P. R. Stephensen
Percival Reginald Stephensen, commonly referred to as P. R. Stephensen, was a significant figure in the evolution of Australian national identity during the decades surrounding World War II. Born in Queensland in 1901 to European immigrant parents, he was educated at Maryborough Boys' Grammar School and the University of Queensland, where he showcased early signs of Australian nationalism through his management of the student magazine. After receiving a Rhodes scholarship in 1924, he spent nearly a decade in England, engaging in political activism and working with the Fanfrolico Press. His literary contributions include the collection of short stories, *The Bushwhackers*, which presented progressive views on Aboriginal issues, and *The Foundations of Culture in Australia*, an influential essay advocating for national self-respect.
Stephensen's work also addressed themes of censorship and cultural understanding, exemplified by his involvement in the publication of Radclyffe Hall's *The Well of Loneliness* and his book on Australia-Japan relations, which controversially emerged just before World War II. While known for his contributions to Australian literature and culture, his complex political views, including elements of anti-Semitism, pose challenges for contemporary readers. Despite his struggles in the latter part of his life, including difficulties in establishing a successful publishing house, Stephensen remains an early and notable voice in Australian cultural nationalism, passing away in Sydney in 1965.
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P. R. Stephensen
- Born: November 20, 1901
- Birthplace: Maryborough, Queensland, Australia
- Died: May 28, 1965
- Place of death: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Biography
Percival Reginald Stephensen is a name now largely lost to literary history, but one which had no small importance in the development of Australian national consciousness in the decade leading up to and following World War II. He worked largely in the field of publishing, promoting the work of others as well as his own, and was involved in the publication of a book of D. H. Lawrence’s paintings.
P. R. Stephensen was born in Queensland in 1901, the son of European immigrants. He attended the Maryborough Boys’ Grammar School and graduated from the University of Queensland, where his management of the student magazine was characterized by a budding Australian nationalism. Australian culture in the early twentieth century was largely dominated by England; Stephensen’s efforts, both at university and in his subsequent career as publisher and cultural activist, were directed toward establishing an indigenous Australian identity.
He received a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford in 1924. Stephensen spent nearly a decade in England, engaging in political activism, translating Lenin, and working for the Fanfrolico Press with fellow Australian and lifelong friend Jack Lindsay. It was during this time that Stephensen began a correspondence with D. H. Lawrence. The letters between Stephensen and Lawrence were published in 1984 in a volume of Australian Literary Studies.
Stephensen’s collection of short stories, The Bushwhackers: Sketches of Life in the Australian Outback (1924) presented a pro-Aborigine point of view ahead of his times. His involvement in the movement against the censorship of Radclyffe Hall’s early lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness (1928) resulted in the publication of his The Well of Sleevelessness: A Tale for the Least of These Little Ones (1929), which also presents a point of view well ahead of his time. One might also claim the gift of prophecy for Stephensen in his advocacy of greater Pacific Rim cooperation and autonomy in his Japan’s 2,599th Anniversary: A Plea for a Better Understanding and for More Peace, Trade, and Friendship Between Australia and Japan (1939). Written as it was on the eve of World War II, however, the book took on a seditious color that earned its author some time in confinement. Stephensen’s politics are not easy to sort out; liberal about some issues, he was conservative on others; his anti- Semitism presents a challenge to those who would sympathize with his writing. Perhaps his greatest claim to literary fame is The Foundations of Culture in Australia: An Essay Towards National Self-Respect (1936).
Stephensen lived and worked in Australia more than three decades after his return from England in the early 1930’s. His attempts to found a financially successful publishing house failed, and his life was a struggle to get by. He died in Sydney in 1965; he is remembered as an early voice of Australian cultural nationalism.