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Adam Lindsay Gordon

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Adam Lindsay Gordon was born in the Azores in 1833.
On his family's return to England, Adam was a troublesome, restless boy.
His father, puzzled by Adam's aimless, wild life, sent him to Australia in 1853.
A horse-lover, he became a member of South Australia's mounted police for a year.
On his mother's death he received £7000 but lost it by buying land unwisely.
He married in 1862, and experienced deep sorrow when his baby daughter died.
Elected to the South Australian State Parliament, as a representative
for the south-eastern division he soon resigned.
To make money, he rode at race meetings, once bringing in three winners in one day.
He bought into livery stables in Ballarat but with no success,
and suffered head injuries while exercising a horse.
Writing busily in Melbourne, he became known as a poet.
When his collection of poems, 'Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes', was near publication,
Adam injured his head for the second time, in a fall.
On the 24th of June 1870, depressed by his debts, he took his own life.
His poetry became popular after his tragic death.

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In the 1980's I was given, as a birthday present, a book
"-Australian Classics- Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes. Poetical Works of Adam Lindsay Gordon."
The dust jacket of the book depicts a painting by the Australian artist Tom Roberts entitled
"The Breakaway". Wild Stockmen on horseback,with their sheep dogs, trying to round up a herd of
frightened sheep who have broken away. "Thank you" to who-ever gave me the book,
you certainly started something. I had been, for a long time, interested in composing simple musical tunes and whistling them to myself.
I started to read the poems in this book and found myself singing the verses.
I progressed to setting a lot of these poems to music, done after work into the early hours of the morning.
If I awoke the next morning and still remembered the tune of the night before,
then it was a good tune. My interest grew after reading accounts of Adam Lindsay Gordon's life, and on entering book shops,
particularly second hand shops, I would go straight to the shelves containing his works.
There I found the following:-

...1 ..........2 ..........3 ....

1."Seaspray and Smoke Drift."
Published in 1867 by George Robertson, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne.
2."Ashtaroth."
Published in 1867 by Clarson, Massina, and Co., Publishers, Melbourne.
Gibbs, Shallard and Co., Sydney.
3."Bush Ballads and Galloping Ryhmes."
Published in 1870 by Clarson, Massina and Co.,General Printers,
Little Collins Street East. Melbourne.
Incidentally, my copy of Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes is
signed-inscribed on the fly-leaf by Herbert Power,
Gordon stayed with Robert Power.
Herbert Power was one of the founders of the Victorian Amateur Turf Club
when it was formed at a meeting in Craig's Hotel, Ballarat.
The date on the fly-leaf is the same day that Gordon died, 24th June 1870.