David Campbell (1915-79) was one of Australia's finest lyric poets. Born
into a landed family, he was a grazier for most of his life in the
Canberra and Bungendore district of the Monaro. He fought with the RAAF
in the Second World War, rising to the rank of wing commander, and he
was twice awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross. Life on the land,
writing, and wide friendships, followed.
Campbell published eleven books of poems and two of short stories. He
was a regular contributor to The Bulletin, when under Douglas Stewart's
literary editorship (1939-61) it promoted Australian writing. In those
years, he had 135 poems included in The Bulletin, and seven short
stories. He also occasionally had poems published in The Listener in
England.
His poetry, much of it, was inspired by his love of the land, in all its
forms, and by his belief in the unity of all things in nature. Though
not conventionally religious, he was a true pantheist. He had friends in
many fields and his influence on fellow writers was considerable,
especially on the young poets in Canberra in the 1970s; they remember
him still with gratitude and affection. He was a man of strong and
highly individual personality and character, and wide achievement.
