Richard Appleton (17 January 1932 – 27 April 2005) was an Australian poet, raconteur and editor who became editor-in-chief of the '' Australian Encyclopaedia'' and, in 1987, was co-editor with Alex Galloway of the posthumous

Lex Banning Arthur Alexander Banning (1921–1965) was an Australian lyric poet. Disabled from birth by cerebral palsy, he was unable to speak clearly or to write with a pen. "Yet he overcame his handicap to produce poems which were often hauntingly beauti ...

poetry collection ''There Was a Crooked Man''. He was a long-time associate of the

Sydney Push The Sydney Push was an intellectual subculture in Sydney from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. Its politics were predominantly left-wing libertarianism. The Push operated in a pub culture and included university students, academics, manual w ...

, of which his memoirs were published posthumously in 2009.Appleton R ''Appo: Recollections of a member of the Sydney Push'' Darlington Press, Sydney, 2009. He helped create ''The Pluralist'', a journal of dissident thought.Collingwood, Ly
Reports of his death were premature, till now
Obituary in ''Sydney Morning Herald'' 31 May 2005 (Accessed 22 April 2010)

Biography

Appleton was born at

Mosman Mosman is a suburb on the Lower North Shore region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mosman is located 8 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local governm ...

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 ...

NSW ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

and died at Cessnock NSW. He was educated at North Sydney Boys' High School, the

Royal Australian Naval College The Royal Australian Naval College (RANC), commonly known as HMAS Creswell, is the naval academy of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). It consists of the RAN School of Survivability and Ship's Safety, Kalkara Flight, the Beecroft Weapons Range an ...

and

Sydney University The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's six ...

where he was a devotee of John Anderson and co-edited an issue of the annual '' Arna''. He also attended and graduated from a Melbourne teachers' college in 1957-1958—"a crash course of only one year to become a qualified teacher". He entered publishing in about 1967, and became editor-in-chief of the ''Australian Encyclopaedia'' in 1977, overseeing the fourth edition (1983) and the fifth edition (1988). As a freelance in later years, in conjunction with his wife, Barbara, he compiled the ''Cambridge Dictionary of Australian Places''. In the 1980s Appleton edited the Australian content of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. In 2008, he was honoured posthumously by the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

for services to the party. Appleton was described in

Clive James Clive James (born Vivian Leopold James; 7 October 1939 – 24 November 2019) was an Australian critic, journalist, broadcaster, writer and lyricist who lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 1962 until his death in 2019.

References

Bibliography

* Robin Brown (auth), Richard Appleton (ed.),

Manning Clark Charles Manning Hope Clark, (3 March 1915 – 23 May 1991) was an Australian historian and the author of the best-known general history of Australia, his six-volume ''A History of Australia'', published between 1962 and 1987. He has been descri ...

(foreword) ''Milestones in Australian History'' William Collins, Sydney, 1986 * Richard Appleton and Alex Galloway ds''There Was a Crooked Man: The Poems of Lex Banning'', Sirius, Australia, 1987; * Richard Appleton ''I Am The World: Poems 1951-1953'' Edwards & Shaw, Sydney, 1953 * Richard and Barbara Appleton (comp.) ''The Cambridge Dictionary of Australian Places'' Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 1992

Biography

References

Bibliography

Further reading