"The Wanderer"

Component identifier:

Item 46-48

Content Summary:

Three manuscripts. All written upon the large sheets used by Brennan for so much of his early writing.

Manuscript. 5pp. Probably at the time it was written, a completed text. The final page is initialled and dated September 15. 1901. The poem was copied out for J. Le Gay Brereton.

The title is at top of first page, "The Wanderer". The stanzas are numbered consecutively from "I" to "VIII". The first of these, however, is represented by one line only: "I am driven everywhere from a clinging home, etc."

The stanzas vary in length. Numbers "I" and "III" conform, with minor variations, to those of the final printing. The remainder are entirely different. Including the single line representing the first stanza, this version of the poem has a total length of only 84 lines. In full-leather binder.

(1) Proof sheets of Poems, 1913, upon the verso of one of which is memo in pencil by Brennan: "These (book and printed sheets) to Prof. Holme w. compliments of C.B."

One of these sheets is portion of the Index, printing the first lines of The Wanderer section. No.87 reads: "Daily I see the long ships coming into port". But in the text in this volume, as also in the first printing of the poem in Hermes, the line commences: "Each day..."

It is strange that Brennan did not correct this when he checked the proofs: perhaps he had unconsciously in his mind the earlier text, as it appears in the manuscript No.47 of this group.

(2) Early photograph of Brennan. Photograph of school group, in which amongst the scholars are Brennan and Roderic Quinn. Photographic reproduction of the Honour Board at Riverview College, with Brennan's name as Dux of the College in 1886.

(3) Correspondence relating to the purchase by H.F.C. of certain Brennan, and Lawson material, manuscripts, letters, etc., from the late Mrs Winifred Brereton. Letter on this subject from the late J.K. Moir to H.F.C., with copy of reply by the latter. Other notes of interest are also included.

Manuscript. 2pp. Sheets from one of Brennan's early drafts. Three stanzas only: "When window-lights had dwindled, then I rose" "Daily I see the long ships coming into port" "How old is my heart, how old, how old is my heart".

Each stanza has textual variations from the final printing. In full-leather binder.

(1) Autograph memo by Hugh McCrae. Part of a manuscript decorated with some of his coloured drawings. "...Brennan - kicked and booted about the world - appreciated life so much that his enthusiasm often made me leap into the air. I remember him in a Woolloomooloo pub, on a scorching day, with shadows of trams crossing his face through the slats of the Venetian blinds..."

(2) Original coloured drawing of Brennan by Hal Gye (8" × 7"). The poet is depicted sitting in the "pub" with a pot of beer beside him on the bench. With captions: "The World Forgotten, Chris: Brennan 1931". "As I often saw him, and talked with him in the little bar in William Street. Hal Gye. January 1954". At the time Gye drew this sketch for me, I was not aware of the McCrae note, then in my collection. I discovered it later. It is interesting that both McCrae and Gye record similar recollections of Brennan.

(3) Magazine clipping of poem: The Wanderer: Done into Modern English by J. Le Gay Brereton". I cannot trace the source of this clipping; it was amongst various papers which came to me from Mrs Winifred Brereton. Perhaps this poem was "Englished" by Dr J. Le Gay Brereton, who, whilst conducting a busy medical practice found time to write poetry, and has four published volumes to his credit. The theme and thought content of the poem is somewhat similar to The Wanderer. The Brereton version is quite a long poem.

Manuscript. 8pp. The complete text of The Wanderer as it was published in Hermes, Jubilee Number, 1852-1902.

There is one very minor variation, possibly a printer's error. In the second line of the third stanza in Hermes an "if" which does not appear in Brennan's script has been interpolated. In full-leather binder.

(1) Original woodcut portrait of Brennan by Sir Lionel Lindsay. This was commissioned by me for a book which I was planning during 1953 but which was deferred. The copyright is my property and the woodcut may not be reproduced under any circumstances.

(2) Reproduction in colour of crayon drawing by J. Phillips of "Oceania", Brennan's old home at Newport.

Names:

Christopher Brennan

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