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Lesbia Harford (1891–1927) was an Australian poet, novelist and political activist. ==Life== Lesbia Venner Keogh was the first child of Edmund Joseph Keogh and Beatrice Eleanor Moore, great-great-granddaughter of an Earl of Drogheda. Lesbia was born at Brighton, Victoria, on 9 April 1891. Her father left home for Western Australia when his real estate business failed about 1900. She and her three siblings were raised by their mother, who took genteel jobs, begged handouts from Keogh relations and took in boarders. Lesbia was educated at the Sacré Cœur School at "Clifton", Malvern, Victoria; Mary's Mount school at Ballarat, Victoria; and the University of Melbourne, where she graduated LL.B. in 1916.〔〔 She was one of the university's few women students and one of its few opponents of Australia's part in the First World War. Her brother, Esmond Venner (Bill) Keogh (1895–1970), became a prominent medical administrator and cancer researcher.〔 The Esmond Keogh papers are held by Cancer Council Victoria.〕 Lesbia advocated free love in human relations. She herself formed lifelong parallel attachments to both men and women, most notably to Katie Lush, philosophy tutor at Ormond College.〔〔"Why does she put me to many indignities … My golden Katie, who loveth not kisses? … 17.11.15." Pizer & Modjeska eds., ''The Poems of Lesbia Harford'', p. 63.〕 Becoming interested in social questions, she worked in textile and clothing factories to gain first hand knowledge of the conditions under which women worked. She became state vice-president of the Federated Clothing and Allied Trades Union.〔 She campaigned strongly against conscription in World War I. She was a friend of Norman Jeffrey and lover of Guido Baracchi, founding members of the Communist Party of Australia (but which she never joined).〔Biographical note to Marjorie Pizer Papers, Mitchell Library, NSW, MLMSS 7428.〕 In Sydney Lesbia sang her poems to Guido as they crossed the harbour on the Manly ferry. In 1918 she moved to Sydney to campaign for the release of the Sydney Twelve, members of the Industrial Workers of the World (the Wobblies) arrested and charged with treason, arson, sedition and forgery. She worked in clothing factories and as a university coach. She was also for a time a Fairfax housemaid (glimpsed in the poem "Miss Mary Fairfax"). She married Patrick John (Pat) Harford, sometime soldier, clicker in his uncle's Fitzroy boot factory and a fellow Wobbly, in 1920.〔Full name Patrick John O'Flaghartie Fingal Harford (Ireland 1890–c.1972), National Archive of Australia series B2455, barcode 4968862. Enlistment attestation 1917, "Pattern cutter. Father deceased. Mother's whereabouts unknown. Next of kin: uncle Mr W Harford 181 Gertrude Street Fitzroy Victoria." For date of death, see Modjeska's Introduction.〕〔NSW marriage registration 15465/1920 in the district of Sydney.〕 They shared an interest in painting and aesthetics.〔〔 He was feckless and alcoholic but :Pat wasn't Pat last night at all. He was the rain,— The Spring,— Young Dionysus, white and warm,— Lilac and everything.〔 p. 118.〕 They returned to her mother's boarding house in Elsternwick, Melbourne in the early Twenties.〔〔Pat was a member of the Victorian Artists' Society 1922–1929; see 〕 Pat worked for the post-impressionist painter William Frater and himself became a painter under Frater's influence, later moving towards modernism and cubism.〔An oil painting by Patrick Harford (1890–?), ''Yarra Bank Meeting'' 1923, has accession number H39250 in the State Library of Victoria collection.〕 The Harfords had no children and were estranged in the last years of Lesbia's life.〔Pat gave the Army his uncle's Fitzroy address as a forwarding address in 1923, suggesting he was no longer at Elsternwick by then. National Archive of Australia series B2455, barcode 4968862, p.23.〕 Some writers claim they were divorced but there is no documentary evidence of it.〔For instance Modjeska; see Vickery on lack of documents.〕 In 1926 Lesbia completed her articles with a Melbourne law firm.〔 Authors agree on her always-delicate health but not on the cause: a severe attack of rheumatic fever while a young child (Serle); tuberculosis (Lamb); born with a heart problem that prevented her blood oxygenating (Sparrow).〔〔 She often had to walk slowly. Her lips were sometimes quite blue.〔Mitchell Library MLMSS 7428/2/6, interview with Guido Barrachi 20 August 1964.〕 She died aged 36 of lung and heart failure in St Vincent's Hospital on 5 July 1927.〔Death certificate, Mitchell Library MLMSS 7428/2/6: "phthisis, myocardial failure".〕 The political rock band Redgum recorded part of her poem "Periodicity" set to music as "Women in Change" on their 1980 album Virgin Ground. In Melbourne, the Victorian Women Lawyers' biennial Lesbia Harford Oration, given by an eminent speaker on an issue of importance for women, is named in her honour.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lesbia Harford」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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