 Published in 1921 , Around the <unk> Log and Other Verses was written by Patrick Joseph Hartigan , under the pen name John O 'Brien . A Roman Catholic priest , after early stints at <unk> and Berrigan , in 1917 Hartigan was appointed as the parish priest of Narrandera where he stayed until 1944 . His poems recorded the everyday lives and mateship of the people of the Riverina . His friend and well @-@ known poet C. J. Dennis hailed them in the Bulletin as in ' the direct Lawson @-@ Paterson line mainly — unaffected talk about Australians , much as they would naturally talk about themselves ' . Around the <unk> Log ran to five editions and 18 @,@ 000 copies by 1926 . 
