A. B. ("Banjo") Paterson (1864-1941)

Brief Biography

Andrew Barton Paterson was born at Narrambla Station near Orange in New South Wales in 1864. He grew up near Yass in NSW and attended school in the small town of Binalong, and later in Sydney. He started out as a lawyer's clerk before being admitted as a solicitor. After the publication of The Man From Snowy River and Other Verses in 1895, he became something of a literary celebrity in Australia. He travelled widely throughout the country and also was war correspondent in the Boer War in South Africa, and covered the Boxer Rebellion in China.

He was later to become editor of the Sydney Evening News and then the Australian Town and Country Journal. At the outbreak of World War I he travelled to Europe to cover the conflict but was unable to get to the front in France. Frustrated by this he returned to Australia and joined the Remount Service which supplied horses for the Australian cavalry in the Middle East.

After the War he returned to Sydney, journalism and writing poetry and prose. Paterson is best remembered as the the author of Waltzing Matilda - Australia's unofficial national anthem.

Bibliography

Poetry Collections
The Man From Snowy River and Other Verses 1895
Rio Grande's Last Race and Other Verses 1902
Saltbush Bill J.P. and Other Verses 1917
Collected Verse 1923
Singer of the Bush (complete works 1885-1900) 1983
Song of the Pen (complete works 1901-41) 1983
Banjo Paterson A Children's Treasury 1984, illustrated by Dee Huxley
The Geebung Polo Club 1984, illustrated by Ninon Phillips
Banjo Paterson's People 1987, paintings by Dorothy Gauvin
Banjo Paterson's Australians 1989, paintings by Dorothy Gauvin
Snowy River Riders 1991, paintings by Robert Lovett

Novels
An Outback Marriage 1906
The Shearer's Colt 1936

Short Story Collections
Three Elephant Power and Other Stories 1917

Childrens
The Animals Noah Forgot 1933

Non-Fiction
Happy Dispatches 1934
From the Front - Dispatches from the Boer War 2000, edited by R.W.F. Drooglever

Edited
Old Bush Songs 1905

Selected Poetry

You can read the full text of the following Paterson poems:

This page and its contents are copyright ©2001-02 by Perry Middlemiss, Victoria, Australia.

Last modified: March 1, 2002.