Robert Francis Brissenden (13 March 1928 – 7 April 1991) was an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

, and academic.

Life

Brissenden was born on 13 March 1928 at

Wentworthville Wentworthville is a suburb in Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Wentworthville is located 27 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is part of the Greater Western Sydney region. Wentworthville is split betw ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

to schoolteacher Arthur Piercy Brissenden, and Nellie Annie (née Rogers). After studying at

Bowral Bowral () is the largest town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia. It is south-west of Sydney and north-east of Canberra. It is the main business and entertainment precinct of the Wingecarribee Shire and the Southern Highl ...

and

Cowra Cowra () is a town in the Central West, New South Wales, Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre and the council seat for the Cowra Shire, with a population of 8,254. Cowra is located approximate ...

high schools, Brissenden earned a scholarship to

St Andrew's College, University of Sydney St Andrew's College is a residential college at the University of Sydney, in the suburb of Newtown, New South Wales, Australia. The College occupies 4 hectares of land within the main campus of the University of Sydney and was built on a sub-gra ...

, where he achieved a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

with honours and a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

. In 1953, he was assistant lecturer at

Canberra University College Canberra University College was a tertiary education institution established in Canberra by the Australian government and the University of Melbourne in 1930. At first it operated in the Telopea Park School premises after hours. Most of the init ...

, under

A. D. Hope Alec Derwent Hope (21 July 190713 July 2000) was an Australian poet and essayist known for his satirical slant. He was also a critic, teacher and academic. He was referred to in an American journal as "the 20th century's greatest 18th-century ...

, and was awarded a British Council grant to study at the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

, where he earned his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1956. He married political scientist Rosemary Lorna Groves in 1959. Brissenden returned as an English lecturer at CUC, which was amalgamated with the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

in 1960. At

ANU Anu ( , from 𒀭 ''an'' "Sky", "Heaven") or Anum, originally An ( ), was the divine personification of the sky, king of the gods, and ancestor of many of the deities in ancient Mesopotamian religion. He was regarded as a source of both di ...

, Brissenden was the Faculty of the Arts' first sub-dean and remained a lecturer and reader until 1985. He was an associate editor of the

Meanjin ''Meanjin'' (), formerly ''Meanjin Papers'' and ''Meanjin Quarterly'', is one of Australia's longest-running literary magazines. Established in 1940 in Brisbane, it moved to Melbourne in 1945 and as of 2008 is an editorially independent impri ...

literary journal from 1959 until 1964, and literary editor of

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...

from 1964 to 1965. In 1982, Brissenden was appointed Officer of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

for services to literature. Brissenden died at

Royal Canberra Hospital The first hospital in Canberra was the Canberra Hospital in Balmain Crescent Acton in 1914, predominately for the workers building the new capital of Canberra. Called later the Canberra Community Hospital in 1929 after additions to the older buil ...

of complications from

Parkinson's Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become more prevalen ...

on 7 April 1991 and was buried in Tharwa Road Lawn Cemetery in

Queanbeyan Queanbeyan ( ) is a city in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia, located adjacent to the Australian Capital Territory in the Southern Tablelands region. Located on the Queanbeyan River, the city is the council seat of the Queanbeyan-Pale ...

Bibliography

Poetry

* Gift of the Forest (1982) * Winter Matins (1971) * Elegies (1974) * Building a Terrace (1975) * The Whale in Darkness (1980) * Gough and Johnny Were Lovers: Songs and Light Verse Celebrating Wine, Friendship and Political Scandal (1984) * Sacred Sites (1990) * Suddenly Evening (1993)

Fiction

* Poor Boy (1987) Allen & Unwin * Wildcat (1991) Allen & Unwin

Criticism

* Samuel Richardson (1958) * Patrick White (1964) * Virtue in Distress: Studies in the Novel of Sentiment from Richardson to Sade (1974) * A Fire-talented Tongue: Some Notes on the Poetry of Gwen Harwood (1978) * New Currents in Australian Writing (1978) * The Great Gatsby: A Critical Introduction (1987)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brissenden, Bob 1928 births 1991 deaths 20th-century Australian male writers University of Sydney alumni Academic staff of the Australian National University 20th-century Australian poets Neurological disease deaths in the Australian Capital Territory Deaths from Parkinson's disease in Australia Meanjin people Officers of the Order of Australia Alumni of the University of Leeds