P. R. Stephensen | |
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.jpg) Stephensen circa 1934 | |
| Born | Percy Reginald Stephensen (1901-11-20)20 November 1901 Maryborough,Queensland, Australia |
| Died | 28 May 1965(1965-05-28) (aged 63) Sydney,New South Wales, Australia |
| Alma mater | |
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| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
Percy Reginald Stephensen (20 November 1901 – 28 May 1965), known by his initials asP. R. Stephensen, was an Australian writer, publisher and political activist, first aligned withcommunism and later shifting support towardsfar-right politics.[1] He was the co-founder of thefascistAustralia First Movement, alongside businessmanWilliam Miles, and he was the author ofThe Foundations of Culture in Australia.
Stephensen was born inMaryborough,Queensland, ofDanish andSwiss descent. Studying hisBachelor of Arts (BA) degree at theUniversity of Queensland, Stephensen joined theCommunist Party of Australia (CPA) in 1921. Upon winning theRhodes Scholarship in 1924 he left forEngland and joined the university branch of the Party. Graduating, he joined the Fanfrolico Press alongside fellow authorJack Lindsay, releasing an assortment of their own writings as well as translated works. After the press ceased operation, Stephensen established his own press, lasting only a year. During this time he cohabitated with formerballet dancer Winifred Sarah Venus (née Lockyer), whom he later married in 1947 following her first husband's death.
Upon returning to Australia with Winifred in 1932, Stephensen partnered with magazineThe Bulletin to found another publishing press, the Endeavour Press, in the same year alongside fellowNorman Lindsay. Splitting from the press in 1933, he founded yet another press, P. R. Stephensen & Co., which published more Australian works before failing in 1935 due to financial stresses. Despite the repeated collapses of his publishing companies, Stephensen became a recognised figure in Australian literature, becoming vice-president of theFellowship of Australian Writers.
During theMoscow Trials, Stephensen became disillusioned with communism. In 1936 Stephensen penned his most famous work,The Foundations of Culture in Australia, sparking the emergence of theJindyworobak movement. Founding the monthly publicationThe Publicist alongside businessman William Miles, he laid down the fundamental frameworks of theAustralia First Movement, which the two established in October 1941. After five months of activity, Stephensen and his colleagues in the movement,suffragetteAdela Pankhurst being among them, were detained by the Australian government. Being released after the war's end, Stephensen continued to write until his death in 1965.
Percy Reginald Stephensen was born on 20 November 1901 inMaryborough, Queensland.[1] He was the oldest of six children born to Marie-Louise Aimee (née Tardent) and Christian Julius (Chris) Stephensen.[2] The family lived on a small farm outsideBiggenden, where his father was a wheelwright, farrier and coffin-maker; he later took over the town's general store.[3] His father was the secretary of the local branch of theWorkers' Political Organisation and his mother was the Biggenden correspondent for theMaryborough Chronicle.[4] Stephensen's paternal grandparents were Danish immigrants who had arrived in Queensland in the 1870s, converting from Lutheranism to Anglicanism and anglicising their surname from the original "Steffensen". Their children rapidly assimilated into the local community and did not learn Danish.[5] Stephensen's mother and maternal grandparents were immigrants from theSwiss French colony atChabag, Russia (now Ukraine); his mother was bilingual in French and English. Stephensen's maternal grandfatherHenry Tardent was an agricultural scientist who managed anexperimental farm and later became a journalist and writer.[3] Stephensen's youngest brother, Cyril Edward (Ted), served with the RAAF during World War II and was shot down over France and killed in May 1944.
Stephensen learned to shoot and ride at a young age, as was typical at the time. He began his education at Biggenden Primary School and in 1914 placed within the top 100 students in the state secondary school examinations. This entitled him to a two-year government-funded scholarship, and in 1915 he began boarding atMaryborough Boys' Grammar School.[6] The school's headmaster Noble Wallace was a strict disciplinarian and employed corporal punishment. Stephensen was nicknamed "Chicken" at school, due to his surname containing the word "hen". In his first year he had his wrist broken in a hazing ritual.[7] He became a platoon leader in the school cadets and was also a talented sportsman, captaining the school's cricket and football teams and winning prizes for athletics. In 1916 he won a two-year extension to his scholarship by passing the junior public examination.[8] Stephensen was chosen as aprefect in 1918, his fourth and final year at the school. For a brief period he was taught byV. Gordon Childe, whose socialist and pacifist beliefs prompted community opposition and led to his early resignation.[9] Towards the end of the year, Stephensen led a student boycott of the school's speech day, at which the annual prizes were to be handed out by the state treasurerTed Theodore. The boycott was in protest at the sacking of Wallace by the board of trustees.[10]
In 1919, aged 17, Stephensen moved to Brisbane and enrolled in theUniversity of Queensland.[11] He was a fee-paying student as he had failed to win one of the few scholarships then available. He boarded at St John's College, where he soon received the nickname "Inky" for his habit of singing the chorus from "Mademoiselle from Armentières".[12] Stephensen befriendedJack Lindsay, son ofNorman Lindsay, who in turn introduced him to Theodore Whitherby.[13] He also became involved with the Workers' Educational Association (WEA) and developed a friendship withFred Paterson, who would later become the only Communist Party MP elected to an Australian parliament.[14] In June 1919 Stephensen's first published article in theUniversity Magazine called for the "fostering of a national literature" and greater study of Australian poets, themes he would return to later in his career.[15]
Stephensen joined theCommunist Party of Australia in 1921. He gained a second-class honours degree inModern Greats atQueen's College,Oxford where he studied as aRhodes Scholar and was a member of the university branch of the Communist Party withA. J. P. Taylor,Graham Greene andTom Driberg.[1]
Stephensen was a friend ofD. H. Lawrence and edited the first uncensored version ofLady Chatterley's Lover. He was also friendly withAldous Huxley.[16]
His most significant work wasThe Foundations of Culture in Australia (1936), which led to the foundation of theJindyworobak Movement.
Between the world wars, hisFellowship of Australian Writers released a document that advocated disconnection from the United States and stated, "US comics promoted demonology, witchcraft and voodooism, with Superman part of a raving mad view of the world". Of American musicals and minstrel shows, he wrote: "the American negro, with his jungle is not welcome here". He was also noted for hisanti-Semitic views in this period.[1] However, Stephensen was a supporter ofAboriginal rights, and he and his colleague, retired businessman W. J. Miles, financed the first Aboriginal publication,The Abo Call, written and edited by Aboriginal activistJack Patten.
He edited all but four of the books of writerFrank Clune.[17]
In 1936, Stephensen and Miles founded a magazine,The Publicist, which promulgated monarchical, pro-fascist, anti-Semitic, anti-Communist and pro-Aboriginal views. In the early 1940s, Miles curtailed his activities, due to increasing ill health. Stephensen founded theAustralia First Movement in October 1941, and took over the editorship of the magazine in early 1942,[18] shortly before being interned at theLoveday Camp in rural South Australia without trial, along with other members of the Australia First Movement, for pro-Japanese andAxis sympathies.[1]
Stephensen was a prolific author. He published over 30 books, as well as translations of works byVladimir Lenin andFriedrich Nietzsche. He also produced nearly 70 booksghostwritten forFrank Clune.
Non fiction
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