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Poetry post-1900
Robert Adamson, July 1985;
photo John Tranter
Robert Adamson (b.1944) grew up in the Sydney suburb of Neutral Bay and spent some time in reform school and gaol in late adolescence and early adulthood. He became involved with the Sydney poetry world in the late 1960s and for some years edited New Poetry magazine. His first book, Canticles on the Skin, was published in 1970, and he has gone on to publish more than a dozen further volumes. His poetry deals with his experiences in reform school and prison, the landscape of the Hawkesbury river north of Sydney where he has lived (and fished) for many years, his personal relationships, and his colleagues and mentors including the Sydney painter Brett Whiteley and poets Francis Webb, Michael Dransfield and Robert Duncan.
Photo: Robert Adamson and his wife Juno Gemes. Photo John Tranter
1974: John Tranter’s ten-page review of Swamp Riddles, by Robert Adamson
1978: Robert Adamson's four-page review of Crying in Early Infancy (1977), by John Tranter
1980: John Tranter’s three-page review of Where I Come From, by Robert Adamson, and Greenhouse, by Dorothy Hewett.
1989: John Tranter’s three-page review of The Clean Dark, by Robert Adamson
On this site, see also:
In the Survey Article section: Dorothy Hewett on the poetry of Robert Adamson and Michael Dransfield (1979)
In the Survey Article section: ‘The Poetry Explosion’ — Virginia Osborne introduces six talented young Sydney poets, Vogue Australia, April 1971 (Robert Adamson, John Tranter, Michael Dransfield, Martin Johnston, Terry Larsen, and Peter Skrzynecki.)
Further poems and reviews by and about this author, or that mention this author’s name, can be found in Jacket magazine on the Internet: follow this link and type the author’s name into the Jacket Search engine.
http://april.edu.au/adamson-r/index.shtml