Andrew Barton Paterson
Andrew Barton Paterson (born February 17, 1864 near Orange (New South Wales) , † February 5, 1941 in Sydney ), called Banjo Paterson or The Banjo , was an Australian lawyer, writer and journalist.
Life
Andrew Barton Paterson was born on a sheep farm in New South Wales, Australia. After his parents had to sell the farm for economic reasons in 1874 , Paterson was sent to his grandmother in Sydney, where he then went to school .
After graduating from school, he joined a law firm in 1880 as a clerk, studied law on the side and successfully passed the bar exam in 1886. He then became a partner in the law firm now known as Street & Paterson. In his spare time he roamed the Australian outback , recorded under the pseudonym The Banjo the adventures and experiences of vagrants and bush runners on and described the landscape southeastern Australia, which he, as well as self-written poems , published in a popular weekly magazine.
During a stay with the family of his fiancée Sarah Riley near Winton , Paterson wrote his most famous work Waltzing Matilda , inspired by the story of a sheep shearer in the great sheep-shearers strike of 1891 , which became the unofficial national anthem of Australia. A relationship between Paterson and Sarah Riley's school friend, Christina Macpherson, led to the engagement being broken and Paterson's departure.
He then published 46 of his best ballads under the title The man from Snowy River and other verse . The publication also made Paterson known internationally. The London Times compared him to Rudyard Kipling , who also contacted Paterson personally. He took a leave of absence from the law firm and toured Northern Australia, hunting and writing travelogues for the Eastern and Australian Steamship Company. He then took part in the Boer War in South Africa as a war correspondent . He got to know numerous personalities of the British Empire , e. B. Winston Churchill , Cecil Rhodes, and Rudyard Kipling. In 1900, Paterson wanted to travel to China to cover the Boxer Rebellion . However, he came too late and first described life in the Philippines . After that he traveled to China, where he was a. a. stayed in Shanghai . His plan to travel to Saint Petersburg on the Trans-Siberian Railway failed because of the onset of winter. Instead he took the ship to London.
After returning to Australia in 1902 he gave his final work as a lawyer on to serve as editor in Sydney's Evening News to work. In 1903 he sold his rights to Waltzing Matilda and other works to his publisher for £ 5. In the same year he married the sheep farmer's daughter Alice Walker, whom he had met during a lecture tour. The Paterson couple settled in Sydney. Paterson worked here as an editor for various newspapers , u. a. as a horse racing rapporteur for the Sydney Sportsman . In the following years the Patersons also stayed in the country for four years. During World War I Paterson served as a major in the army and was responsible for training horses for use in the Middle East .
After the war, Paterson and his wife lived in Sydney's affluent eastern suburb. He continued to write poems and ballads, but they could no longer build on the success of his early works. In 1930, Paterson finally retired.
Andrew Barton Paterson died in Sydney on February 5, 1941, at the age of 76.
His portrait and the 104 lines of the ballad The man from Snowy River adorn the Australian 10 dollar banknote.
Awards and honors
- Commander of the Order of the British Empire , British Order
Works
- Clancy of the Overflow (published in Bulletin December 1889 )
- The man from Snowy River (published in Bulletin 1890 )
- Waltzing Matilda , 1895
- An answer to various bards
- Riders in the stand
- A mountain station
- Come by chance
- The Geebung Polo Club
- With the cattle
Film adaptations
- 1982: Snowy River (The Man from Snowy River)
literature
- Lorna Ollif: Andrew Barton Paterson. Twayne, New York 1971 (= Twayne's world authors series ; 120)
- Colin Roderick: Banjo Paterson. Poet by accident. Allen u. Unwin, St. Leonards 1993. ISBN 1-86373-292-6
- Clement Semmler: AB Banjo Paterson. Oxford Univ.Pr., Melbourne 1965.
- Clement Semmler: The banjo of the bush. The life and times of AB "Banjo" Paterson. 2nd ed. University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia 1984. ISBN 0-7022-1756-5
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Paterson, Andrew Barton |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | The banjo; Paterson, banjo |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Australian lawyer, writer and journalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 17, 1864 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Orange (New South Wales) |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 5, 1941 |
| Place of death | Sydney |