About A.B. Patterson Andrew Barton (Banjo) Patterson was born in February 1864 and died in February 1941. He was a solicitor, soldier, war correspondent, journalist, author and poet. He was the eldest of seven children and grew up near Orange in rural New South Wales. Patterson used the pen name "The Banjo," which was the name of a race horse owned by the family. Banjo Patterson wrote extensively on Australian life, focusing mainly on outback areas. His poem "Waltzing Matilda" was set to music and has become the unofficial Australian anthem. Patterson was a contemporary and a colleague of another equally well-known Australian author, Henry Lawson.All of the poems in this book were originally first published in the nineteenth century. This book of poetry has been written for easy reading with size 20 font for the body text and size 30 font for all the headings. Banjo Patterson is my favourite poet. Poems from this publication I shall be reading to my grand-child due in March this year.