Jump to content

Jack Bedson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Dirrigeree (talk | contribs) at 10:44, 17 November 2016 (Removed BLP template after including references and links to authoratative citation sources). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

John William "Jack" Bedson (born 5 March 1950) is an Australian writer, poet, children's picture book author, and former university librarian.

Bedson was born in the Sydney suburb of Redfern and raised in Sydney's inner suburbs. He went to preschool at Blackfriar's School in Chippendale, and primary school at St Benedict's Broadway. He characterises the street life of Sydney's "slum" suburbs in the 1950s: "Our feet were like leather and we knew no fear"[1]. His secondary schooling was at De La Salle College, Marrickville. He worked briefly as a stage hand at TCN9 Willoughby when television in Australia was in black and white, and was accepted to the National Institute of Dramatic Art production course but declined NIDA in favour of an Arts degree at the University of New South Wales, graduating with First Class Honours in 1973 then completing a Diploma in Librarianship in 1974.

Bedson pursued librarianship in Burnie,Tasmania where he also qualified as a ticketwriter, and began publishing poetry. He travelled for three years in Asia and Europe with his partner Margaret Bain before returning to settle in Armidale, New South Wales where he worked at the library of the University of New England. He acted as University Librarian in 2000 and 2007-9. His professional involvements ranged from literary bibliography[2] to Library disaster management[3] and preservation[4].

His best-selling children's picture books Don't Get Burnt and SheepDogs, illustrated by Peter Gouldthorpe, are classic Australian tales of the city and the bush. His adult poetry is salted with aphorisms, as in Karma, Sorta:

Youth's the Perfect Crime,
Adulthood the Perfect Punishment.

Selected bibliography

A fuller bibliography is available at AustLit] and the National Library of Australia database Trove

References

  1. ^ Bedson, Jack, "Snaps from a Chippendale childhood" in Holden, Robert. & Bedson, Jack. & Cliff, Paul. & National Library of Australia. 2000, The endless playground : celebrating Australian childhood / compiled and edited by Paul Cliff ; with introductory essays by Robert Holden and features by Jack Bedson ... [et al.] National Library of Australia Canberra, pp.170-171]
  2. ^ Croft, Julian, 1941- & Bedson, Jack & Campbell Howard Collection & University of New England. Centre for Australian Language and Literature Studies & Dixson Library (University of New England). Australian plays in manuscript 1993, The Campbell Howard annotated index of Australian plays 1920-1955, Centre for Australian Language and Literature Studies, University of New England, Armidale, N.S.W
  3. ^ Dixson Library (University of New England) & Bedson, Jack 1990, Disaster response & recovery manual, Dixson Library, University of New England, Armidale, N.S.W
  4. ^ How much permanent paper? Jack Bedson, Leanne Brandis, and Deborah Woodyard The Australian Library Journal Vol. 43 , Iss. 3,1994. pp151-154