Les Murray (poet) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Les Murray AO
Murray in 2004
Born	(1938-10-17)17 October 1938 Nabiac, New South Wales, Australia
Died	29 April 2019(2019-04-29) (aged 80) Taree, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation	Poet
Education	Taree High School
Alma mater	University of Sydney
Genre	Poetry
Spouse	Valerie Morelli ​ (m. 1962)​
Children	5

Leslie Allan Murray (17 October 1938 – 29 April 2019) was a famous Australian poet, anthologist (someone who collects writings), and critic. He wrote for over 40 years. During this time, he published nearly 30 books of poetry. He also wrote two verse novels and collections of his prose (regular writing).

Les Murray's poems have been translated into 11 different languages. These include French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Many people thought he was "the leading Australian poet of his generation." In 1997, the National Trust of Australia named him one of the 100 Australian Living Treasures. This title is given to people who have made a great impact on Australia.

Life and Early Career

Les Murray was born in Nabiac, Australia. He grew up in a nearby place called Bunyah. He went to primary and high school in Nabiac and then to Taree High School. When he was 18, he was watching mayflies by a river. It was then that he decided he wanted to become a poet.

In 1957, Murray started studying at the University of Sydney. He also joined the Royal Australian Navy Reserve to earn some money. In 1961, a magazine called The Bulletin published one of his poems. He became very interested in old and new languages. He later became a professional translator at the Australian National University.

While at university, he met other writers and poets. He also traveled around Australia by hitch-hiking. In 1962, he married Valerie Morelli, who was also a student. He became a Roman Catholic when they married. His poems often include ideas and stories from his Catholic faith.

Becoming a Full-Time Writer

In the late 1960s, Les Murray and his wife lived in Wales and Scotland. They also traveled around Europe for more than a year. They had five children together.

In 1971, Murray decided to focus only on writing poetry. He stopped working as a translator and public servant in Canberra. His family moved back to Sydney. Later, in 1975, Murray was able to buy back part of his family's old home in Bunyah. He and his family moved back there permanently in 1985.

Les Murray passed away on 29 April 2019. He was 80 years old and was living in a nursing home in Taree, New South Wales.

His Literary Work

Les Murray had a long and successful career in poetry. When he was 38, his book Selected Poems was published. This showed that he was becoming a very important poet.

When he was a student, Murray was an editor for a magazine called Hermes. He also edited Poetry Australia from 1973 to 1979. From 1976 to 1990, he worked as a poetry editor for a publisher called Angus & Robertson. He helped publish the first book of poetry by Philip Hodgins. In 1991, Murray became the literary editor of Quadrant magazine.

He also put together several collections of poems by other writers. One of these was the Anthology of Australian Religious Poetry. This book included poems by many different poets, such as A. D. Hope and Judith Wright. He also edited New Oxford Book of Australian Verse.

Murray sometimes joked that he was the last of the "Jindyworobaks." This was a group of Australian writers who wanted to celebrate Indigenous Australian ideas and customs in their poetry. Even though he wasn't officially part of the group, their ideas influenced his work.

Many people around the world recognized Murray's talent. In 2007, a writer named Dan Chiasson said that Murray was "routinely mentioned among the three or four leading English-language poets." Some even thought he might win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Les Murray stopped being the literary editor of Quadrant in late 2018 because of his health.

Les Murray's Poetry Style

Les Murray published about 30 books of poetry. He is often called Australia's "bush-bard" (a poet who writes about rural life). One expert, David McCooey, said that Murray was a "traditional poet whose work is radically original." This means his poems followed old styles but were also very new and different.

His poetry is rich and varied. It also shows a clear connection to "the ideals and values of what he sees as the real Australia." This means he often wrote about Australian life and values.

Main Ideas in His Poems

When Les Murray was young, his mother had a difficult time and passed away. This event deeply affected him. Some people believe that this experience, and the feeling of being left out, influenced his poetry. He often wrote about themes like being without a home, being put down by others, and wanting independence.

His poems often had a strong connection to Australia. In his other writings, he supported ideas like Australia becoming a republic (not having a king or queen). He also wrote about traditional Irish poetry and Aboriginal ways of life.

Film Adaptations

In 2005, a short film called The Widower was released. It was based on five of Les Murray's poems. Kevin Lucas directed the film, and Lyndon Terracini wrote the story. The music was by Elena Kats-Chernin. The film featured actors like Chris Haywood and Frances Rings. The poems used in the film were "Evening Alone at Bunyah," "Noonday Axeman," "The Widower in the Country," "Cowyard Gates," and "The Last Hellos."

Awards and Recognitions

Les Murray won many important awards for his poetry:

• 1984 – Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry for The People's Other World
• 1989 – Creative Arts Fellowship
• 1989 – Officer of the Order of Australia for his contributions to Australian literature
• 1990 – Grace Leven Prize for Poetry for Dog Fox Field
• 1993 – Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry for Translations from the Natural World
• 1995 – Petrarca-Preis (Petrarch Prize)
• 1996 – T. S. Eliot Prize for Subhuman Redneck Poems
• 1997 – Named one of the 100 Australian Living Treasures by the National Trust of Australia
• 1998 – Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry
• 2001 – Shortlisted for the International Griffin Poetry Prize for Learning Human
• 2002 – Shortlisted for the International Griffin Poetry Prize for Conscious & Verbal
• 2005 – Premio Mondello, Italy for Fredy Neptune

His Published Works

Poetry collections

• 1965: The Ilex Tree (with Geoffrey Lehmann), Canberra, ANU Press
• 1969: The Weatherboard Cathedral, Sydney, Angus & Robertson
• 1972: Poems Against Economics, Angus & Robertson
• 1974: Lunch and Counter Lunch, Angus & Robertson
• 1976: Selected Poems: The Vernacular Republic, Angus & Robertson
• 1977: Ethnic Radio, Angus & Robertson
• 1982: Equanimities
• 1982: The Vernacular Republic: Poems 1961–1981, Angus & Robertson; Edinburgh, Canongate; New York, Persea Books, 1982 and (enlarged and revised edition) Angus & Robertson, 1988
• 1983: Flowering Eucalypt in Autumn
• 1983: The People's Otherworld, Angus & Robertson
• 1986: Selected Poems, Carcanet Press
• 1987: The Daylight Moon, Angus & Robertson, 1987; Carcanet Press 1988 and Persea Books, 1988
• 1994: Collected Poems, Port Melbourne, William Heinemann Australia
• 1989: The Idyll Wheel
• 1990: Dog Fox Field Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1990; Carcanet Press, 1991 and New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1993
• 1991: Collected Poems, Angus & Robertson, 1991; Carcanet Press, 1991; London, Minerva, 1992 and (released as The Rabbiter's Bounty, Collected Poems), Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1991
• 1992: Translations from the Natural World, Paddington: Isabella Press, 1992; Carcanet Press, 1993 and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994
• 1994: Collected Poems, Port Melbourne, William Heinemann Australia
• 1996: Late Summer Fires
• 1996: Selected Poems, Carcanet Press
• 1996: Subhuman Redneck Poems
• 1997: Killing the Black Dog, Black Inc Publishing
• 1999: New Selected Poems, Duffy & Snellgrove
• 1999: Conscious and Verbal, Duffy & Snellgrove
• 2000: An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow
• 2001: Learning Human: New Selected Poems (Poetry pleiade), Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Carcanet
• 2002: Poems the Size of Photographs, Duffy & Snellgrove and Carcanet Press
• 2002: New Collected Poems, Duffy & Snellgrove; Carcanet Press, 2003
• 2006: The Biplane Houses, Carcanet Press. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008
• 2010: Taller When Prone, Black Inc Publishing
• 2011: Killing the Black Dog: A Memoir of Depression, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 86 pp (autobiographical)
• 2012: The Best 100 Poems of Les Murray, Black Inc Publishing
• 2014: New Selected Poems, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• 2015: Waiting for the Past, Carcanet
• 2015: The Tin Wash Dish, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press
• 2015: On Bunyah, Black Inc Publishing
• 2018: Collected Poems, Black Inc Publishing
• 2022: Continuous Creation: Last Poems, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Collections as editor

• 1986: Anthology of Australian Religious Poetry (editor), Melbourne, Collins Dove, 1986 (new edition, 1991)
• 1991: The New Oxford Book of Australian Verse, Melbourne,Oxford University Press, 1986 and Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1991, 1999
• 1994: Fivefathers, Five Australian Poets of the Pre-Academic Era, Carcanet Press
• 2005: Hell and After, Four early English-language poets of Australia Carcanet
• 2005: Best Australian Poems 2004, Melbourne, Black Inc.
• 2012: The Quadrant Book of Poetry 2001–2010, Sydney, Quadrant Books

Verse novels

• 1979: The Boys Who Stole the Funeral, Angus & Robertson, 1979, 1980 and Manchester, Carcanet, 1989
• 1999: Fredy Neptune, Carcanet and Duffy & Snellgrove

Prose collections

• 1978: The Peasant Mandarin, St. Lucia, UQP
• 1984: Persistence in Folly: Selected Prose Writings, Angus & Robertson
• 1984: The Australian Year: The Chronicle of our Seasons and Celebrations, Angus & Robertson
• 1990: Blocks and Tackles, Angus & Robertson
• 1992: The Paperbark Tree: Selected Prose, Carcanet; Minerva, 1993
• 1999: The Quality of Sprawl: Thoughts about Australia, Duffy & Snellgrove
• 2000: A Working Forest, essays, Duffy & Snellgrove
• 2002: The Full Dress, An Encounter with the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Australia

See also

In Spanish: Les Murray para niños

• List of Australian poets