E. J. Brady

E. J. Brady
Brady c. 1911
Born	Edwin James Brady (1869-08-07)7 August 1869 Carcoar, New South Wales, Australia
Died	22 July 1952(1952-07-22) (aged 82) Pambula, New South Wales, Australia
Other names	Nedi Woolli
Occupation(s)	Poet, journalist

Edwin James Brady (7 August 1869 – 22 July 1952) was an Australian journalist and poet.^[1]

From Irish parents, Brady was born at Carcoar, New South Wales, and was educated both in the United States^[2] and Sydney, Australia.^[1] Among his school friends were Christopher Brennan and Roderic Quinn.^[3]

He worked as a wharf clerk, a farmer, and journalist, and edited both rural and city newspapers.

His political leanings were as a confirmed socialist, and secretary of the first Socialist League of Australia, in Sydney, 1890.^[4][5][6] It was suggested that Brady and fellow poet Henry Lawson contemplated with becoming 'New Australians' at the 1893 New Australia settlement in Paraguay, away from the influences of capitalism.^[7]

Brady was a friend with poets Will H. Ogilvie (1869–1963), Roderic Quinn (1867–1949)), Banjo Paterson (1864–1941) and Henry Lawson (1867–1922).^[8] Several of those individuals were also members of the Bohemian group, the Dawn and Dusk Club,^[9][5] with Brady being the last.^[10] In 1910, Brady took Lawson on a poets' retreat, restoring Lawson's health.^[11][12]

He was the editor of the Australian Workman, Sydney's first trade union newspaper, in 1891-92. The Bulletin and the Sunday Times were the repositories for many of his poems and prose.^[13] In 1899, equipped with a notebook, gun, and camera, Brady drove a wagon from Sydney to Townsville (although intending to reach the Gulf of Carpentaria) and back, recording the lives of the settlers.^[14]

Working at Grafton's Daily Examiner in New South Wales, Brady wrote under the pen-name Nedi Woolli.^[15] The first name was an extension of Quinn's name for Brady, and the last name being an indigenous name relating to the Yamba area; with Quinn normally calling him Ned.^[15] He later took over The Grip newspaper, but 'it went 'straight on the rocks' '.^[15]

Brady later established a writers' and artists' colony at Mallacoota, Victoria in 1909,^[16] and he continued to live there until his death.

He chronicled an eventful journey down the Murray River in a small motor boat from Albury to the coast in 1911 in River Rovers.^[17]

A passionate nationalist, he achieved his greatest fame with his book Australia Unlimited, a bestseller from its appearance in 1918, which urged dramatic increases in the national population. In 1926, a book entitled Industrial Australia was being written about the history and growth of industry within the country.^[18] His last work Two Frontiers was published in 1945.^[8] He also sought to write the biography of The Bulletin co-founder J. F. 'Archie' Archibald.^[19] Publishers refused to print the biography.^[6]

Lines from his poem Far and Wide have been used in the Melbourne tourism advertisement running on ESPN2 and Tennis Channel during the 2016, 2017, and 2018 Australian Open.^[20]

I'll call you to the beaches,

And you shall bide with me

Along the river reaches

And by the open sea.^[21]

Brady, given as tall and debonair,^[22] in 1890 married Marion Cecilia Walsh; and in June 1895,^[23] married Annie Creo Dooley née Stanley, in June 1895. Aged 72,^[22] he married Florence Jane Bourke in 1942 in Victoria, and had a daughter.

After retiring, he continued living in a tent home in Mallacoota.^[6]

Aged 82, Brady died in 1952 at the Pambula Public Hospital of a heart condition.^[8] He was survived by his third wife, and six children from his first marriage.^[4]

• The Ways of Many Waters, 1899
• The Earthen Floor, Grip Newspaper Company, 1902
• Bushland Ballads, 1910
• Bells and Hobbles, 1911
• The House of the Winds, 1919
• Wardens of the Seas, Endeavour Press, Sydney, 1933^[24]
• They Shall Be Remembered: A poem dedicated to the heroes of Second World War, also called Australia Remembers: Pte. C. J. Williams, Stubbs Publishing, 1946

• Sydney Harbour, Builder Printing Works, 1903
• Sydney: The Commercial Capital of the Commonwealth, Builder Printing Works, 1904
• Picturesque Port Phillip, George Robertson & Co, 1911
• The King's Caravan: Across Australia in a Wagon, Edward Arnold, 1911
• The River Rovers, George Robertson & Co, 1911
• Tom Pagdin pirate, NSW Bookstall, 1911 — illustrated by Lionel Lindsay
• Australia Unlimited, 1918 — of one thousand quarto pages in size, a picturesque description of Australia's life and resources, selling of 10 000 copies, and costing £2/2/– each. It took six years to research and write^[4]
• The Land of the Sun, Edward Arnold, 1924
• The Overlander: Prince's Highway, Ramsay Publishing, 1926
• Doctor Mannix: Archbishop of Melbourne, Library of National Biography, 1934
• Two Frontiers, Frank Johnson, 1944 — biography of Edward John Brady (1830–1914)
• Dreams and Realities, co-authored with Leslie Rubenstein, York Press, 1944

• Guide to the Papers of E. J. Brady at National Library of Australia
• Edwin James Brady papers, 1892-1951, State Library of New South Wales A 3173 'Australia unlimited, why and how I wrote it. A 3174 'Murray River Irrigation. Clippings, articles, notes, correspondence' and maps, 1908-1950. A 3175 'Personalia': letters, notes, portraits and printed material about and by Brady's ancestors and relations, with personal notes and photographs, 1892-1951. A 3176/1-A 3176/2 'Utopias Ltd: William Lane's settlement in Paraguay, New Italy Mission and Madagascar, Ralahine, Civat-Hein and the Mallacoota Community farm.
• Edwin James Brady papers, 1899-1922 at State Library of New South Wales. A 1586 Australian artists' biographies, 1911, A 1726 Letters from Australian writers and others, 1899-1922, B 762 King's caravan : diary, 1899-1900, C 318 Verses, 1909-1911.

• Coasts of Dream – a biography of E. J. Brady by Sarah Mirams, Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2018, ISBN 9781925801262

Wikisource has original works by or about:
E. J. Brady

• Edwin James Brady from the Old Poetry Archive
• Australian Dictionary of Biography entry