William Baylebridge was the pseudonym of Charles William Blocksidge (1883–1942), an Australian poet and short-story writer.

Blocksidge was born on December 12 1883 in Brisbane, Queensland. He travelled to London in 1909, and from there went on to many parts of Europe and the Middle East. He returned to Australia in 1919. He died on May 7 1942.

As Baylebridge, he was considered a leading Australian poet in his day, but modern critics have a higher view of his short stories than his poetry, which has been called "unwieldy" (cf Roberts). Historians and literary historians today condemn Baylebridge's political agenda of populist nationalism (cf Jupp), as well as his interest in vitalism. During his time in London, he developed Nietzschean ideas about Australia's future, which prefigure interwar fascism (cf Davison).

Bibliography

• Moreton Miles (1910)
• The New Life (1910)
• Life's Testament (1914)
• Seven Tales (1916)
• A Wreath (1916)
• Selected Poems (1919)
• Love Redeemed (1934)
• Sextains (1939)
• This Vital Flesh (1939)

References

• Jupp, James (ed.) The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, its People and their Origins (2nd ed., 2001: Cambridge, Cambridge University Press)
• Roberts, Neil (ed.) A Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry (2001: Oxford, Blackwell)
• Davison, Graeme (ed.) The Oxford Companion to Australian History (rev. ed., 2001: Oxford, Oxford University Press)