Guide to the Papers of Michael Dransfield
MS 4741
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Collection Summary
- Creator
- Dransfield, Michael
- Title
- Papers of Michael Dransfield
- Date Range
- 1966 - 1972
- Collection Number
- MS 4741
- Extent
- 1.02 metres (2 ms boxes + 4 archives boxes)
- Language of Materials
- English
- Repository
- Special Collections (Manuscripts)
Introduction
Scope and Contents
MS 4741 comprises drafts of poems, including a collection titled "Memoirs of a velvet urinal", letters from publishers, friends and his parents, and notebooks and diaries. One volume is titled "The cocklebiddy fisherman". Correspondents include Richard Hopkinson, Thomas Shapcott, Mirka Mora, Robert Adamson, Charles Buckmaster, Rolf Hennequel, Alexander Craig, John Tranter, Peter Kocan and Rodney Hall. The collection also includes 13 letters and a poem written by Dransfield to Paula Keogh between October and December 1972 (2 boxes).
MS Acc18.042 comprises drafts of poems, correspondence, journals, newspaper clippings and related papers. There is business correspondence regarding Dransfield's poetry, and personal correspondence including letters from Peter Kocan during his time hospital. The draft material includes poetry prepared for QUP after Dransfield's death (4 boxes).
Conditions Governing Access
Access conditions may apply to this collection, please refer to the collection's catalogue record for further information (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn537836).
Conditions Governing Use
Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.
Preferred Citation
Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Michael Dransfield, National Library of Australia, [class and file number]'.
Provenance
Michael Dransfield offered his papers for sale to the National Library in October 1972. They were purchased and transferred in March 1973, with further papers received from Rodney Hall in the same month. Together they make up the bulk of Dransfield's manuscript collection.
Papers acquired from Livio Dobrez in May 1977 are contained in Files 2, 8 and 9, as noted in the file listings.
The material contained in File 10 was acquired from Thomas Shapcott in January 1980.
Paula Keogh donated the correspondence contained in File 11 in March 2006.
Further papers were donated by Elspeth Dransfield in 2018.
Related Materials
An interview with Michael Dransfield's mother Elspeth Dransfield, recorded by Hazel De Berg in 1973, is held in the Oral History Collection of the National Library of Australia at ORAL DeB 717.
Correspondence with Dransfield and typescript poems attributed to him are contained within a number of other Manuscript collections held by the Library. They include the papers of Rodney Hall (MS 4834), John Blay (MS 7437), Kate McNamara (MS 8512) and R.A. Simpson (MS 5575). The Papers of Kathy Rees (MS 7793) consist of correspondence with Dransfield, but access is closed until 2020. Dransfield's aunt Elizabeth Pender's account of her nephew's death is held at MS 5381.
The University of Queensland Library, Fryer Library, holds a photocopy of the typescript of Memoirs of a velvet urinal: poems and readymades.
The Australian Defence Force Academy, University College Library holds the Michael Dransfield/Peter Kocan manuscript collection, containing correspondence and poetry drafts by Dransfield sent to Peter Kocan.
Patricia Dobrez's biography, Michael Dransfield's lives: a sixties biography, was published in 1999.
Collection Retrieval Advice
Please note: each consignment in this collection has a separate box number sequence (i.e. there are multiple Box 1's). Please cite the relevant Class number as well as the Box number when requesting retrieval of material from the collection.
Biographical Note
Michael Dransfield was born in Camperdown, Sydney in September 1948, and educated at Sydney Grammar School. After some time studying at Sydney University and working as a journalist and at the Sydney Taxation Office, he took up writing poetry full-time.
Dransfield moved frequently during his late teens and early 20s. In Sydney he lived in Balmain, Paddington, Darlinghurst, Edgecliff, Pymble and Woolloomooloo. He travelled through Tasmania and other country areas, lived for a time in Casino, Cobargo, Candelo, Caloola, Canberra and Hall, and bought rural properties, including in Wapengo and in Woodford. He was interested in themes of country and rural idyll, and created his own mythological estate 'Courland Penders'.
His poems were published in journals such as The Sydneian, Poetry Australia, Wormwood Review, The Catholic Weekly, Meanjin, Transit, Free Poetry, Our Glass, The Great Auk, Flagstones and Uphill, as well as in The Australian, The Canberra Times and The Observer. During his lifetime, Dransfield's publications included Streets of the long voyage, Drug Poems, and The inspector of tides.
Dransfield died at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in Sydney in April 1973. Memoirs of a Velvet Urinal, Voyage into Solitude, The Second Month of Spring, and Michael Dransfield: Collected Poems were published posthumously.
Biographical Reference(s)
Dobrez, Patricia. Michael Dransfield's lives : a sixties biography. Carlton, VIC : Melbourne University Press, 1999.
Item Descriptions
Class MS 4741. Original consignments received from 1972 to 2006, 1967 - 1972 - Box 1-2 (MS 4741)
These early consignments comprise drafts of poems, including a collection entitled 'Memoirs of a velvet urinal', letters from publishers, friends and his parents, and notebooks and diaries.
Correspondents include Richard Hopkinson, Thomas Shapcott, Mirka Mora, Robert Adamson, Charles Buckmaster, Rolf Hennequel, Alexander Craig, John Tranter, Peter Kocan and Rodney Hall.
This material is contained in 2 boxes (MS 4741, Boxes 1-2).
Journal, Diary and Notebook, 1967 (File 1)
Journal, 1967: Croxley Student's Book containing diary, notes, lists and drafts of poems, covering 22 March 1967 - 28 April 1967 and with the inscription 'Journal D'un Homme Vide'.
Diary, 1967: Collins Reminder Diary containing occasional entries to 11 June 1967 and near complete entries to 27 December 1967. Also contains a few cuttings, concert and other tickets and a stamp.
Notebook, 11 August 1967: Small unlined pad containing what appear to be thoughts recorded following the taking of LSD.
Exercise book, 1968 (File 1a)
Exercise book: Mostly diary, but including cuttings, letters, draft poems, tickets, a photograph, notes and a list of correspondence for 1968.
Notebooks, 1966-1967 (File 2)
Poems, 1967: Small Croxley Notebook with inscription: 'Vaslav: Being certain poems written by Michael Dransfield between 2.v.1967 and 21.vi.1967. written in Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria, in city and bush, beach and mountain, land and sea. For Albin Eiger - '
Poems, 1966: Croxley Shorthand Notebook of handwritten poems, as well as several pages of notes. Cover has inscription '"Ilex" (part of)'.
Notebook, November 1967-December 1967: Tudor notebook no. 3, 100 pages. Contains poems and list of correspondents etc. [Received from Livio Dobrez].
Poems, 1970-1971 (File 3)
Red plastic covered folder or handwritten and typed poems dated between 14 August 1970 and 15 August 1971 and with inscription 'Manuscripts'.
Letters, 1967-1970 (File 4)
41 pieces of correspondence from poets, publishers, academics, friends and family.
Also includes brochure for Adelaide Festival of Arts 1970. Some letters include poems, flyers or sheet music. One letter from Tom Shapcott includes a handwritten copy of 'Elizabeth's song' by Colin Brumby.
Correspondents include Thomas Shapcott, Rolf Hennequel, Alexander Craig, John Tranter, Peter Kocan, Rodney Hall, the Adelaide Festival of Arts, publishers at the University of Queensland Press, and Dransfield's mother and father.
Poems, 1971 (File 5)
Handwritten and typed draft poems, together with a copy of a drawing by 'Hilary'. Some dated 1971. Cover has inscription 'Memoirs of a Velvet Urinal'.
Miscellaneous (File 6)
Eight letters to Dransfield dated 1969 or undated. Correspondents include Thomas Shapcott, Rodney Hall, Charles Buckmaster and John Tranter.
Also includes a letter from H.A. Dransfield to The Rector, Braidwood, 10 May 1929 requesting copy of lost birth certificate, a Sun Herald liftout dated 11 April 1971 and a copy of Free Poetry no 7.
Poems, 1971-1972 (File 8)
'The Bible as fiction' - collection of poems, plus two poems from Memoirs of a velvet urinal.
[Received from Livio Dobrez].
Letters, 1969-1972 (File 9)
25 letters to and from Dransfield, mainly personal but with several to publishers/agents. Also includes a newspaper cutting of a poem by Margaret Shapcott called 'Religious Instruction'.
Correspondents include Richard Hopkinson, Thomas Shapcott, Mirka Mora and Robert Adamson.
[Received from Livio Dobrez].
Class MS Acc18.042. Consignment received April 2018, 1966 - 1972 - Box 1-4 (MS Acc18.042)
This consignment comprises drafts of poems, correspondence, journals, newspaper clippings and related papers. There is business correspondence regarding Dransfield's poetry, and personal correspondence including letters from Peter Kocan during his time hospital. The draft material includes poetry prepared for QUP after Dransfield's death.
This material is contained in four boxes (MS Acc18.042, Boxes 1-4).