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Eric Irvin (30 November 19081 July 1993) was an Australian writer and historian of Australian theatre. His Dictionary of the Australian Theatre 1788–1914 is an essential reference work. He was also an anthologised poet who published two books of poetry."Irvin, Eric" entry in AustLit Agents (database online) accessed 1 October 2011.National Library of Australia Biographical Note in Finding Guide for MS 8786 Papers of Eric Irvin (1908–1992) accessed 1 October 2011.
In this period he had poems accepted for publication, much of the early poems in the Sydney Morning Herald and his war-time poetry in the Bulletin. From New Guinea he had a survey of war-time poetry, "Australian Poets of This War" published in The Australian Quarterly. His own first volume, A Soldier's Miscellany, was accepted for publication but delayed until 1945 by the war-time paper shortage.Eric Irvin, "Australian Poets of This War", The Australian Quarterly Vol 16, no 2 (June, 1944), pp 89–94, accessed 1 October 2011.
In 1968 came his second volume of poetry, A suit for everyman. However, his main output was as a historian of the Australian theatre focussing on the lives of actors, the production mechanics and architecture of the theatres published in numerous articles in scholarly Australian, English and American journals and his books: in 1971, a history of Georgian theatre in Australia, Theatre comes to Australia; a biography of actor George Darrell (1841–1921), Gentleman George, king of melodrama in 1980; Australian melodrama in 1981; and in 1985 the Dictionary of the Australian Theatre 1788–1914 (1984). In 1979 he edited with an historical introduction, Walter Cooper's play Colonial experience which was first performed at the Royal Victoria Theatre, Sydney, in 1868."Irvin, Eric" in William H. Wilde, Joy Hooton, and Barry Andrews, The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature, Oxford University Press, 1994, via Oxford Reference Online, Oxford University Press accessed 2 October 2011.
He also produced Sydney as it might have been : dreams that died on the drawing-board in 1974. Drawing largely from the back issues of The Sydney Morning Herald and its sister publications, he described the architecture of Sydney which had been imagined but not built, as he wrote, because the dreams were "defeated again and again by lack of money, political in-fighting, some power struggle or other, or the fluxion of time".John Huxley, "DREAM ON . . .", The Sydney Magazine supplement to The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 July 2006, p 56.
He died in Brisbane on 1 July 1993.
Wagga Wagga
Irvin secured a position as Secretary, Wagga Wagga School of Arts for whom he produced and set-designed various plays. He then joined local Daily Advertiser as a journalist and, in 1961, the sub-editor. During this time he continued to write poetry and also wrote three local histories, Place of Many Crows (1953), The Murrumbidgee Turf Club (1960), and Early inland agriculture (1962), and edited a collection of articles written by anonymous contributors to the Wagga Wagga Advertiser and Riverine Reporter (1868–1875), Letters from the river (1959).
Return to Sydney
Securing a position as sub-editor with the Sydney Morning Herald, Irvin returned to Sydney with his family in 1962. He retired from the Herald in 1973.
Last years
In 1989, Irvin moved to Brisbane. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Queensland for services to Australian theatre in 1989. UQFL207 Record summary in Catalogue (database online), Fryer Library, The University of Queensland accessed 2 October 2011.
Publications
Irvin's books are:
Notes and references
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