You Can’t Come Back

novel by Beaver

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Quick Facts
In full:
Bruce Victor Beaver
Born:
Feb. 14, 1928, Manly, N.S.W., Austl.
Died:
Feb. 17, 2004, Manly (aged 76)

Bruce Beaver (born Feb. 14, 1928, Manly, N.S.W., Austl.—died Feb. 17, 2004, Manly) was an Australian poet, novelist, and journalist noted for his experimental forms and courageous self-examination, both of which made him one of the major forces in Australian poetry during the 1960s and ’70s.

At the age of 17 Beaver underwent the first of several periods of psychiatric treatment for manic depression. He worked at a variety of jobs before becoming a full-time freelance writer in 1964. While contributing reviews to Australian and New Zealand periodicals, he wrote the novels The Hot Spring (1965) and You Can’t Come Back (1966).

In 1966, convinced that he would soon be insane, Beaver hastily wrote his first major collection of poems, Letters to Live Poets (1969). It was, he said, an attempt at a “spiritual, intellectual, and emotional autobiography.” His later collections include Lauds and Plaints (1974), Odes and Days (1975), Death’s Directives (1978), and As It Was (1979).

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul
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