Les Murray (poet)

Leslie Allan Murray (17 October 1938 – 29 April 2019) was an Australian poet, anthologist and critic.

His career spanned over 40 years and he published nearly 30 volumes of poetry as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings.

Translations of Murray's poetry have been published in 11 languages: French, German, Italian, Catalan, Spanish, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Hindi, Russian, and Dutch.

Murray's poetry won many awards and he is regarded as "the leading Australian poet of his generation".

In 1957, Murray entered the University of Sydney in the Faculty of Arts and joined the Royal Australian Navy Reserve to obtain a small income.

Murray returned to undergraduate studies in the 1960s.

The couple lived in Wales and Scotland and travelled in Europe for over a year in the late 1960s.

They had five children together.

Their son Alexander was diagnosed with autism, which prompted Murray to discover traits of the condition in himself.

In an interview with Image, Murray described himself as "a high-performing Asperger".

Speaking about this time to Clive James he said: "'I was as soft-headed as you could imagine. I was actually hanging on to childhood because I hadn't had much teenage. My Mum died and my father collapsed. I had to look after him. So I was off the chain at last, I was in Sydney and I didn't quite know how to do adulthood or teenage. I was being coltish and foolish and childlike. I received the least distinguished degree Sydney ever issued. I don't think anyone's ever matched it.'"In 1961 The Bulletin published one of Murray's poems.

He converted to Roman Catholicism when he married Budapest-born fellow-student Valerie Morelli in 1962.

His poetry frequently refers to Catholic themes.

When Murray was a student at the University of Sydney he was the editor of Hermes with Geoffrey Lehmann (1962).

He developed an interest in ancient and modern languages, and eventually qualified to become a professional translator at the Australian National University (where he was employed from 1963 to 1967).

During his studies he met other poets and writers such as Geoffrey Lehmann, Bob Ellis, Clive James and Lex Banning, as well as future political journalists Laurie Oakes and Mungo McCallum Jr.

Between times, he hitch-hiked around Australia.

Murray lived for several months at a Sydney Push household at Milsons Point, where he read Virgil's Eclogues at the suggestion of his host, Brian Jenkins.

In 1971, Murray resigned from his "respectable cover occupations" of translator and public servant in Canberra (1970) to write poetry full-time.

Murray edited the magazine Poetry Australia (1973–79).

The family returned to Sydney, but Murray, planning to return to his home at Bunyah, managed to buy back part of the lost family home in 1975 and to visit there intermittently until 1985 when he and his family returned to live there permanently.

During his tenure as poetry editor for Angus & Robertson (1976–90) he was responsible for publishing the first book of poetry by Philip Hodgins.

First published in 1986, a second edition was published in 1991.

It interprets religion loosely and includes the work of many of poets such A. D. Hope, Judith Wright, Rosemary Dobson, Kevin Hart, Bruce Dawe and himself.

In March 1990, Murray became literary editor of Quadrant.

He edited several anthologies, including the Anthology of Australian Religious Poetry.

The New Oxford Book of Australian Verse was most recently reissued in 1996.

Murray described himself, perhaps half-jokingly, as the last of the "Jindyworobaks", an Australian literary movement whose white members sought to promote indigenous Australian ideas and customs, particularly in poetry.

Though not a member, he was influenced by their work, something that is frequently discussed by Murray critics and scholars in relation to his themes and sensibilities.

He was rated in 1997 by the National Trust of Australia as one of the 100 Australian Living Treasures.

Les Murray was born in Nabiac, New South Wales, and grew up in nearby Bunyah.

He attended primary and early high school in Nabiac and then Taree High School.

At age 18, while watching mayflies along the river, Murray decided to become a poet.

In 2007, Dan Chiasson wrote in The New Yorker that Murray was "now routinely mentioned among the three or four leading English-language poets".

Murray was talked of as a possible winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Murray retired as literary editor of Quadrant in late 2018 for health reasons.

Murray died on 29 April 2019 at a Taree, New South Wales, nursing home at the age of 80.

Murray had a long career in poetry and literary journalism in Australia.

When he was 38 years old, his Selected Poems was published by Angus & Robertson, signifying his emergence as a leading poet.

The Murray biographer Peter Alexander has written that "all Murray's volumes are uneven, though as Bruce Clunies Ross would remark, 'There's "less good" and "good", but it's very hard to find really inferior Murray'."