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'In the year 1900, at the age of thirty-three, Henry Lawson was riding high. His collections of ballads and stories, In the Days When the World Was Wide and While the Billy Boils, were read in city and bush by the educated and uneducated alike. In the nationalistic mood that prevailed during most of the 1890s, he was regarded by nearly everyone as the first truly distinctive voice of his native land. Yet, on April 20 of that year, this truly famous man took ship with his wife and two small children, with a one-way ticket to England. He was seen off by a group of Sydney novelists, poets, and journalists, none of whom thought it especially odd that their compatriot should wish to continue his career half a world away. In fact many shared his ambition, and some would go on to realize it for themselves.' (15)
Notes
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Epigraph:
'It is only this, that we are thinking of going home..."
'Home, you say? What do you mean? What home are you speaking of?'
'Why, Home with a capital 'H', of course. England - Europe, that is to say. What other home is there?' -Tasma (1895)
You're off away to London now,
Where no one dare ignore you,
With Southern laurels on you brow,
And all the world before you. - Henry Lawson (ca. 1900)
Practically all the books I read carried me to the Old world, and most often to England, which for me was rapidly becoming a synonym for romance, charm, interest, culture and all the good things of which one dreams. Everything desirable, and not noticeable or recognised as being in my daily life, I grew gradually to think of as being part and parcel of English life. I did not as yet long to go to England. One does not long visit the moon. But when some well-wrought piece of atmosphere, some happy turn of speech, some inspiring glimpse of high and noble motives or tender devotion, caught and held me, in a book, I would sigh quietly and to myself: 'Ah, yes; in England!' -Alec Dawson (1914)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Last amended 31 Aug 2012 15:13:34
15-36
Sailing for Eldorado : Going Home in the Literary Imagination
Subjects:
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London,
cEngland,ccUnited Kingdom (UK),cWestern Europe, Europe,
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