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Harold Frederick Stewart (14 December 1916 – 7 August 1995) was an Australian poet and oriental scholar. He is chiefly remembered alongside fellow poet James McAuley as a co-creator of the Ern Malley literary hoax.
Stewart's work has been associated with McAuley and A. D. Hope, belonging to a neo-classical or Augustian movement in poetry, but his choice of subject matter is different in that he concentrates on writing long metaphysical narrative poems, combining Eastern subject matter with his own metaphysical journey to shape the narrative.
He is usually described by critics as a traditionalist and conservative but described himself as a conservative anarchist. A witty and engaging letter writer, many examples have been retained by the National Library in Canberra.[1] Leonie Kramer in The Oxford History of Australian Literature grades the literary quality of Ethel's (Malley's supposed elder sister) letters as equal to those of Patrick White, Peter Porter and Barry Humphries.[2]
- ^ "Papers of Harold Stewart, 1933-1995 [manuscript]". catalogue.nla.gov.au. NLA. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
- ^ Ethel Malley in a letter to 'The Editors,' 28 October 1943, Ern Malley Collected Poems, p.1. Stewart included the small incidental detail which provided enough background information so that Harris could imagine Ethel's social circumstances. She writes: "When I was going through my brother's things after his death, I found some poetry he had written. I am no judge of it myself, but a friend who I showed it to thinks it is very good and told me it should be published." Leonie Kramer in The Oxford History of Australian Literature (1981), p. 371, grades the literary quality of Ethel's letters as equal to those of Patrick White, Peter Porter and Barry Humphries.