Bertram Stevens (critic)

Stevens was born at Inverell, New South Wales, the eldest child of William Mathison Stevens and his wife Marian, née Cafe, from Queanbeyan. By 1882 Stevens moved with his family to Newtown, Sydney where he was educated at public schools. Stevens was an avid reader and developed a wide knowledge and culture. In 1895 he began a fifteen-year period as a solicitor's clerk and it was intended that he should study law. During this time Stevens worked as a freelance journalist, coming into contact with a number of literary figures, he edited My Sundowner and other Poems (1904) by John Farrell with a memoir.

Stevens campaigned for the land policies of Henry George, temporarily winning Henry Lawson to the cause. He was a founding member of the Dawn and Dusk Club in 1899 and of the Casuals Club in 1906. Stevens was deeply involved with attempts at rehabilitating Henry Lawson at Yanco, New South Wales and Edwin Brady's property at Mallacoota, Victoria.

Stevens died suddenly of cerebral haemorrhage and chronic nephritis at Sydney, on 14 February 1922. He left a widow, two sons and a daughter. Henry Lawson wrote a warm confessional tribute in The Bulletin.