Bio
Norman Lindsay (Aust 1879-1969) Bio
Lindsay was born in Creswick, Victoria, Australia the son of Robert Charles William Alexander Lindsay (1843–1915) and Jane Elizabeth Lindsay (1848–1932). The fifth of ten children, he was the brother of Daryl Lindsay (1889–1976), Percy Lindsay (1870–1952) And Lionel Lindsay (1874–1961)
In 1895, Lindsay moved to Melbourne to work on a local magazine with his older brother Lionel. His experiences in Melbourne are described in the magazine Rooms and Houses.
On the 23 May 1900 Lindsay married Catherine (Kate) Agatha Parkinson, in Melbourne. On 20 October 1900 Jack their son was born in Melbourne, in 1906 followed by Raymond and Philip. They divorced in 1918 and he later married his business manager Rose Soady, a recognizable model, and printed most of his etchings. They had two daughters: Jane Lindsay (1920), and Helen Lindsay (1921). In the Lindsay tradition, Philip worked for the film industry and a writer of historical novels. Jack also became a publisher, writer, translator and activist
In 1901, he and Lionel joined the Sydney Bulletin, magazine, review and a weekly newspaper. He would associate with the Sydney Bulletin for over fifty years.
In 1909 Lindsay travelled to Europe, Rose followed later. Visits to the then South Kensington Museum where he made sketches of model ships, fostering a lifelong interest in ship models. Lindsays returned to Australia in 1911.
In 1918 Lindsay wrote the children’s classic The Magic Pudding although many of his novels have a frankness and vitality that matches his art, some even banned due to censorship laws.
Novels like Lindsay’s Age of Consent (1938), which described the experience of a middle-aged painter on a trip to a rural area, who meets an girl who serves as his model, and then lover.
The book, published in Britain, was banned in Australia until 1962
Lindsay associated with a number of poets, such as Francis Webb, Kenneth Slessorand and Hugh McCrae, influencing them somewhat from his book Creative Effort. He also illustrated the cover for the seminal Henry Lawson book, While the Billy Boils. Lindsay’s son, Jack Lindsay, moved to England, and set up the Fanfrolico Press, which issued works illustrated by Lindsay.
Lindsay Died November 1969 age 90 he is buried in Springwood Cemetery, close to Faulconbridge where he lived.
