John Shaw Neilson (1872–1942) is Australia’s great lyric poet and Collected Poems (1934), dedicated to Louise Dyer, bears his imprimatur. Encouraged by his editor, Robert Croll, Neilson was totally involved in its publication and promotion, selecting the poems, rewriting lines, adding new stanzas and restoring A.G. Stephen’s earlier changes.
Photographic sittings and book signings followed as well as favourable reviews. Neilson modestly attended readings in his honour at the Bookshop of Margareta Webber and enjoyed the concert broadcasts of Margaret Sutherland’s compositions, which included ‘The Orange Tree’. After reading the Collected Poems she wrote to Neilson: “I have set your voice to music.”
A new introduction by Dr Helen Hewson, an honorary associate in the School of Letters, Art and Media at the University of Sydney, explores some of the influences that have shaped Neilson’s poetry – his Celtic background, religious upbringing, reading and writing, and love of art and music.
