John ThompsonPrint Page

The fountain commemorates poet and broadcaster, John Thompson (1907-1968).

Thompson settled in Sydney, and became senior feature writer and producer at the A.B.C. In 1946 he devised the popular literary programme, Quality Street, and in 1949 accompanied A. P. Elkin on an anthropological expedition to Arnhem Land. His career in radio overshadowed his poetry. Largely traditional in form and characterized by reasoned clarity, Thompson`s best work was shaped by his experience with the spoken word.

His third collection, Thirty Poems (Sydney, 1954), won the Grace Leven prize. He collected many of his poems in I Hate and I Love (Melbourne, 1964). With Kenneth Slessor and R. G. Howarth, he edited The Penguin Book of Australian Verse (London, 1958). Assistant-editor (1959-61) of Southerly, he also edited Australian Poetry 1965 (Sydney). In 1964 the Thompson and his wife founded the Paddington Society to protect the Victorian character of the suburb in which they had lived since 1951. John was its president.

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