[Editor: This untitled article, regarding Philip Lorimer, is an extract from The Red Page section of The Bulletin (Sydney, NSW), 1 March 1902.]
[“Old Phil Lorimer”]
“Old Phil Lorimer” — the quaint poetical traveller so well-known in the coastal newspaper-offices of E. Australia for the last twenty years — died at Parramatta in 1897; and last year his married sister, resident in England, printed for private circulation a collection of his Songs and Verses. This book represents the “fair ideal” to which Phil clung in his later years; but he passed away without reaching it.
Why do not our kind sisters publish our verses while we are alive, and can enjoy the kindness? Lorimer’s verses are worthless — shallow sentiment feebly expressed; but Phil. was a fine old fellow, with the heart of a child, and the blessed scrutiny of his own book in his own mountain cave might have given him heart to resist rheumatism for a year or two longer. Now he is dust; and his book doesn’t matter.
E. A. Petherick contributes a pleasant biographical preface; and here is Phil’s portrait with the weak man’s characteristic signature.
Source:
The Bulletin (Sydney, NSW), 1 March 1902, The Red Page, column 3
Editor’s notes:
E. = (abbreviation) East
Phil. = an abbreviation of the name “Philip”, “Phillip”, “Philipp”, and “Philippa” (the first three names are male names, whilst “Philippa” is a female name)
Leave a Reply