- Born
- 1866
- Died
- 1953
- Occupation
- Activist and Poet
Details
The Australian Dictionary of Biography writes of O'Dowd:
Over the years, O'Dowd's official career had remained intriguingly distinct from his poetic and political avocations. In his fiery private capacity he had joined the Theosophical Society, Dr Charles Strong's Australian Church and, later, Frederick Sinclaire's Free Religious Fellowship. Active as a lecturer in the Victorian Socialist League from about 1900, he was a foundation member of the Victorian Socialist Party in 1905. In 1907 he founded the Essendon Socialist Group and in 1912-13 assisted in editing the Socialist. One of his colleagues in the V.S.P. was John Curtin. In 1912 he denounced the White Australia policy as 'unbrotherly, undemocratic and unscientific'. In 1913 O'Dowd was president of the Victorian Rationalist Association. On the official side, he had been appointed, 'on loan', assistant librarian in the Supreme Court, Melbourne, in 1887. From the mid-1890s he had written and edited - sometimes ghosted - several law books. In 1913 he became first assistant parliamentary draughtsman.
O'Dowd was co-publisher of the first number of the Tocsin, 2 October 1897. He wrote a regular column, in that paper, as 'Gavah the Blacksmith'.
His books of poetry include Dawnward? (1903), The silent land (1906), The bush (1912) and Alma Venus! (1921).
A lecture calling for 'the poetry of purpose' was published as Poetry militant (1909).
See C. Wallace-Crabbe,, Australian Dictionary of Biography Online.
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Items for Download
Books
- O'Dowd, Bernard, Poetry militant, T. C. Lothian, Melbourne, 1909, 29 pp. [
| Details... ]
Book Sections
- Milner, Andrew, 'Radical Intellectuals: an unacknowledged legislature?', in Verity Bergman and Jenny Lee (eds), Constructing a culture: a people's history of Australia since 1788, McPhee Gribble/ Penguin Books, Melbourne, 1988, pp. 259-84. [ | Details... ]
Journal Articles
- O'Dowd, Bernard, 'The value of literature to a young nation (An address delievered to the Free Religious Fellowship.)', Fellowship: a monthly magazine of undogmatic religion and social and literary criticism (Melbourne), vol. 5, no. 5, September 1918. [
| | Details... ] - Prichard, Katharine Susannah, 'Some thoughts on Australian Literature', The Realist, no. 15, 1964, p. 11. [ | Details... ]
Newspaper Articles
- 'To Democratic Writers, Union Secretaries and Others', Tocsin, 2 November 1897. [
| 
| Details... ] - 'The Tocsin's Platform', Tocsin, 2 November 1897. [ | | Details... ]
Pamphlets
- Bernard O'Dowd, Centenary Souvenir, Australian Poetry Lovers Society, Melbourne, 1966. [ | | Details... ]
Poems
- Howard, E.M., 'Bernard O'Dowd (In memoriam)', Quest, no. 46, Unitarian Fellowship of Australia, Melbourne, September-October 1955. [ | | Details... ]
- O'Dowd, Bernard, 'Proletaria', The poems of Bernard O'Dowd, Lothian, Melbourne, 1941, pp. 47-57. [ | Details... ]
- O'Dowd, Bernard, 'Young democracy', The poems of Bernard O'Dowd, Lothian, Melbourne, 1941, pp. 59-61. [ | Details... ]
- O'Dowd, Bernard, 'Dawnward?', The poems of Bernard O'Dowd, Lothian, Melbourne, 1944. [ | Details... ]
See also
- 'Editorial', The Tocsin (Melbourne), vol. 1, no. 1, 2 October 1897. [ | | Details... ]
- 'Foreword', Australian new writing, vol. 1, Current Book Distributors, Sydney, March 1943, pp. 4-6. [ | Details... ]
- 'Foreword', Australian new writing, vol. 2, Current Book Distributors, Sydney, March 1944. [ | Details... ]
- 'Tradition and today', Overland, April, Overland, Melbourne, 1957, p. 2. [ | Details... ]
- Lloyd Ross, 'Writers and social progress', The Australain observer, July 26, 1947, pp. 111-112. [ | Details... ]
- Palmer, Vance, 'The future of Australian literature', The Age, Saturday, 9 February 1935. [ | Details... ]
- Prichard, Katharine Susannah, 'Anti-Capitalist core of Australian literature', Communist Review, August, 1943, pp. 106-7. [ | | Details... ]
- Waten, Judah, 'Australian literature in 1962', Realist Writer (Melbourne), no. 12, 1963, pp. 26-8. [ | Details... ]
Created: 15 November 2004, Last modified: 21 June 2006