Leon Gellert
Leon Gellert | |
---|---|
Born | Leon Maxwell Gellert 17 May 1892 Walkerville, South Australia |
Died | 22 August 1977 Toorak Gardens, South Australia | (aged 85)
Occupation | poet and writer |
Language | English |
Nationality | Australian |
Years active | 1917-1974 |
Leon Maxwell Gellert (17 May 1892 – 22 August 1977) was an Australian poet.[1]
Early life and education
He was born in
After an education at Adelaide High School, he embarked on a teaching career; first as a student-teacher at Unley High School then at the University of Adelaide's Teacher Training College.[1]
He enlisted with the
Writing career
During periods of inactivity he had been indulging his appetite for writing poetry. Songs of a Campaign (1917) was his first published book of verse, and was favourably reviewed by The Bulletin. Angus & Robertson soon published a new edition, illustrated by Norman Lindsay. His second, The Isle of San (1919), also illustrated by Lindsay, was not so well received. He took to journalism, moving to Sydney, where he taught English at Cleveland Street Intermediate High School until 1922 when he joined the staff at Smith's Weekly. There he was introduced to the circle that included Sydney Ure Smith and Bertram Stevens. He was appointed editor of Ure Smith's Home magazine and co-editor of the quarterly Art in Australia, which he took over on Stevens' death in 1922.[1]
He returned to Adelaide after the death of his wife Kathleen in 1969, living in the suburb of Hazelwood Park, and died eight years later. Their only child, a daughter, died in childbirth in the 1940s.[1]
He was subject of a dry-point portrait by
Christchurch-based composer Richard Oswin made use of his poem "The Last to Leave" in his choral work commissioned by the New Zealand Secondary Students' Choir, Three Gallipoli Settings. The poem provided the text for the second of the three settings.
Bibliography
Poetry collections
- Songs of a Campaign (1917)
- Desperate Measures (1928)[3]
- Those Beastly Australians : Some Faunagraphic Data Compiled for Students of Australian Wild Life illustrated by Bernard Hesling (1944)[4]
Short story collections
- Week After Week (1953)
- Year After Year (1956)
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f "Leon Maxwell Gellert (1892–1977) by Gavin Souter". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
- ^ "Leon Gellert at Old Poetry". oldpoetry.com. Archived from the original on 5 July 2008. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
- ^ Gellert, Leon (1928), Desperate measures, Art in Australia, retrieved 9 January 2024
- ^ Gellert, Leon; Hesling, Bernard, 1905-1987 (1964), Beastly Australians : some faunagraphic data compiled for students of Australian wild life, Hodder and Stoughton, retrieved 9 January 2024
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