Les Murray: A Life in Progress

Les Murray is a character. This biography, marvelously well-written by Peter F. Alexander, is an act of love, from the Australian people to the great poet who, it seems, has suffered at the hands of ignorant fools and partisan enemies for much of his life. Murray is an odd ball, a classic poet warrior for truth-telling and the power of language. One thinks, perhaps, of Ezra Pound, Larkin, Dylan Thomas, because besides being a superb poet, Murray has dedicated his life to the voice of the individual as victim of conformity. He has, according to the biographer, found himself since his youth, the target of ridicule and cruelty. Like the Elephant Man, Murray's massive physique has attracted small-minded people to attack him when they lacked the wit and intelligence to take him on where they know they will be defeated. Murray is a brilliant, multi-lingual polyglot intellectual whose talent for word-play and language has placed him at the top of the poetry heap, with only two or three others in the English-speaking world. An enemy of cant, left-wing propaganda, political correctness, and all things done by the book, Murray is shown here by Alexander to be a hero of the straight and true, something like a John Wayne with genius. There is an odd mythical quality about the poet's extraordinary achievement, especially as it was accomplished often in the face of cruel, petty criticism from the left who seem to have been ready to kill off this brilliant man to make their ideological points across the decades. Of course, as with all individuals and individualists, you find again and again that it was Murray who was ahead of the pack on so many topics. Murray championed aboriginal voices, Murray promoted indigenous authors, Murray translated world literature; the multi-cultural crowd hasn't been able to keep up with this white male, hard though they have tried. The biography is touching, moving, and exciting. Americans who have yet to discover this brilliant writer have a treat in store.

Peter Alexander has written a biography that does come close to doing justice to perhaps the greatest living poet in English. It is not only a well crafted account of the details of Murray's hard early life; it is, more tellingly, a compelling yarn about the pain, struggle and triumph of a troubled, stubborn and divine genius. It can also serve as a useful primer. And not just to some of Murray's more diffcult poems, but to poetry itself. You are put closer to the poet's seemingly impossible aspirations for his words, and thereby participate more keenly in the truth of his poetic gifts in revealing the spirituality of the ordinary. It is hoped too that this biography is as premature as its title suggests, as I, for one, want to hear a lot more of Murray's poetry in years to come.

Les Murray is the leading poet in the English-speaking world today. This account of his often strange life and work is scholarly, well researched and lifts the lid on some of the dirty tricks of Murray's rivals and enemies in the Australian literary scene (there were unsuccessful attempts to ban it). Sheds light on many aspects of poetry, culture in general, and the human condition.