Victor James Daley Biography

Victor James William Patrick Daley was an Australian poet.

He was born at the Navan, County Armagh, Ireland, and was educated at the Christian Brothers at Devonport in England. He arrived in Australia in 1878, and became a freelance journalist and writer in both Melbourne and Sydney. Whilst in Melbourne, he met and became a friend of Marcus Clarke; later, in Sydney, he became acquainted with Henry Kendall. He is notable for becoming the first author in Australia who tried to earn a living from writing alone. In Sydney in 1898, he founded the bohemian Dawn and Dusk Club, which had many notable members such as writer Henry Lawson. He died at Sydney of tuberculosis.

He used the pseudonym Creeve Roe, (Irish =Red Branch - the area next to the Navan where Cu Chulainn trained as a Red Branch Knight) as well as his own name. His Poems (1908) and other collections were published posthumously.

A memoir of Daley by Bertram Stevens was published in Wine and Roses.

Daley serves chiefly as an example of the Celtic Twilight in Australian verse. He also serves as a lyrical alternative to his contemporary bush balladists.