In my last post (1/05/24)I mentioned that Colin Roderick introduced and selected/abridged Gems from Idriess and the school's edition of Nemarluk. Then Tom Thompson (the TT of ETT Imprints!) mentioned in passing to me that he was looking at collating articles of Idriess from Walkabout magazine, so I looked at my Walkabout editions containing Idriess articles (I only have three!) and there, in the April 1951 edition of Walkabout, was an article - a brief biographical piece - about Ion Idriess: Our Authors' Page (sic)(p.8) by none other than Colin Roderick. Excuse my ignorance, but I thought Colin Roderick was just some hack who'd got the job of putting together some Idriess for schools. But no, here was someone who not only knew Idriess' life story well and was familiar with his works, but someone who knew Idriess well himself: knew he worked every morning at Angus and Robertson, knew of his burgeoning fan mail, knew he wrote in pencil, knew his family - knew and talked with his daughters - and had been to his house in Kingsford Sydney. And then, scrolling through this site, I saw that at the start of the Biography section of this website was a quote by - you guessed it - Colin Roderick, about the place of Ion Idriess in Australian literature (source unnamed - could someone enlighten me?).

So who was Colin Roderick? He was born in the Queensland mining town of Mount Morgan in 1911, became a school teacher and ended up as the inaugural Professor of Literature (and then emeritus) at the newly established James Cook University, Townsville. Along the way he earned a CBE, helped set up and judge the Miles Franklin Award (he judged from 1957 to 1991!), wrote, amongst other things, about Henry Lawson and Miles Franklin and set up his own literary award: the Colin Roderick Award (also called, it seems, the Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award - Margaret was Colin's wife). It is said he spoke four languages - French, German and Italian - and English obviously!). He died 16 June, 2000.

But where Roderick and Idriess intersected was this: Colin was variously an editor, publisher and director at Angus and Robertson from 1945 to 1965. It was this 20 year interaction with Idriess that allowed Roderick to have such an intimate and close knowledge of Idriess. I don't know if they were mates. Perhaps it was mainly just a working relationship. I don't know if Roderick went down to the pub with Idriess every now and then in the afternoon, but it seems to have been a long and amicable association. At any rate, Idriess kept getting books published by A and R and still had his office there. Colin Roderick would be viewed as an academic and high-brow writer, unlike Idriess, the quintessential down-to-earth laconic and larrikin Aussie outbacksman and populist (middle-brow?) and popular writer of all things Australiana. But in this Roderick was himself a champion of home-grown Australian literature - including the more middle-brow stuff that emanated from the likes of Idriess. His Award reflected this perspective (as does the Miles Franklin Award).

The only mention of Roderick in Eley's biography of Idriess is a fleeting and somewhat cryptic one on p.367: "Jack [Idriess] whom some - including Professor Colin Roderick - referred to as a mystic . . . ". The context is Eley referring here to Jack believing Alma Timms husband, E V Timms - another author - had contacted him after his (Timms) death.

In the Walkabout article, Roderick waxes lyrical, saying: "Through it all Ion Idriess works on, steadily, confidently, sluicing gold from the river of his memory." A poignant and poetically powerful description of Idriess, the writer. And from the quote by Roderick at the beginning of the biography in this section: "Idriess created a demand by the Australian reading public for Australian books. The closeness of his work to Australian life brought renewed vigour into Australian literature . . . none will ever be able to take from him the pioneering honour which is his by common consent." And if anyone knows, Colin Roderick would know this.

There may be others who have more and better knowledge of the relationship between Roderick and Idriess - and I for one would love to hear about it.

Sources for the above: Colin Roderick, Wikipedia; Colin Roderick, Austlit.edu.au; Monday musings on Australian literature: Who is Colin Roderick? Whispering Gums, whisperinggums.com; James Cook Uni gains $34m from literary couple Colin and Margaret Roderick, The Australian, theaustralian.com.au [Colin and his wife seem to have been astute investors - and bequeathed this enormous amount!]; Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award, Library Thing, https://www.librarything.com>award; Our Authors' Page: Ion Idriess by Colin Roderick, Australian Geographical Walkabout Magazine, April, 1951, p.8; Ion Idriess by Beverley Eley, p.367; Biography, Idriess.info.