Eric Charles RollsAM (1923–2007) was an Australian writer.[1]
Life
Rolls was born in Grenfell, New South Wales in 1923, and died in Camden Haven in 2007.[2] He attended the Sydney selective school of Fort Street High, before serving in the second world war in New Guinea,[1] as a signaller.[3] On his return from the war, he took up land in 1946 in the north-west of New South Wales (east of the Pilliga and later at "Cumberdeen", Baradine)[4] and farmed and wrote,[1] often spending long periods in Sydney, researching at the Mitchell Library.[4]
He had two happy marriages, the first with Joan Stephenson and after her death in 1985,[5] a second with Elaine van Kempen (1937–2019),[6] whom he met when she came to work for him in 1985 as his research assistant,[7] and married in 1988.[3]
"(Les) Murray considered A Million Wild Acres to be like an extended, crafted campfire yarn in which everyone has the dignity of a name, and in which the animals and plants have equal status with humans in the making of history: “It is not purely human history, but ecological history he gives us… one which interrelates the human and non-human dimensions so intimately.” Murray compared its discursive and laconic tone to the Icelandic sagas. Through his democratic recognition of all life, Rolls enchanted the forest and presented us with a speaking land, a sentient country raucous with sound."[8]
Rolls' papers and sound recordings, including an interview with Hazel de Berg, are held by the National Library of Australia.[9]"Miss Strawberry's Purse" was his most popular verse.
