Douglas Stewart wrote poetry, verse drama, criticism, prose fiction, memoir, and autobiography and edited many anthologies. He held authority through his association with The Bulletin (as literary editor) and Angus and Robertson (as literary adviser). Many critics--including James McAuley, Nancy Keesing, and Vivian Smith--attested to his versatility, a term that attempts to cover up neither the uneven quality of his work nor the lack of critical agreement over what constitutes his most important accomplishment.

Stewart straddled two literary worlds and generations. As an editor and anthologist he was nationalist (without explicit ideology), populist, professional (interested in literary quality, but also necessarily constrained by financial considerations), and little taken with academic interests. At the same time, he was an impressive technician, had a scholarly knowledge of Australian literary history, and wrote some of his best work in a lesser-used art form--lyric poetry. In generational terms, Stewart was a late...