Clement Semmler

Clement Semmler reviews 'Henry Lawson: Favourite verse' compiled by Nancy Keesing

June 1979, no. 11 • 01 June 1979

I think it was Judith Wright who once remarked that Lawson as a poet wasn’t important; that he seems, usually to have turned to verse as a journalistic medium or as a weapon for propaganda, and that the few of his better poems were such rather because of the intensity of feeling than through any technical or poetic gift. Nancy Keesing, in a succinct preface to her selection, looks at the matter ... (read more)

Clement Semmler reviews 'Audrey Tennyson’s Vice-Regal Days' edited by Alexandra Hasluck

September 1978, no. 4 • 18 November 2022

Audrey Tennyson, in a letter to her mother in January 1903, wrote: About my letters … would you ask somebody to buy at Harrods a japanned tin box for holding them … the great thing is to keep them together as if they are in several places they are likely to get put away and forgotten. I am afraid they won’t be worth publishing but they may be of great interest to the boys some day – and ... (read more)

Clement Semmler reviews ' Apartheid in Shakespeare and other reflections' by Sibnarayan Ray

September 1978, no. 4 • 18 November 2022

Sibnarayan Ray is the Chairman of the Department of Indian Studies at the University of Melbourne; predictably, therefore, those essays in this collection that deal with Indian literature do provoke one’s interest. Mr Ray is especially enlightening about the problems facing the contemporary Indian writer. In a revealing essay devoted to this subject he explains that, apart from English, there ar ... (read more)

Clement Semmler reviews 'Shadows of Our Dreaming: A celebration of early Australia' by Anne Fairbairn

October 1983, no. 55 • 01 October 1983

It is difficult for a reviewer to do justice to this enchanting book. But if one were looking for something to give to an Australian to help him better understand the history, traditions, literature, environment, and folklore of his country – or if one wished to help a visitor to Australia to an appreciation of all those circumstances from 1788 to the present day which have shaped the characters ... (read more)

Clement Semmler reviews 'Foreigners: A new collection of short stories' by David Martin

July–August 2012, no. 343 • 01 July 2012

The novelist’s art is wide ranging; he is concerned with a multitude of things that comprise the fabric of his book. The short story writer, however, is concerned with one thing that implies many, since singularity and intensity are the essence of his art. The best short story writers depend on a marked personal attitude and this is the distinguishing characteristic of David Martin’s second co ... (read more)