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Leon Gellert Leon Gellert i(A27416 works by) (a.k.a. Leon Maxwell Gellert)
Born: Established: 17 May 1892 Walkerville, Walkerville area, Adelaide - North / North East, Adelaide, South Australia, ; Died: Ceased: 22 Aug 1977 Toorak Gardens, Burnside area, Adelaide - South / South East, Adelaide, South Australia,
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

Leon Gellert was born and educated in Adelaide. He was a school teacher before enlisting as a private in the 10th Battalion AIF. He took part in the Gallipoli landings, where he was wounded and sent to England to recuperate, before returning to Australia in 1916.

In 1917 Gellert published Songs of a Campaign which won the University of Adelaide's Bundey prize for poetry, establishing him as a foremost Australian war poet. His work reflected a realism about war not seen in the more conventional 'heroic' war verse. A friend of Sydney Ure Smith and Norman Lindsay, he moved from teaching into journalism, editing Art in Australia from 1922-1938, and Home magazine. He co-edited with Sydney Ure Smith several books of Australian art, including work by Margaret Preston, Hans Heysen and Norman Lindsay. He later became literary editor, columnist and book reviewer with the Sydney Morning Herald and the Daily Telegraph.

His many publications include the long allegorical poem The Isle of San (1919), Desperate Measures (1928), a book of light verses on native animals, Those Beastly Australians (1944), and collections of his journalistic articles, Week after Week (1953) and Year after Year (1956).

Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • Gellert possibly published poems under the alternative writing name L. G. (q.v.); the poems indexed to this agent appeared in the Home. Gellert (co-)edited this journal from 1922-1942.
  • See also the full Australian Dictionary of Biography Online entry for Leon Maxwell Gellert, (1892-1977).

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Songs of a Campaign Adelaide : Hassell Press , 1917 Z137878 1917 selected work poetry war literature
1917 winner University of Adelaide Bundey Prize for English Verse
Last amended 7 Jul 2014 09:58:13
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