L. C. Rodd

Rodd was born on 12 March 1905 in Sydney and gained a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney in 1931.{{Citation |last=Farrell |first=Frank |title=Lewis Charles (Roddy) Rodd (1905–1979) |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/rodd-lewis-charles-roddy-11552 |access-date=2025-03-26 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}} Rodd was a practicing Anglican, and had considered entering the priesthood rather than pursuing education.{{Cite web |last=Cahill |first=Rowan |title=More than a Footnote: A Biographical Portrait of L.C. Rodd |url=https://www.labourhistory.org.au/hummer/no-27/rodd/ |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=Australian Society for the Study of Labour History |language=en-AU}}

He met novelist Kylie Tennant at the University of Sydney and they married in 1932.{{Cite web |last=Elley |first=Samantha |date=2022-02-14 |title=On the road and in gaol to write her books |url=https://www.talesfromthegrave.org/post/on-the-road-and-in-gaol-to-write-her-books |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=Tales from the Grave |language=en}} During the 1930s and 1940s, Rodd worked at public schools in Coonabarabran, Canowindra, Dulwich Hill and Mullswellbrook as a teacher, and as headmaster in Laurieton and Hunters Hill. He was head of Woolwich Primary School around 1945.[citation needed]

In 1931, he was a founder of the Educational Workers' League, and an activist in the New South Wales Teachers' Federation.{{Cite web |title=Curator's notes Kylie Tennant (1986) |url=https://aso.gov.au/titles/documentaries/kylie-tennant/notes/ |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online |publisher=National Film and Sound Archive of Australia}} Rodd contributed regularly to the League's journal, the Education Worker from 1932-1936, arguing for changes to the curriculum. Around 1937, he published a pamphlet as part of a "Survey of Australia" series titled Australian Imperialism.{{Cite web |date=13 July 1937 |title=PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED “Australian Imperialism” |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/211821345 |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=Trove |publisher=The Workers' Weekly |language=en |publication-place=}} He registered as a conscientious objector during World War II.

After the World War II, Rodd, Tennant and Tennant's father, formed a publishing company, Sirius Books, to re-publish Tennant's novels. It also published "cheap" Australian editions of other novels.

Rodd retired from teaching in November 1960, and experiencing depression, attempted suicide shortly after. He collaborated with Donald McLean co-editing a collection of Australian essays Venturing the Unknown Ways (1965) and with Tennant on the collection The Australian Essay (1968).{{Cite web |title=Venturing the unknown ways / compiled by Donald McLean & L.C. Rodd ; forward and introductory notes by... - Catalogue {{!}} National Library of Australia |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/2285610 |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=catalogue.nla.gov.au |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=The Australian essay, compiled by L. C. Rodd. Introductory passages by Kylie Tennant - Catalogue {{!}} National Library of Australia |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/668704 |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=catalogue.nla.gov.au |language=en}} In 1972 he wrote a biography of Father John Hope, long-serving rector of Christ Church St. Laurence in George Street, Sydney.{{Cite web |title=Details |url=https://archival.sl.nsw.gov.au/Details/archive/110357291 |access-date=26 March 2025 |website=State Library of New South Wales catalogue}} He also co-wrote a book about the Church and its location, published the same year.{{Cite web |title=Christ Church S. Laurence : Railway Square, Sydney, N.S.W. : yesterday, today, tomorrow / by L.C. Rodd... - Catalogue {{!}} National Library of Australia |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/1522112 |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=catalogue.nla.gov.au |language=en}}

From 1965 to 1966, Rudd published a series of children's books based on the lives of prominent individuals, almost all authors: Henry Lawson, Louisa M. Alcott, Rudyard Kipling, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, R.M. Ballantyne and Henry Parkes.{{Cite web |title=Author: "Rodd, L. C. (Lewis Charles), 1906-1979" - Catalogue {{!}} National Library of Australia Search Results |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog?q=%22Rodd,+L.+C.+(Lewis+Charles),+1906-1979%22&search_field=author |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=catalogue.nla.gov.au |language=en}} He published an illustrated autobiography A Gentle Shipwreck in 1975.{{Cite web |title=A gentle shipwreck / L.C. Rodd ; with drawings by Cedric Emanuel - Catalogue {{!}} National Library of Australia |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/671532 |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=catalogue.nla.gov.au |language=en}}

Rodd died from cancer on 29 July 1979 in the Blue Mountains, aged 74. He was survived by Tennant, and their daughter Benison Rodd, a painter and artist.{{Cite web |title=Rodd, Benison |url=https://www.womenaustralia.info/entries/rodd-benison/ |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=AWR |language=en-AU}} Their son, John Rodd, died in 1978.

Rodd's papers are held by the National Library of Australia.{{Cite web |title=Papers of Lewis Charles Rodd, 1963-1980 [manuscript] - Catalogue {{!}} National Library of Australia |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/2258052 |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=catalogue.nla.gov.au |language=en}}

• John Hope of Christ Church: a Sydney Church era (biography) {{ISBN|0-85553-072-3}}
• A Gentle Shipwreck (autobiography) (Sydney, Thomas Nelson, 1975) (illustrated by Cedric Emanuel) {{ISBN|0-17-005040-8}}

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Category:1905 births

Category:1979 deaths