Australian literature is the written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of theCommonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early western history, Australia was a collection of British colonies, therefore, its literary tradition begins with and is linked to the broader tradition of English literature. However, the narrative art of Australian writers (including modern Indigenous Australians as well as Anglo-Celtic and multicultural migrant Australians) has, since 1788, introduced the character of a new continent into literature - exploring such themes asAboriginality, mateship, egalitarianism, democracy, migrant and national identity, distance from other Western nations and proximity to Asia, the complexities of urban living and the "beauty and the terror" of life in the Australian bush.
Henry Savery (4 August 1791 – 6 February 1842) was a convict transported toPort Arthur, Tasmania and Australia's first novelist. It is generally agreed that his writing is more important for its historical value than its literary merit.
Henry Savery was born in Somerset, England into the family of a well to do banker.[2] Little else is known of his early years. He married Eliza Elliott Oliver, daughter of a London business man and their only son was born in 1816. His attempts to earn a living were unsuccessful, a sugar-refining business being declared bankrupt in 1819 and proprietorship of the newspaper The Bristol Observer lasting only a little over two years.[3]But his return to sugar-refining ended in catastrophe.
Probably because he could not admit having overextended the firm's commitments to his partner, he began trading in forged bills of credit which eventually amounted to over £30,000.[4] His partner called the authorities when he absconded with £1500 and he was arrested on 9 December, having jumped from the boat that was to take him to America. While in prison his behaviour was so erratic that his trial had to be postponed. But on 2 April 1825 he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to hang on the 22nd of the same month ref.[5] Through influential friends this was commuted to transportation, only a day before his execution was due. Sometime in August he departed England for the last time on the ship Medwaywith 171 other convicts.
Bibliography[edit]
- Henry Savery: The Hermit in Van Diemens Land. Ed. Cecil Hadgraft & Margaret Roe (1829; UQP, 1964)
- Quintus Servinton. Ed. Cecil Hadgraft (1830; Jacaranda, 1962)
- Australia's First Two Novels: Origins and background. E. Morris Miller (Hobart, 1958)
- "A Forger's Tale: The Extraordinary Story of Henry Savery, Australia's First Novelist". Rod Howard (Arcade Publications, Melbourne, 2011)
