Gavin Casey
Gavin Stodart Casey, born in 1907 in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, was a prominent Australian writer known for his short stories and novels. Orphaned at a young age, Casey faced various challenges throughout his life, including economic hardships during the Great Depression. His early career involved working as an electrician's apprentice and later selling motorbikes, but his passion for writing led him to contribute to local journalism, notably for the Perth Mirror. Casey gained recognition after his story "Nobody's Goat" was published in the Bulletin in 1936, leading to a prolific period where he published 37 stories in the journal. His well-regarded collections, including "It's Harder for Girls" and "Birds of a Feather," showcase the humor and compassion found in everyday struggles and Australian camaraderie. He held significant roles in the Fellowship of Australian Writers and worked as a journalist for the Perth Daily News, eventually becoming the Director of the Australian News and Information Bureau in New York City. Despite facing personal challenges, including a divorce and health issues, Casey's legacy as a significant voice in Australian literature endures, culminating in his last work, "The Mile That Midas Touched," published posthumously in 1964.
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Gavin Casey
Writer
- Born: April 10, 1907
- Birthplace: Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, Australia
- Died: June 25, 1964
- Place of death: Hollywood, Western Australia, Australia
Biography
The older of two sons, Gavin Stodart Casey was born in 1907 to Frederick Arthur Casey and Jean Allan Stodart in Kalgoorlie, a town on the goldfields of Western Australia. His father, the town surveyor, also read literature and wrote part time. Both parents died young, and Casey became orphaned at seventeen. He was an electrician’s apprentice and studied briefly at the Western Australian School of Mines, then moved to Perth and sold motorbikes. During the Depression, Casey returned to Kalgoorlie to work in the mines.
Interested in writing from an early age, he also worked part time for the Perth Mirror, reporting Kalgoorlie news. In 1933, Casey married Dorothy Wulff, and they moved to Perth. Casey searched unsuccessfully for work as a journalist and found he had to take whatever he could find to eke out a living. He also wrote short stories. Publication eluded Casey until 1936, when “Nobody’s Goat” was printed in the Bulletin—then the most well-respected literary journal in Australia. Also that year, the Caseys’s son, Fred, was born.
Over the next nine years, the Bulletin published thirty-seven of Casey’s stories. Two years running, he received their prize for best short story, once for “Rich Stew” and the other for “Mail Run East.” In 1938, the newly formed Western Australian Section of the Fellowship of Australian Writers elected Casey its first secretary and, three years later, its president. In 1942, his first collection of stories, It’s Harder for Girls, was published; his second, Birds of a Feather, followed in 1943. Meanwhile, in 1940, Casey had been hired as a journalist by the Perth Daily News. Eventually, he became Director of the Australian News and Information Bureau, working in New York City in 1945.
In 1947, Casey and his wife divorced. The next year, he married Jessie Craigie, with whom he later had two sons. In the early 1950’s, Casey was a freelance journalist in Canberra and Sydney, returning to Perth in 1956. There, Casey struggled to support his young family as a writer in the last years of his life. He was in poor health and died at age fifty-seven of tuberculosis.
Casey is considered one of the best Australian writers of short fiction, a reputation built upon the solid foundation of It’s Harder for Girls, generally thought to be his best work. Casey’s stories portray the struggles of ordinary life with humor and compassion, reflecting high regard for the Australian bond between male friends or mates, camaraderie—often at the pub—that may serve to mitigate the men’s rough-and-tumble lives, and even potential left unfulfilled. Casey also published six novels between 1945 and 1963. He died just before publication of The Mile That Midas Touched (1964), written with Ted Mayman, which is an informal history of Kalgoorlie. Although work as a journalist exposed Casey to many ways of life, he was a local writer, and it seems fitting that his last publication focuses close to home.