A Chant of Doom Angus Robertson Ltd. Sydney, 1918

Component identifier:

Item 22-26

Content Summary:

Ordinary edition. Grey boards. Linen spine. Sq. 8vo. Portrait of Brennan by Sir Lionel Lindsay, who also etched the device upon cover. Two copies.

Inscribed on end paper "Dear Harry, G.R. [George Robertson] collared me one day and said I must draw Chris, for the 'Chant'. I had flu at "the time and in no state to draw, but I got Chris, along to Norwich Chambers and as usual he could never sit still. I told him he must. 'Give me that nude to look at', he said (a small oil by Mahony) and that kept him quiet. Lionel Lindsay."

Inserted: Autograph letter from Philip Lindsay to his brother Jack, n.d. Written at the time he was preparing a book about contemporary Australian poetry. "...I agree about Brennan being a great poet, but he wrote a hell of a lot of muck. I remember some years ago picking up a volume in the Charing Cross Road, and it was quite unreadable...a collection of war poems, with lines here and there, but frightfully sluggish. Nevertheless he had greatness in him, and had he been in any other country might have developed into a genius..." He then outlines the plan for his book and the various poets about whom he proposes to write. "...When they're done I'm going to expand them into a fat book and then Brennan'll get the space he deserves..."

Inserted: Autograph letter from Brennan to Lionel Lindsay, written from Mosman, but undated. "Dear Lionel, I hope you won't think it shabby of me if after all I put you off for next Saturday." Brennan then explains that due to household storms he allowed himself to be betrayed into behavior which he doesn't think right for him. He has the feeling that it will be best for him to dwell within himself and see no-one for a week "so that the disturbed waters may grow smooth again. You will understand, Thine ever, C.B."

Limited issue of 50 copies on larger hand-made paper, numbered and signed by the author. In boards similar to ordinary edition, with device on cover. Parchment spine, with lettering in gilt. The cover, dust-jacket and title-page all agree; the reading being A Chant of Doom. Three copies.

No. 13. Inscribed by George Robertson: "Mr Shenstone with the publisher's compliments". Inserted: Autograph letter from Mary Gilmore to Hugh McCrae, 3 September 1946, 2pp. She writes of a visit to her from a mutual acquaintance, in badly intoxicated condition, and of her unpleasant experience. Continues: "But what a tragic waste of good material...What a contrast to Chris. Brennan, in that. I never heard one foul or dirty word from Brennan, yet he could be as drunk as this man. But he had a mind that soared. A man who roomed next door to Brennan said that, and that night after night he would wake up and hear Brennan all night reciting poetry to himself..." Then follows a long reference to Louis Stone, and the report that he had called C.J. Dennis a "scoundrel" for plagiarising his work. This was refuted by Mrs Stone, and when Mary Gilmore suggested that she should publicly correct the statement, Mrs Stone replied, "No, they are all dead now, and will not feel it". A long and interesting letter, in Mary Gilmore's ebullient style.

No.20. Inscribed by George Robertson: "To J. Le Gay Brereton Esq., with the publishers compliments". Inserted: Autograph letter from Brennan to Brereton. >Brereton has dated this letter as received on 16 October 1912.

No.32. Inscribed: "For Geoffrey Bennett at Greenwich, 9.v.1924, Chris: Brennan". Inserted in this copy is a series of biographical notes, 3pp, upon Brennan, written by his brother Philip, to whom this volume was dedicated. Philip Brennan was a sergeant in the 2nd Australian Machine-gun Battalion, of the first A.I.F. Philip gives some details of his brother's life and of his last days in the Lewisham Hospital. With this is letter from Philip Brennan to H.F.C., sending the script.

Brennan's reading of the German Hymn of Hate provoked him to the composition of this series of war poems. In a manuscript in this collection Lionel Lindsay writes: "I remember during the First World War when the 'Hymn of Hate' was much advertised Chris, telling me that he could not get the original, and had translated the Translation into German. Then with high disdain: 'And my German was better than the original', which he had just received." Brennan always regretted that he had never been in France and once told Lionel Lindsay: "In Germany you are a cipher; a number, not a man!"

Geoffrey Bennett was a Sydney journalist. He was once in possession of the letters written by Mallarmé to Brennan - present whereabouts unknown. Brennan presented his friend with an inscribed copy of Poems 1913. In May 1964 it was, together with other Brennan material, sold by auction at Sotheby's Limited, London. It was purchased by Maggs Brothers for £10.10.0 (sterling), possibly for the Mitchell Library.

Note: In this limited edition Brennan made minor changes in the text. One line of each of the poems, "Kitchener" and "Doom", have been altered, and in the final poem, a lower-case letter has been changed into a capital.

Names:

Christopher Brennan

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