'George Gordon McCrae, father of Hugh, was a poet. In exotic isles he packed his portmanteau with double coco-nuts. His friends were like his coco-nuts, tropically rich in idiosyncrasies. Adam Lindsay Gordon, Henry Kendall, Marcus Clarke, John Shillinglaw, 'Orion' Horne - for us they are figures bathed in the lustre of literary fame, but here they talk and drink once again in the flesh, a gallant company of personalities. They lived in Melbourne in the olden days, before the wireless, newspapers, films, and motor cars, like the four wheels of the juggernaut, had flattened us out to a mechanical level. It was the pre-bowser age: men walked, drawing, like Antaeus, strength from the earth they touched. They rollicked in taverns, singing songs.
Here there are character sketches, random episodes, and anecdotes - odd pieces picked out from the mosaic of memory, retesselated, with their design still clear, their colours bright. Some of the episodes are poignant, such as Kendall's letter to George Gordon McCrae upon the death of Gordon. But most of them are amusing, as Marcus Clarke bravely puts his hand into the lion's mouth to leave his cigar there, and Montgomery in his bearskin coat looks as if he might give birth to a possum at any minute!..'(from Forward by T. Inglis Moore (q.v.))
Story-Book Only
R. G. Howarth
(editor),
Sydney
:
Angus and Robertson
,
1948
Z117704
1948
selected work
prose
autobiography
biography
short story
'It is as a poet that Hugh McCrae is most famous; his three prose books appeared only in limited editions and no collection of his other writing has been made for fifteen years - a period in which he has written a good deal more prose than verse. The present volume accordingly contains the whole of My Father, and My Father's Friends, such of The Du Poissey Anecdotes and the McCrae Number of Art in Australia as the author wished to perpetuate, and a comprehensive selection from his stories, sketches, personal notes, articles, essays and jokes.
It goes without saying that this collection will be of the utmost interest to students of Australian literature, but its appeal extends far beyond the specialist. It is a book that cannot fail to delight all who appreciate personality and the rich comedy of human affairs. Hugh McCrae's characteristic humour, sometimes playful, sometimes freakish, sometimes macabre, but always light and deft - enlivens both the brief, vivid portraits of notable men known to his father and himself, and the equally brilliant accounts of fictitious people and events. He packs so much of wit and poetry into these writings that one is drawn back to the best of them again and again, always finding something fresh. Story-book Only will be read in the future along with its author's verse, and should bring him recognitions as one of our masters of prose.
The charm of the book is greatly enhanced by the author's illustrations, which form a lively and witty accompaniment to the text. They add a final proof of the versatility of Hugh McCrae's talent, and, like all his work, they bear the impress of the striking and highly original personality that gives Story-book Only a character unique in our literature.' (Publisher's blurb)
