Edward Sylvester Sorenson (24 September 1869 − 19 December 1939), was an Australian writer and poet. Sorenson was born on 24 September 1869 at Dyraaba, New South Wales, north-west of

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, a son of Jacob Sorenson and his wife, Mary Ann, née Keleher.Australian Dictionary of Biography.
Accessed 11 February 2015. As a young man he wandered throughout

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

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for gold and working on

sheep station A sheep station is a large property ( station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or sout ...

s. He later travelled throughout South Australia, Victoria and

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, along the way deciding to make a career of writing. To this end he settled in Sydney where he studied as an evening student at a commercial college. From 1885, he contributed both stories and verse to magazines, including '' The Bulletin'', '' The Lone Hand'', ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' and the ''

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'', being encouraged by the founder of ''The Bulletin'', J. F. Archibald. Much of his work, including poetry, sketches, short stories and articles, remains uncollected. Sorenson's ''Life in the Australian Backblocks'' (London, 1911) is an account of bush life by a writer with practical knowledge of the subject. He also wrote stories featuring Australian wildlife. He was a member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union and the

Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales The Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales (RZSNSW) was formed in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in 1879 as the New South Wales Zoological Society. A Royal Charter was granted in September, 1908, leading to a change to the current name ...

and the

Fellowship of Australian Writers The Fellowship of Australian Writers (FAW) was established in Sydney in 1928, with the aim of bringing writers together and promoting their interests. The organisation played a key role in the establishment of the Australian Society of Authors in ...

. H. M. Green in his ''An Outline of Australian Literature'' (1930), said of Sorenson that he knew "outback life better than most." Certainly, few Australian authors, not even Henry Lawson or "Steele Rudd," had a more varied experience of bush-life than Sorenson. On 31 December 1910, he married Alice Newlyn, née Gibbs, a widow, at the Congregational Church, Waterloo, Sydney. They had two children together, Harold and Tarella.Obituary for Alice Sorenson.
Accessed 11 February 2015. Sorenson's wife, Alice, died on 14 April 1939 at Marrickville, aged 68 years. In an obituary, a friend, Alexander Vennard, wrote that "Mrs. Sorenson was a daughter of the bush who had worked on big pastoral runs before she met the man from the droving tracks who became her husband, and later one of the most prolific writers in the history of Australian literature. I always did think, despite her many years residence in a Sydney suburb, that Mrs. Sorenson would have preferred to be back again in the country where her early days were spent...She always found time to exchange a few words with a writer from

North Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has been ...

, and make him feel at home." Survived by a son and daughter, Edward Sorenson died of coronary disease at his

Marrickville Marrickville is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Marrickville is located south-west of the Sydney central business district and is the largest suburb in the Inner West Council local gove ...

home on 19 December 1939, aged 70 years, and was buried in the Anglican section of

Rookwood Cemetery Rookwood Cemetery (officially named Rookwood Necropolis) is a heritage-listed cemetery in Rookwood, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest List of necropolises, necropolis in the Southern Hemisphere and is the world's largest ...

.Sydney Morning Herald, 23 December 1939, p 5.
Accessed 4 March 2015.

Bibliography

Novels and Serialised Stories * Aunt Jo: A Love Story of the Cedar Scrubs (1906) * The Squatter's Ward (1908) * The Squatter King (1914) * On The Wallaby: The Diary of a Queensland Swagman (1915) * A Backblocker's Pleasure Trip (1917) * The Mystery of Murrawang: A Tale of Two Stations (1917) Short Story Collections * Quinton's Rouseabout and Other Stories (1908) * Life In The Australian Backblocks (1911) * Chips and Splinters (1919) (short stories and verse) * Friends and Foes in the Australian Bush (1919) * Spotty the Bower-Bird and Other Stories (1921) * Karaway the Cockatoo and Other Nature Stories (1922) * Murty Brown (1925) Non Fiction * The Kookaburra (1902) * The Shepherds' Dance: With the Lamb-Markers of the Paroo (1914) * How Our Men Earn a Living in the Bush (1915)

Bibliography

References

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