Remembering P. R. Stephensen (November 20, 1901-May 28, 1965)
Greg Johnson
P. R. Stephensen, circa 1934
249 words
Percy Reginald Stephensen was born on November 20, 1901. Stephensen was a writer, publisher, and political activist dedicated to the interests of the white race and the Australian nation. Like Jack London, Stephensen was an archetypal man of the racially conscious Left. He began his political career as a Communist but later moved to the nationalistic, anti-Semitic Right. From 1942 to 1945, he was interned without trial for his pro-German and pro-Japanese sympathies.
Early in his career as a publisher, Stephensen championed the works of Nietzsche, D. H. Lawrence, and Aleister Crowley. Later, he worked to promote a distinctly Australian national literature and culture. As a political organizer and propagandist, he worked for an Australia First economic and foreign policy.
Stephensen was a prolific author. He published over thirty books under his own name. He also translated works by Lenin and Nietzsche. On top of that, he wrote nearly seventy books as a ghostwriter for Frank Clune.
To learn more about Stephensen’s life and work, read Kerry Bolton’s biographical essay, “P. R. Stephensen.” See also his profile of Lionel Lindsay, which also discusses Stephensen, who was an acquaintance, as well as the first part of his profile of Norman Lindsay.
I also wish to draw your attention to the following works by Stephensen on this site:
- Australia First Manifesto
- “The Foundations of Culture in Australia: An Essay Towards National Self-Respect” (Excerpts from Part One)
- “A Reasoned Case Against Semitism“
For other works by Stephensen, see The Percy Stephensen Collection.
7 comments
He really looks like Hitler.
My stepdad, who was from German heritage, looked like Hitler too, and as young teens, my sister and brothers (his kids), we told him so, probably one of the worst things I’ve done in life. He shaved his mustache but didn’t look as good, so grew it back after a year or so. It’s actually given me a better insight into Hitler’s personality, because my stepdad was an orphan (as was I, for that matter), and that does something to your outlook on life. I’ve never read of Hitler’s youth, but now I will. See where random comments take you.
Having just read Stephensen’s essay on Semitism I’d say Hitler came to very similar conclusions to those of Stephensen.
Having grown up in a liberal environment vis a vis the JQ and having essentially no exposure to jews in the countryside of his youth, Hitler disavowed Anti-Semitism until he lived in Vienna. He came at the issue, like so many do
today, from a position of pronounced scepticism. Of course he was helped In his journey somewhat by the relatively freer exchange of ideas on questions of race that obtained in the pre-war period.
It is the tragedy of the European countries that complete assimilation could not occur. Perhaps we might have been allowed to develop healthy nationalist socialist societies instead of finding ourselves flailing in the multicultural quagmire. As Stephensen realised though the package of cultural and racial adaptations which have survived so many previous forcing points is virtually ineradicable. Expulsion to an established ethno-state or suppression in situ are probably the only viable solutions for the host society.
It’s sad that perfectly rational and moral arguments such as Stephensen’s are reflexively deemed repugnant by most of our thoroughly propagandised kinsfolk. Such is the reality of losing a war which 99% of the defeated don’t even realise was ever fought.
Thank you for posting this.
Always amazing the vast intellectual background for nationalism. Good that C-C keeps the words of people such as Stephensen alive. They form the groundwork for the struggle in the 21st century.
I’d never heard of him. It’s always very gratifying though to realise that history is on our side.
Dear Counter-Currents,
Thanks for posting this and the link to the Percy Stephensen Collection
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