Eric Irvin
| Eric Irvin | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Eric Robert Irvin 30 November 1908 Newtown, New South Wales |
| Died | 1 July 1993 (aged 84) Brisbane, Queensland |
Eric Irvin (30 November 1908 – 1 July 1993) was an Australian writer and historian of Australian theatre. His Dictionary of the Australian Theatre 1788-1914 is an essential reference work. He was also an anthologised poet who published two books of poetry.
Eric Robert Irvin was born 30 November 1908 in Newtown, New South Wales. After attending Bondi Public School, he was apprenticed to a Bondi chemist in 1922 while studying at night at Waverley Grammar school. He enrolled in East Sydney Technical College classes in art and window display and worked in various department stores. He battled for much of the depression years before gaining a post teaching art in Catholic girls' schools in the mid 1930s. On 31 May 1940 he enlisted with the 7th Australian Divisional Signals and saw service in the Middle East and Papua New Guinea where he took part in the Kokoda Trail, Buna and Ramu Valley campaigns. He was discharged with rank of Lieutenant on 29 November 1945.
In this period he had poems accepted for publication, much of the early poems in the Sydney Morning Herald and his war-time poetry in the Bulletin. From New Guinea he had a survey of war-time poetry, "Australian Poets of This War" published in The Australian Quarterly. His own first volume, A Soldier's Miscellany, was accepted for publication but delayed until 1945 by the war-time paper shortage.
Irvin secured a position as Secretary, Wagga Wagga School of Arts for whom he produced and set-designed various plays. He then joined local Daily Advertiser as a journalist and, in 1961, the sub-editor. During this time he continued to write poetry and also wrote three local histories, Place of Many Crows (1953), The Murrumbidgee Turf Club (1960), and Early inland agriculture (1962), and edited a collection of articles written by anonymous contributors to the Wagga Wagga Advertiser and Riverine Reporter (1868-1875), Letters from the river (1959).
Securing a position as sub-editor with the Sydney Morning Herald, Irvin returned to Sydney with his family in 1962. He retired from the Herald in 1973.
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