Ian Mayelston Mudie (1 March 1911 – 23 October 1976) was an Australian poet and author.

Early life and education

Mudie was born in 1911 in

Hawthorn, South Australia Hawthorn is a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, in the City of Mitcham. It is bounded to the north by Cross Road, Adelaide, Cross Road, to the south by Grange Road, to the west by Sussex Terrace and to the east by Belair Road, Adelaide, Belair ...

, son of Henry Mayelston Mudie, an accountant, and his second wife Gertrude Mary. Mudie attended

Scotch College, Adelaide Scotch College is an Independent school, independent, Uniting Church of Australia, Uniting Church, co-educational, Day school, day and boarding school, located on two adjacent campuses in Torrens Park, South Australia, Torrens Park and Mitcham, ...

from 1920 to 1926, but did not graduate. After school he attempted to make a living from freelance writing but also pursued work as a "wool-scourer, furniture-dealer, grape-picker, and as a salesman of insurance and real estate".

Writing career

Mudie published his first poem in 1931. Encouraged by

P. R. Stephensen Percy Reginald Stephensen (20 November 1901 – 28 May 1965) was an Australian writer, publisher and political activist, first aligned with communism and later shifting support towards far-right politics. He was the co-founder of the fascist Aus ...

, who published one of his poems in his magazine ''The Publicist'' in 1937, he became associated with the Jindyworobak Movement in 1939 and in 1941 moved to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and became involved in the

Australia First Movement The Australia First Movement was a fascist movement, founded in October 1941. It grew out of the Rationalist Association of New South Wales and the Victorian Socialist Party, and was led by former Rhodes scholar Percy Stephensen and Adela ...

. Historian David Bird has written that "Ian Mudie proved the most strident champion of the cultural line taken by Australia First and the Jindies, although he was not a member of either group at the outbreak of the war." In this period,

described Mudie's work as containing a "deep urge towards the elemental spirit of our own land, its courageous, fundamental Australianism".Bird, David
"Nazi Dreamtime: Australian Enthusiasts for Hitler’s Germany"
Anthem Press, February 2014, p. 281 He was a friend of

Miles Franklin Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (14 October 187919 September 1954), known as Miles Franklin, was an Australian writer and feminist who is best known for her novel ''My Brilliant Career'', published by Blackwoods of Edinburgh in 1901. While ...

and

Colin Thiele Colin Milton Thiele AC (; 16 November 1920 – 4 September 2006) was an Australian author and educator. He was renowned for his award-winning children's fiction, most notably the novels '' Storm Boy'', '' Blue Fin'', the '' Sun on the Stubble'' ...

,Butterss, Philip, 'Mudie, Ian Mayelston (1911–1976)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mudie-ian-mayelston-11192/text19949, accessed 15 January 2012 and attracted favourable criticism from

Xavier Herbert Xavier Herbert (born Alfred Jackson; 15 May 190110 November 1984) was an Australian writer best known for his Miles Franklin Award-winning novel '' Poor Fellow My Country'' (1975). He was considered one of the elder statesmen of Australian li ...

. He took an active part in various national writers' bodies in Australia. He was a strong critic of Australia's treatment of

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

people. The Australian literary historian Bruce Clunies-Ross wrote: After the Second World War Mudie was the recipient of a

fellowship A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

from the

Commonwealth Literary Fund The Commonwealth Literary Fund (CLF) was an Australian Government initiative founded in 1908 to assist needy Australian writers and their families. It was Federal Australia's first systematic support for the arts. Its scope was later broadened to e ...

to conduct research into the paddlesteamers of the Murray-Darling river system and in 1961 published the book ''Riverboats''. He also wrote a history of ''

Admella SS ''Admella'' was an Australian passenger steamship that was shipwrecked on a submerged reef off the coast of Carpenter Rocks, south west of Mount Gambier South Australia, in the early hours of Saturday 6 August 1859. Survivors clung to the w ...

'', which in 1859 was wrecked off the south-east coast of South Australia, one of Australia's worst maritime disasters, and a new history of

John McDouall Stuart John McDouall Stuart (7 September 18155 June 1866), often referred to as simply "McDouall Stuart", was a Scottish explorer and one of the most accomplished of all Australia's inland explorers. Stuart led the first successful expedition to tra ...

's epic crossing of the Australian continent in 1861–1862. In 1963 Mudie won the

Grace Leven Prize for Poetry The Grace Leven Prize for Poetry was an annual poetry award in Australia, given in the name of Grace Leven who died in 1922. It was established by William Baylebridge who "made a provision for an annual poetry prize in memory of 'my benefactres ...

for The North-Bound Rider.Austlit - ''The North-Bound Rider'' by Ian Mudie
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Works

Verse

* ''Corroboree to the Sun'' (1940) * ''This Is Australia'' (1941) * ''The Australian Dream'' (1943) * ''Their Seven Stars Unseen'' (1943) * ''Poems 1934—1944'' (1945) * ''The Blue Crane'' (1959) * '' The North-Bound Rider'' (1963) * ''Look, the Kingfisher'' (1970) * ''Selected Poems 1934—1974'' (1976)

Editor

*''Poets at War: An anthology of Verse by Australian Servicemen'' (1944) *''The Jindyworobak Anthology'' (1946)

Non-fiction

*''Riverboats'' (1961) *''Wreck of the Admella'' (1966) *''The Heroic Journey of John McDouall Stuart'' (1968) *''Australia Today'' (1970)

Fiction

*’’The Christmas Kangaroo’’ (1946)

Family

Ian was the grandson of well-known Anglican minister William Henry Mudie. His father, Henry Mayelston Mudie, was influential in the growth of the

Savings Bank of South Australia The Savings Bank of South Australia was a bank founded in the colony of South Australia in 1848, based in Adelaide. In the early 20th century it established a presence in schools by setting up a special category of savings accounts for schoolch ...

. He married Renee Dunford Doble on 30 October 1934. He died in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and his ashes were scattered on the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest r ...

. His middle name is sometimes reported as "Mayelstone".

Sources

*Wilde, William H., Hooton, Joy and Andrews, Barry ''The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature'' Oxford University Press, Melbourne 2nd ed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mudie, Ian 1911 births 1976 deaths Writers from Adelaide 20th-century Australian poets Australian male poets 20th-century Australian historians 20th-century Australian male writers