Cirrus@Austlit

Donovan Clarke had a long career as a school teacher, then later as a journalist, academic and poet. Clarke was also a Lieutenant in the A. I. F. and, writes Patricia Clarke in her article, Literary Sidelights on Wartime Brisbane, 'urged Meanjin to launch a campaign for the appointment of official war poets, similar to the appointment of war artists'. In 1950, through a grant from the Commonwealth Literary Fund, he wrote a study of Australian poetry, of which his particular interest was the poetry of the colonial period. He published two volumes of poetry, Ritual Dance (1940), and Blue Prints (1942). Clarke edited the creative writing anthology Wednesday Nights (1963).