AustLit

'Henry Lawson is not read as much now as when I was at school 50 years ago; nevertheless, he is still widely acknowledge as one of the most significant figures in the development of a distinctive Australian literature. Despite some of his work being a bit dated, I regard highly and treasure the collection I have of all his first editions, especially his first book Short Stories in Prose and Verse (now a very rare book) published by his mother Louisa, at her Dawn Press in Sydney in 1894. There are, however, aspects of Lawson's character that I find particularly unappealing. One of these flaws was his habit to wallow in self pit while seeking to put the blame on others whenever he was in financial trouble, which was most of the time. The root cause of this, of course, was his alcoholism.' ( introduction)