37 Years of Eternity

Many Australians will be familiar with the story of Sydney's Arthur Stace. For those readers of this blog not originating from Terra Australis – this is a captivating tale of obsession – and beautiful copperplate script.

Between 1930 and 1967, Sydneysiders on their way to work would encounter an enigmatic graffiti (not that the word was used in those days). The graffiti was always the same single word – Eternity – written in yellow chalk on footpaths, roads, bridges and other urban structures. Who wrote this mysterious message all over Sydney for decades? What did it mean? For over 25 years, Sydney's populace discussed and debated this curious hand-lettered occurrence.

In 1956 the writer was finally identified – sprung! – yellow chalk in hand.

Devout 'born again' Christian Arthur Stace woke before dawn and went about handwriting his message in a different neighbourhood of Sydney each day. His elegant message was written at least 50 times a day (for 37 years). That's around half a million times. Stace's 'mission' originated after he witnessed an imposing preacher that shouted:

"I wish I could shout Eternity through the streets of Sydney.' He repeated himself and kept shouting, 'Eternity, Eternity', and his words were ringing through my brain as I left the church. Suddenly I began crying and I felt a powerful call from the Lord to write 'Eternity'. I had a piece of chalk in my pocket, and I bent down right there and wrote it." *

Later, celebrated Sydney artist Martin Sharp created art that referenced Stace's graffiti (see bottom of that page) and recently Eternity became a typographic emblem of Sydney – being used to help celebrate the arrival of the new millenium in 2000 and in the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Sydney is a city not known for its 'spiritual qualities' and for the harbour city to adopt such a message as a core constituent of its 'self' is intruiging – and for me, very endearing. 

Interestingly, Stace was partially blind, had never learnt copperplate, and when he first started his handwriting mission – he could barely write at all. "I had no schooling and I couldn't have spelled 'Eternity' for a hundred quid. But it came out smoothly, in a beautiful copperplate script. I couldn't understand it, and I still can't. I've tried and tried, but 'Eternity' is the only word that comes out in copperplate." *

And it came out that way, written pre-dawn, whilst most of the city slept - half a million times.

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More on Arthur Stace and Eternity:

– The National Museum of Australia *(the Stace quotes above are from this site)
– The Wesley Central Mission
– A radio interview with Stace from 1964
– The Wikipedia entry on Stace
– Eternity: Lawrence Johnston's strikingly shot 1994 film on Stace (available on DVD)

Comments

[Stephen Banham]

This would have to be Australia's greatest typographic tale to date – it's the smaller stories that come out of it that add an extraordinary depth to an extraordinary life.

Arthur Stace actually had to alter his copperplate style as a result of an unknown figure who would follow him and turn the word 'eternity' into 'maternity' – so Arthur addded the fluid swash uppercase 'E' at the beginning of his most prized word. Just this move alone turns the word into an iconic typographic mark (at least for Australians)

And there's so much more to this story.The 1994 film, directed by Lawrence Johnston, is also worth seeing for those into this kind of thing.

Thanks for giving it a welcome airing on 1+1=3.

[Andrew Haig]

Thanks Stephen - yes it's an incredible tale. I wasn't aware of the 'maternal' figure though(!). I've posted the link to the film (now on DVD), into the main post above. It's a well-crafted, beautifully shot film too. I'll try and add some stills from it to 1+1=3 in the near future.