Bruce Beaver
Bruce Beaver was an Australian poet born on February 14, 1928, in Manly, New South Wales. His early life was marked by personal challenges, including undiagnosed bipolar disorder, which influenced both his experiences and his writing. He began writing poetry at seventeen, inspired by the bombing of Hiroshima, and his literary journey included various occupations, from radio work to journalism and laboring on a railway survey. His time spent living in a tent while working as a surveyor's laborer allowed him to write prolifically, often exploring themes of life, death, and the human condition shaped by his readings in Buddhism, Taoism, and psychology.
Beaver's first poetry collection, *Under the Bridge*, was published in 1961, and he gained international recognition for his work, though he traveled little outside Australia and New Zealand. His marriage to Brenda in 1966 provided him with a supportive partnership that allowed him to focus on his art. Despite his struggles with bipolar disorder and later health issues related to kidney damage from lithium treatment, Beaver's poetry continued to reflect a strong social conscience and deep empathy for people. He passed away on February 17, 2004, in Manly, where he had lived for most of his life, and was posthumously awarded an honorary doctorate from Sydney University.
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Bruce Beaver
Poet
- Born: February 14, 1928
- Birthplace: Manly, New South Wales, Australia
- Died: February 17, 2004
- Place of death: Manly, New South Wales, Australia
Biography
Bruce Beaver was born in the Sydney seaside suburb of Manly, New South Wales, Australia, on February 14, 1928. His childhood and adolescence were unhappy, likely due to his then-undiagnosed bipolar status. He wrote his first poem at age seventeen in response to the bombing of Hiroshima. At age nineteen, he spent a pleasant year on an uncle’s farm in Berry, on the south coast of New South Wales, in an effort to assuage the bipolar occurrences which disrupted his life but positively influenced his work. He then worked in various trades: in radio, as a wages clerk, and as a journalist. He also worked for a railway survey camp, living in a tent for five years (from 1952 to 1957) as a surveyor’s laborer, writing poetry by the light of a Tilley oil lamp from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. He worked as an apple picker in 1959 and 1960.
His wide reading during this time resulted in an interest in Buddhism, Taoism, philosophy, and Jungian psychology, whose influences are reflected in his writings. The balance between life and death and creation and destruction enriched and influenced his poetry, which displays a strong social conscience. In his own words: “I just wrote about people, and about my attitude to them and their attitude toward me.”
After his travels, he met his wife Brenda in 1958 in New Zealand, where he lived until 1962. She divorced her husband and yielded custody of her son to him in order to join Beaver in their new life together, an act that touched him deeply. Their mutual devotion, in both spiritual and temporal matters, was well known; their marriage in 1966 permitted him to focus fully on his art and foster a spirit of generosity toward other writers that was unusual in the poetry community.
Though his poetry is recognized internationally, Beaver traveled only between Australia, New Zealand, and Norfolk Island. He published his first book, Under the Bridge, in 1961. During this time, he was living in New Zealand and working as a proofreader at the New Zealand Herald, and he did this for a year before returning to Manly with his wife in 1962. He then began to experience severe bipolar episodes, which required one month of institutionalization. His bipolar condition had provided impetus and inspiration for his writings, but the long-term exposure to lithium treatments resulted in the kidney damage that ultimately required fifteen hours of weekly kidney dialysis during the last twelve years of his life. At the time of his death, Bruce Beaver lived at the same address in Manly (albeit in a new building) as he had at the time of his birth. The writer passed away at Manly, New South Wales, Australia, on February 17, 2004, at age seventy-six. At the time, he was aware of the honorary doctorate he was to receive from Sydney University; it was awarded posthumously.