A little in Bret Harte's manner,
crossed, perhaps, with that of Guy de Maupassant."
[The Announcements at the end of this section give alternate titles
for two of Lawson's works, to wit: "On the Track" is given as such,
but "Over the Sliprails" is given as "By the Sliprails",
and the combined work "On the Track and Over the Sliprails"
is given as "By Track and Sliprails". Of course, only "On the Track"
had actually been printed at the date of the advertisement,
so it might be theorized that these had been working titles,
afterwards discarded, whose inclusion here was overlooked. -- A. L., 1998.]
About the author:
Henry Lawson was born near Grenfell, New South Wales, Australia
on 17 June 1867. Although he has since become Australia's
most acclaimed writer, in his own lifetime his writing was often
"on the side" -- his "real" work being whatever he could find.
His writing was frequently taken from memories of his childhood,
especially at Pipeclay/Eurunderee. In his autobiography,
he states that many of his characters were taken from
the better class of diggers and bushmen he knew there.
His experiences at this time deeply influenced his work,
for it is interesting to note a number of descriptions and phrases
that are identical in his autobiography and in his stories and poems.
He died at Sydney, 2 September 1922. He is most famous for his short stories.
"On the Track" and "Over the Sliprails" were both published at Sydney in 1900,
the prefaces being dated March and June respectively -- and so,
though printed separately, a combined edition was printed the same year
(the two separate, complete works were simply put together in one binding);
hence they are sometimes referred to as "On the Track and Over the Sliprails".
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