Henry Ernest Boote was an Australian editor, journalist, propagandist, poet, and fiction writer.

Biography

Born in Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, England, 20 May 1865, Boote began working as an apprentice to a printer at the age of ten before emirating to Australia in 1889. That same year he married Mary Jane Paingdestre, and began working in Brisbane

Brisbane

Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

 as a compositor. He was an inspired trade unionist and became involved in the Queensland labour movement, writing articles and propagandist from a socialist slant. In 1894, the Australian Labour Federation posted Boote to Bundaberg as editor of the Bundaberg Guardian. In 1896 he moved to Gympie

Gympie

Gympie may refer to:* Gympie, a city in Queensland, Australia** Gympie Airport** Electoral district of Gympie** Gympie Region, its local government authority* Gympie Gympie , a stinging plant...

, where he established a paper called The Gympie Truth, and in 1902 became editor of The Worker in Brisbane. He was also the founding editor of The Queensland Worker (1902–11), and The Australian Worker (1914–43) Boote was a friend and associate of Prime Minister

Prime minister

A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...

s Andrew Fisher

Andrew Fisher

Andrew Fisher was an Australian politician who served as the fifth Prime Minister on three separate occasions. Fisher's 1910-13 Labor ministry completed a vast legislative programme which made him, along with Protectionist Alfred Deakin, the founder of the statutory structure of the new nation...

, James Scullin

James Scullin

James Henry Scullin , Australian Labor politician and the ninth Prime Minister of Australia. Two days after he was sworn in as Prime Minister, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 occurred, marking the beginning of the Great Depression and subsequent Great Depression in Australia.-Early life:Scullin was...

, and John Curtin

John Curtin

John Joseph Curtin , Australian politician, served as the 14th Prime Minister of Australia. Labor under Curtin formed a minority government in 1941 after the crossbench consisting of two independent MPs crossed the floor in the House of Representatives, bringing down the Coalition minority...

.
Boote died in Rose Bay, New South Wales

Rose Bay, New South Wales

Rose Bay is a harbourside, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Rose Bay is located 7 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government areas of Waverley Municipal Council and Woollahra Council .Rose Bay has views of both the Sydney...

on 14 August 1949.

Prose

• Set the Twelve Men Free, Sydney: New South Wales Labor Council, 1918

• The land of Wherisit: a cycle of tales that begins at the end and ends at the beginning; told by a graduate of All Fools' College for the entertainment of his kind, Sydney : The Judd Publishing Co., 1919

• The case of Grant: fifteen years for fifteen words, Sydney: Social Democratic League, (date?)

• The Human Ladder: an Australian story of our own time, Sydney: Judd Publishing, 1920

• Tea with the Devil and Other Diversions, 1928

Poetry

• As I Went By: Poems, Sydney: Worker Trustees, 1933

• The siren city, Sydney, 1935

• I look forth, Sydney: Worker Trustees, 1937

• May Day: a commemoration poem written for the great May day demonstration in Sydney, 1938