Editing Henry Lawson (section)

== Family and early life ==
[[File:Grenfell Main Street 002.JPG|thumb|left|Grenfell, Lawson's birthplace, during the 2011 Henry Lawson Festival]]
Henry Lawson was born 17 June 1867 in a town on the [[Grenfell, New South Wales|Grenfell goldfields]] of [[New South Wales]]. His father was Niels Hertzberg Larsen, a [[Norway|Norwegian]]-born miner.  Niels Larsen went to sea at 21 and arrived in [[Melbourne]] in 1855 to join the gold rush, along with partner [[William Henry John Slee]].<ref name=ADB/> Lawson's parents met at the goldfields of Pipeclay (now Eurunderee, [[Mudgee|Locality Mudgee]]). Niels and [[Louisa Lawson|Louisa Albury]] (1848–1920) married on 7 July 1866 when he was 32 and she 18. On Henry's birth, the family surname was [[Anglicised]] and Niels became Peter Lawson. The newly married couple were to have an unhappy marriage.  Louisa, after family-raising, took a significant part in women's movements, and edited a women's paper called ''[[The Dawn (feminist magazine)|The Dawn]]'' (published May 1888 to July 1905). She also published her son's first volume, and around 1904 brought out a volume of her own, ''Dert and Do'', a simple story of 18,000 words. In 1905 she collected and published her own verses, ''The Lonely Crossing and other Poems''. Louisa likely had a strong influence on her son's literary work in its earliest days.<ref name=DAB>{{cite web |url=http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks15/1500721h/0-dict-biogL.html#lawson2|title=Lawson, Henry (1867 - 1922) |access-date=2009-07-17 |author=Percival Serle |work=[[Dictionary of Australian Biography]] |publisher=[[Angus and Robertson]] |year=1949 |author-link=Percival Serle }}</ref> Peter Lawson's grave (with headstone) is in the little private cemetery at [[Hartley Vale, New South Wales|Hartley Vale]], New South Wales, a few minutes' walk behind what was Collitt's Inn.

Lawson attended school at Eurunderee from 2 October 1876 but experienced an ear infection around this time. It left him with partial deafness and by the age of fourteen he had lost his hearing entirely. However, his master John Tierney was kind and did all he could for Lawson, who was quite shy.<ref name=DAB/> Lawson later attended a [[Catholic]] school at [[Mudgee]], New South Wales around 8&nbsp;km away; the master there, Mr Kevan, would teach Lawson about poetry. Lawson was a keen reader of [[Charles Dickens|Dickens]] and [[Frederick Marryat|Marryat]] and Australian novels such as [[Marcus Clarke]]'s ''[[For the Term of His Natural Life]]'' (1874) and [[Rolf Boldrewood]]'s ''[[Robbery Under Arms]]'' (1882); an aunt had also given him a volume by [[Bret Harte]]. Reading became a major source of his education because, due to his deafness, he had trouble learning in the classroom.

[[File:Henry Lawson portrait.jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait of Lawson, c. 1902]]
In 1883, after working on building jobs with his father in the [[Blue Mountains (Australia)|Blue Mountains]], Lawson joined his mother in Sydney at her request. Louisa was then living with Henry's sister and brother. At this time, Lawson was working during the day and studying at night for his matriculation in the hopes of receiving a university education. However, he failed his exams. Lawson lived in a boarding house along [[William Street, Sydney|William Street]] and wrote a poem titled [https://www.poetryverse.com/henry-lawson-poems/william-street William Street]. Lawson also spent time in [[Newcastle, New South Wales|Newcastle]] at the Wickham School of Arts while working for the Hudson Brothers branch railway workshops. He remarked that he "haunted the School of Arts, still with an idea of learning before it was too late."<ref>{{Cite web|last=University of Newcastle, Special Collections|date=2018-09-10|title=Henry Lawson and the Wickham School of Arts|url=https://hunterlivinghistories.com/2018/09/11/henry-lawson-wickham-soa/|access-date=2021-03-30|website=Hunter Living Histories|language=en-AU}}</ref> At around 20 years of age Lawson went to the eye and ear hospital in [[Melbourne]] but nothing could be done for his deafness.<ref name=DAB/>

In 1890 he began a relationship with [[Mary Gilmore]].<ref>{{cite book|url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gilmore-dame-mary-jean-6391|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography|first=W. H.|last=Wilde|chapter=Gilmore, Dame Mary Jean (1865–1962) |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|via=Australian Dictionary of Biography}}</ref> She writes of an unofficial engagement and Lawson's wish to marry her, but it was broken by his frequent absences from Sydney. The story of the relationship is told in [[Anne Brooksbank]]'s play ''All My Love''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/booksandarts/literary-lovers3a-henry-lawson-and-henry-lawson-and-mary-gilmo/6627114|title=Literary lovers: Henry Lawson and Mary Gilmore|website=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]|date=16 July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.glenstreet.com.au/whats/all-my-love|title=All My Love - Glen Street Theatre|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303181357/http://www.glenstreet.com.au/whats/all-my-love|archive-date=3 March 2016}}</ref>

In 1896, Lawson married Bertha Bredt, Jr., daughter of [[Bertha Bredt]], the prominent socialist. The marriage ended very unhappily.<ref>{{Citation | author1=Falkiner, Suzanne | title=Wilderness | date=1992 | page=64 | publisher=Simon & Schuster | isbn=978-0-7318-0144-2 | author1-link=Falkiner, Suzanne }}</ref> Bertha filed for divorce and in her [[affidavit]] she stated: {{Cquote|''My husband has during three years and upwards been a habitual drunkard and habitually been guilty of cruelty towards me. My affidavit consists of the acts and matters following. That my husband during the last three years struck me in the face and about the body and blacked my eye and hit me with a bottle and attempted to stab me and pulled me out of bed when I was ill and purposely made a noise in my room when I was ill and pulled my hair and repeatedly used abusive and insulting language to me and was guilty of divers other acts of cruelty to me whereby my health and safety are endangered.''}}

A judicial separation was granted and was declared in June 1903.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A wife's heart|author=Davies, Kerrie|isbn=9780702259197|location=St Lucia, Qld.|oclc=960694840}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/henry-lawsons-marriage-a-dark-tale-of-drink-and-domestic-violence/news-story/9231066f3db506de4c230d215fb9038d|title=Henry Lawson's marriage a dark tale of drink and domestic violence|last=Davies|first=Kerrie|date=1 April 2017|work=The Australian|access-date=30 March 2018}}</ref> They had two children, son Jim (Joseph) and daughter Bertha.