Good for the Soul: John Curtin's life with poetry by Toby Davidson
Crawley, Western Australia: UWA Publishing, 2021 ISBN 9781760801564
This book has been with me for a couple of months, which is a long time for me. There are all sorts of reasons why it has taken me so long to finish it, one of which is that this is a book very much of two halves, the first of which is fascinating and interesting, the second which wanders and to my mind at least, loses focus.
John Curtin led the life of an activist - from an early age he worked for the socialist cause, first in Melbourne and then in Perth before he became a Federal politician and eventually Prime Minister of Australia during World War Two. Toby Davidson, the author of this book, happens to be Curtin's grandson but also is an academic and a published poet.
With this background, Davidson would seem to be very qualified to write this book and, where the evidence is abundant, he does a very good job of showing the reader how Curtin felt about poetry, and how he actively promoted it as a guide and stimulus for proper human development. The problem is that as Curtin became more involved in politics, the evidence for his poetic activity is less abundant, and this leads Davidson to more speculation, and to veering off-topic to wonder at things such as Curtin's views on Aborigines, the White Australia policy, and other such subjects which to this reader didn't seem to have much relevance to the ostensible subject matter of the book.
It's fair to state that the idea behind this book is audacious and ambitious. Writing about Australian politics is usually concerned with anything but literature and the life of the mind, so to set out to show how one of Australia's great political figures found great inspiration and spiritual sustenance in poetry is a bold undertaking.
Fortunately, for Curtin's earliest years, Davidson has access to much evidence to show that Curtin was very much as involved in literature as he was with socialism. Spending his early years in Creswick meant that Curtin's family would have know the Lindsays, and it was this connection that surely got him his first job as a printer's devil on the Rambler, their short lived periodical. Therefore as a young man he was in the company of poets, authors and artists. He also came under the wings of Victoria's socialists, including the poet and visionary Bernard O'Dowd. We know through Davidson's research that Curtin learned much from these connections, and read poetry to educate himself and inform his world views.
The chapters that deal with Curtin's early years in Melbourne, and when he moved to Perth to edit the Westralian Worker are the best in this book - the evidence from Curtin's own letters, and from the pages of the journal he edited, clearly show us what poetry meant to him, and which poetry he preferred.
The second half of the book, which deals with Curtin's life after he moved to Canberra, is less satisfactory - Davidson has to rely more on excerpts from Hansard, newspaper clippings and other sources of information to try and draw out Curtin's life with poetry during this stage of his life. The lack of personal information means that this section is more speculative, and filled with much other than a direct link to poetry - it's less personal and more political. There is a long chapter at the end of the book about Dame Mary Gilmore and poetry that she wrote during World War Two, some of which she sent to Curtin. From the evidence, it's clear that Gilmore and Curtin's wife Elsie were correspondents and friends, but less so in the case of John and Mary. I felt this chapter was too long.
Overall, Good for the Soul is a noble attempt to delve into the intellectual life of one of Australia's great figures. It's a flawed book in some ways, but I'm glad I read it.
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