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Produced and published by the School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne
Published July 2008
Published July 2008
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This bohemian club was initiated by the author and journalist Randolph Bedford around 1899. Members included Lionel, Norman and Percy Lindsay, Edward and Will Dyson, Godfrey and Jack Elkington, Ray Parkinson, 'Ruff' Tremearne and Herman Kühr. The Ishmaels held a literary symposium each Wednesday evening at either Antonio's hotel and restaurant, 444 Flinders Street, or Fasoli's in Lonsdale Street. A simple clubroom was later set up in a city building. The club had a wooden idol and a satirical constitution, some of which is reproduced in Bedford's autobiography Naught to thirty-three (Sydney, 1944). The Ishmaels fragmented during 1901.