Barcroft Boake

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Barcroft Henry Thomas Boake (March 26, 1866 – found dead May 10, 1892) was an Australian poet.

Born in Sydney, Boake worked as a surveyor and a boundary rider in New South Wales and Queensland, but is best remembered for his poetry, a volume of which was published five years after his death. A sufferer of bipolar disorder, he is believed to have committed suicide. His body was found hanging by the neck eight days after he disappeared on May 2, 1892, from a stockwhip at Middle Harbour in Sydney. One writer on Boake's life has mentioned that the suicide took place during the 1891-93 depression when the poet was unable to find work, also noting that "it has been suggested that he killed himself for the love of one of the McKeahnie girls," sisters of the horseman Charlie McKeahnie.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ Hugh Capel. "Maybe This is the Snowy Horseman," Canberra Times, February 25, 2002

Bibliography

  • Barcroft Boake. Where the Dead Men Lie: and Other Poems, 1897.
  • Hugh Capel. "Tragic End for a Bush Poet," The Canberra Times, March 27, 2002
  • Barcroft Boake (1866-1892)
  • Persondata
    NAME Boake, Barcroft
    ALTERNATIVE NAMES
    SHORT DESCRIPTION Australian stockman and poet
    DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1866]
    PLACE OF BIRTH Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
    DATE OF DEATH May 10, 1892
    PLACE OF DEATH Sydney, New South Wales, Australia


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