Robert Guy Howarth

Howarth established an international reputation as a specialist in Elizabethan tragedy and Restoration comedy; his contribution to Australian literature was as substantial and enduring as it is underrated. In 1939 he persuaded the Australian English Association to publish under his editorship the journal, Southerly. He judged work solely on the basis of literary quality, and announced that the journal would eschew political and ideological considerations. Not only did Howarth influence Australian writing through deciding who would or would not be published in the 1940s and 1950s, but, as a literary critic for both the Sydney Morning Herald and Southerly, he made decisive assessments of writers as diverse as Christopher Brennan, Hugh McCrae, Furphy, Neilson, Stead and Patrick White. For more information see : http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/howarth-robert-guy-10555