Edmund Campion

Edmund Campion is a Catholic priest and historian. He is the author of Australian Catholic Lives and numerous other books on Catholic history in Australia and abroad. He has served as a committee member on a number of arts administrative bodies, including the Literature Board of the Australia Council and the Pascall Prize for Criticism.

Edmund Campion reviews 'Daniel Mannix: Priest and Patriot' by Michael Gilchrist, 'The Demon of Discord' by Margaret M. Pawsey, and 'St. Bede’s College and its McCristal Origins 1896–1982' by Leo Gamble

July 1983, no. 52 • 21 July 2022

What major figure in Australian history, apart from Ned Kelly, has had more biographies than Archbishop Daniel Mannix? Librarians can give a decisive answer to this far from rhetorical question. Certainly, Mannix looms large in serious Australian historiography. There are personal studies by Captain Bryan (1919), E.J. Brady (1934), Frank Murphy (1948 and 1972), Niall Brennan (1964), and Walter Ebs ... (read more)

Edmund Campion reviews 'The Mansions of Bedlam: Stories and Essays' by Gerard Windsor

June 2001, no. 231 • 01 June 2021

Gerard Windsor had a rocky start to his writing life. Out of the Jesuits after seven years, he scored a contract with his old school, Riverview, in Sydney, to write its centennial history. I was one of the alumni he interviewed; I remember suggesting that he take steps to guarantee the publication of his text. After all, I argued, a school run by a religious order was like a family commissioning i ... (read more)