 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawson, Will}} Category:1876 births Category:1957 deaths Category:Writers from New South Wales Category:20th-century Australian poets Category:Australian male poets Category:Australian male novelists Category:Australian maritime historians Category:20th-century Australian historians Category:20th-century Australian journalists Category:20th-century Australian male journalists Category:British emigrants to Australia