Clement Semmler

Clement Semmler OBE, AM (1914–2000), was an author, reviewer and manager of the Australian Broadcasting Commission. His numerous literary works included The Banjo of the Bush — a study of the poet Banjo Paterson, who wrote Waltzing Matilda.^[1]

He wrote his memoirs, Pictures on the Margin, in 1991.^[2]

His last book review was published in Quadrant just after he died in August 2000. A note accompanying it says he "wrote more reviews for the magazine, over forty-three years, than anybody else".^[3]

Books by Clement Semmler

• For the Uncanny Man: Essays, Mainly Literary (1963)
• Barcroft Boake: Poet of the Stockwhip (1965)
• A.B. "Banjo" Paterson (1965)
• Kenneth Slessor (1966)
• The Banjo of the Bush (1966)
• A.B. Paterson – Great Australian (1967)
• The Art of Brian James and other Essays on Australian Literature (1972)
• Douglas Stewart (1975)
• The ABC: Aunt Sally and Sacred Cow (1981)
• Pictures on the Margin: Memoirs (1991)

Books edited by Clement Semmler

• Stories of the Riverina [by E.O. Schlunke] (1965)
• Literary Australia (with Derek Whitelock) (1966)
• Coast to Coast 1965-66 (1966)
• The World of Banjo Paterson (1967)
• Twentieth Century Australian Literary Criticism (1967)
• A Frank Hardy Swag (1982)
• The War Diaries of Kenneth Slessor: Official Australian Correspondent 1940-1944 (1985)
• The War Despatches of Kenneth Slessor: Official Australian Correspondent 1940-1944 (1987)
• Bush Ballads, Poems, Stories and Journalism [of A.B. Paterson] (1992)
• The Collected Verse of Banjo Paterson (1992)

References

1. Gavin Souter (Oct 28, 1966), "Man Who Shuns Nightclubs", Sydney Morning Herald
2. Clement Semmler, Pictures on the Margin: Memoirs, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1991, ISBN 0-7022-2411-1.
3. Quadrant, October 2000, p. 80.