Friday essay: Jeff Sparrow on the radical hope of ‘forgotten’ Australian writer Lesbia Harford
Lesbia Harford knew she would die young but became a revolutionary all the same. She loved both women and men, capturing the dizzying confusion of a violent time.
Lesbia Venner Harford, born in Melbourne during the 1891 shearers' strike, grew up to become a revolutionary poet despite being diagnosed with an incurable heart condition at birth. She defied societal norms by pursuing law at university and later abandoned that path to become a clothing machinist. Harford joined the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) during the Great War and expressed her support for same-sex relationships in her poetry, a taboo topic at the time.
Her relationship with fellow IWW member Pat Harford led to his transformation into an avant-garde painter. However, Harford's contributions were largely forgotten until rediscovered by later generations of writers who recognized her significance and championed her work.
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