AustLit

Boote left school at ten and educated himself in local free libraries. He had a strong working class consciousness and was a keen trade unionist. In Brisbane he initially worked as a compositor and then edited the Bundaberg Guardian (1894-6) on behalf of the Australian Labour Federation. In 1896 he founded the Gympie Truth, which he edited till 1902. He was also editor of the Brisbane Worker (1902-1911) and Farrell (1979) comments: 'He established a reputation as an essayist and poet among fellow contributors such as Henry Lawson, (Dame) Mary Gilmore, R. J. Quinn and Norman Lilly.' In 1911 Boote moved to Sydney as editor, leader and feature writer on the Australian Worker (1914-43).He was the author of a number of pamphlets dealing with political and social matters. Farrell (1979) argues that 'Boote has been all but ignored by literary historians, yet he was one of the most prolific writers of his era; in old age he was granted a Commonwealth Literary Fund pension.'

(Source: Adapted from Frank Farrell, 'Boote, Henry Ernest (1865 - 1949)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7, MUP, 1979, pp 342-343; Ian Syson, 'Henry Ernest Boote: Putting the Boote into the Australian Literary Archive', Labour History 70 (May 1996): 71-91)