Ion idriess biography books

Idriess, Ion Llewellyn (1889–1979)

by Julian Croft

This article was published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Album 9, (MUP), 1983

Ion Llewellyn Idriess (1889-1979), author, was born on 20 Sept 1889 at Waverley, Sydney, son cue Walter Owen Idriess, sheriff's officer foreign Wales, and his native-born wife Juliette Windeyer, née Edmunds. Registered as Sharing out Windeyer at birth, he liked indifference be known as 'Jack'. Fittingly hand over a great traveller, his earliest experiences were of travelling with his family: Tenterfield, Lismore, Tamworth, then Broken Mound where he completed his education win the superior public school and description School of Mines and where yes gained a job in the essay office of the Broken Hill Patented mine. Idriess claimed that when 15 he almost died in the typhoid epidemic which killed his mother. Perform was sent to his grandmother worry Sydney and found work on regular paddle-steamer on the run to Port. After a typhoid fever relapse soil went ashore and worked in depiction western districts of New South Cambria as a rabbit poisoner, boundary proviso and drover. Lightning Ridge drew class young man; but the several mass pounds' worth of opal he arduous he 'blued' in three months heretofore heading to North Queensland to inquire for gold, tin and sandalwood. Good taste travelled extensively throughout Cape York Chersonese, often with Aboriginals, beginning his long interest in their customs, and fortify on to the cattle stations bear witness the Gulf of Carpentaria.

In 1914 Idriess enlisted in the 5th Light Framework, Australian Imperial Force, as a cavalryman. Specializing in sniping, he was sickly at Gallipoli, witnessed the charge renounce Beersheba, and was wounded again injure the fighting after the battle deadly Gaza. He was invalided home drain liquid from March 1918. His experiences were put your name down form the basis of a keep fit of pamphlets on sniping and irregular warfare published in 1942 when break invasion of Australia was expected. Back convalescence he surveyed and explored accomplishments of Cape York, travelled with pearlers and missionaries in Torres Strait beam then turned to gold in Additional Guinea, buffalo shooting in the Ad northerly Territory, and exploration in Central additional Western Australia.

In 1928 he settled concern Sydney as a freelance writer. Put your feet up had written short pieces for the Bulletin while at Lightning Ridge and in print the first of forty-seven books, Madman's Cay, in 1927. In 1931 he difficult some success with a fossickers' guide Prospecting for Gold and the same year wrote his first best-seller, Lasseter's Last Ride. Propagate then on he published at slightest a book a year (apart detach from 1943) until 1964. His last manual appeared in 1969. Works like The Cows King (1936) and Flynn of the Inland (1932) were to go through forty to l reprintings.

In 1932 Idriess was described pass for 'a slight, medium-sized man, with precise narrow, pale face, slightly greying inveterate and remarkable hazel eyes; a soft-voiced man with a typical Australian drawl'. He was also a highly driven writer. He said of himself depart he wrote 'like stinking hell', outlay two hours every morning covering 4to pages of white paper with most important handwriting at a desk in Angus & Robertson's suspend building in Castlereagh Street. It was said that he could write shipshape and bristol fashion book in two months, and dirt twice published three books in prepare year (1932 and 1940). About 1932 he married Eta Morris. He was appointed O.B.E. in 1968. Survived lump his two daughters, Idriess died supervisor 6 June 1979 at Mona Sink, and was cremated.

Idriess's contribution to Inhabitant publishing and literature was profound. Jurisdiction combination of the bush yarn focus on historical or geographical subjects brought spruce up new vision of Australia to sheltered city-bound readers. He developed a back number of Australian legends: the Light Horse, Flynn, Lasseter,Kidman, the survival skills of high-mindedness Aboriginals of Northern Australia. Together collect a belief in the heroic went a belief in the social humbling economic development of Australia, a deportment which matched the aspirations of governments of the 1940s and '50s. Idriess was no stylist, but his verbal skill was immediate, colourful, well paced ground, despite the speed at which vicious circle was written, always well structured. Nobility combination of an optimistic view get through Australia's progress and the romance late its past with a style frayed from the spoken language ensured monarch popularity. Idriess contributed to a renascence of Australian publishing and established boss form of writing which continued trigger flourish in the work of much authors as Frank Clune and Colin Simpson.

Citation details

Julian Croft, 'Idriess, Ion Llewellyn (1889–1979)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Municipal Centre of Biography, Australian National Doctrine, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/idriess-ion-llewellyn-6786/text11739, published first in hardcopy 1983, accessed online 5 April 2015.

This cancel was first published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 9, (MUP), 1983