Name: J.J. Stable
Epoch: Early 20th Century (the \'Long Early Twentieth Century\')
Grouping Field: Humanities (Ideas Formatted as Ideas) and Social Science (Models)
Location Grouping: Individual\'s Work Location
Map Coordinates: 27°28\'38.8\"S 153°01\'44.5\"E
Years At Location: 1912-1952
One Historical Setting: Mr. J.J. Stable, Department of English, University of Queensland, George Street, Brisbane City (1912)
J.J. Stable was Dean of the Faculty of Arts (1932-1939) and of the Faculty of Commerce (1932-1936), University of Queensland, and was a lecturer in English, French and German at the University of Queensland from 1912. He was President of the Queensland Authors’ and Artists’ Association (1921-1931) and of the English and Modern Languages Association of Queensland (1923-1948); with Miss Barbara Sisley and Professor Michie, in 1925 he founded the Brisbane Repertory Theatre Society; in 1930 he became one of the first trustees of the re-constituted Queensland National Art Gallery and was chairman of trustees (1946-1948).
J.J. Stable made his national fame or infamy as a censor during World War I. Under the direct instructions of Prime Minister W. M. Hughes— Stable entered the Queensland printing office on 26 November 1917 and seized all copies of no. 37 Queensland Parliamentary Debates because they contained an anti-conscription speech by Premier T. J. Ryan, parts of which Stable had previously censored from the press.
The incident and his unapologetic role as a censor (which he took up again in World War II) often meant overlooking Stable’s contribution to the intellectual and cultural life of the State. Stable insisted on links between Australian and English literature: his anthology for schools, The Bond of Poetry (1924), bore the motto ‘Caelum Non Animum Mutant Qui Trans Mare Currunt’ (“They change their sky, not their soul, who rush across the sea”). The High Road of Australian Verse (1929) was followed by The Second Bond of Poetry (1938) and by Prose Selections (1947), compiled with A. K. Thomson. From 1936 Stable was general editor of the series, The Australian Students’ Shakespeare, to which he contributed an edition of Julius Caesar (1936).
J. C. Mahoney, ‘Stable, Jeremiah Joseph (1883–1953)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/stable-jeremiah-joseph-8614/text15047, published first in hardcopy 1990, accessed online 4 July 2019.
Helen Gregory, Vivant Professores: Distinguished Members of the University of Queensland, 1910-1940. University of Queensland Library, St. Lucia, Qld, 1987.
Malcolm I Thomis, A Place of Light & Learning: the University of Queensland’s first seventy-five years, University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia, Qld, 1985.
Portrait of Australian academic Jeremiah Joseph Stable. La LaBoite Collection.
