Alfred Deakin: From seance-loving teenager to self-righteous founding father (part 1) - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Alfred Deakin may be known as a father of federation, but as a teenager he loved to commune with the dead. 

In part one of Deakin's story, Leigh tries to make sense of Deakin's spiritualism (good luck) and grapples with some of the more troubling parts of our second prime minister's legacy. 

Plus, Leigh reveals a truly withering school report Deakin received, and the scoop on the politician's emotional menage-a-trois with his wife and his sister. 

Deakin, Alfred. Papers of Alfred Deakin, 1804–1973, principally 1880–1919. MS 1540. National Library of Australia, Canberra. 

Deakin, Alfred. “Aboriginal Natives: Whether Half-Castes to Be Included in Count for Reckoning Population.” Opinion no. 13, August 29, 1901. Australian Government Solicitor.

Deakin, Alfred. From Our Special Correspondent: Alfred Deakin’s Letters to the London Morning Post. Edited by Dianne Heriot. Vols. 1–10. Canberra: Australian Parliamentary Library, Department of Parliamentary Services, 2019–2023. 

Deakin, Alfred. The Federal Story: The Inner History of the Federal Cause, 1880–1900. Edited by J. A. La Nauze. 2nd ed. Parkville, VIC: Melbourne University Press, 1963. Electronic reproduction, University of Sydney Library, 2000. 

Deakin, Alfred. The Crisis in Victorian Politics, 1879–1881: A Personal Retrospect. Edited by J. A. La Nauze and R. M. Crawford. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1957. 

Brett, Judith. The Enigmatic Mr Deakin. Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2017.  

Cahir, Fred, and Dan Tout. “‘All That Appears Possible Now Is to Mitigate as Much as Possible the Trials of Their Closing Years’: Alfred Deakin’s Attitudes to Aboriginal Affairs.” Australian Journal of Politics & History 64, no. 2 (2018): 177–93 

Hearn, Mark. “‘Industrial Defence against the Whole World’: Deakinite New Protection as Narrative of Global Modernity.” Journal of Australian Studies 42, no. 3 (2018): 343–56 

Lake, Marilyn. “‘The Brightness of Eyes and Quiet Assurance Which Seem to Say American’: Alfred Deakin’s Identification with Republican Manhood.” Australian Historical Studies 38, no. 129 (2007): 32–51. 

Rickard, John. A Family Romance: The Deakins at Home. Carlton South, VIC: Melbourne University Press, 1996.  

Macintyre, Stuart. “Alfred Deakin.” in Australian Prime Ministers, edited by Michelle Grattan, Sydney: New Holland, 2000. 

Portrait of Bennelong by James Neagle, National Library of Australia, nla.obj-1989529