MS 8046 et al
National Library of Australia
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Collection Summary
- Creator
-
John O'Grady
- Title
-
Papers of John O'Grady
- Date Range
-
1930-1986
- Collection Number
-
MS 8046 et al
- Extent
-
1.93 metres (12 boxes, 1 packet, 1 folder)
- Language of Materials
-
English
- Repository
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National Library of Australia
Introduction
Scope and Contents
A summary list of his papers (based on list prepared by John O'Grady Junior)
Conditions Governing Access
Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1574389).
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Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions.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 Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.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 John O'Grady, National Library of Australia, [class number, box number and series and/or file number]'.
Separated Materials
One quarter inch audio tape of Unstrung Bow, as broadcast by ABC radio in 1956, sent to Oral History.
Finding Aid Source(s)
Please note: This finding aid may comprise or contain descriptive information provided by donors, researchers and/or volunteers.
Collection Retrieval Advice
Please note: each consignment in this collection has a separate box number sequence (i.e. there may be multiple Box 1s). Please cite the relevant Class number as well as the Box number when requesting retrieval of material from the collection.
Biographical Note
Author. O'Grady was a qualified pharmacist and he had a variety of jobs, including serving with the Army Medical Service 1942-50 and working in Samoa 1956-1958. O'Grady's first and best known book is They're a weird mob, written in 1957 under the pseudonym of Nino Culotta.
Although born in Sydney, he spent much of his childhood on a remote New England farm and had no formal education until the age of twelve. He qualified as a pharmacist, but found the profession unsatisfying. In 1936 he began work as a commercial traveller selling medical goods. During WWII he served with the army Medical Service. He left the army in 1950 and worked as a pharmacist, builder's labourer, teacher of pharmacy for the NZ government in Samoa, and a fisherman. He wrote several books under the name of Nino Culotta. The most successful being They're a weird mob (1957), which was later made into a movie. He also wrote 16 books under his own name, as well as short stories and plays.
Item Descriptions
Class MS 8046. Original consignment
Comprises family and general correspondence, diaries and notebooks dating from 1942, handwritten and typewritten literary manuscripts (some of which are unpublished), press cuttings, ledgers and other financial records including royalty statements, legal documents and photographs relating to O'Grady's life after 1942. The collection also includes screen plays for They're a weird mob by Richard Imrie and On the beach by John Paxton, and the thesis, in English, "Erzähltechnik und soziale Probleme in Nino Culottas Romanen" by Friederike Stiegler (1975-1976).
Contained in 12 boxes.
Series [unnumbered]. Correspondence
Letters to Mary (Molly) Carrol, whom he later married (1945-47) (File 1-2) - Box 1
Letters from Samoa (mainly) covering period before and after publication of Weird Mob", plus a few cards and letters from Europe (1956-60) (File 3) - Box 1
Correspondence with Michael Powell and others concerning film scripts. Letters from actors. Hunting chapter deleted from They're a Weird Mob (1962-64) (File 4) - Box 1
Letters from his sister Kathleen Casey (1974) (File 5) - Box 1
Assorted letters, including fan letters, letters from ABC, letter to Ewart Wade of the Editors Guild (1957-80) (File 6) - Box 1
Letters from Barrier Reef and Kingscliff, mainly concerning research for Gone Troppo, also includes period of Molly's cancer (1970) (1965-71) (File 7) - Box 1
Newsday file - notes, letters, contract concerning column for new paper (1969) (File 8) - Box 1
Correspondence between John O'Grady Jnr. and assorted persons concerning O'Grady work (1960-71) (File 9-10) - Box 1
Series [unnumbered]. Diaries and Notebooks
Selected exercises for recruits, from P R.T manual, 1941, with no.1 Amendment, 1942 (notebook) (File 11) - Box 2
Bahasa Melayu (handwritten course on how to speak Malay - handwriting and C of A notebook suggests war years) (File 12) - Box 2
Nihon-go (handwritten course on how to speak Japanese in C of A notebook) (File 13) - Box 2
Record of a voyage in HMAHS Manunda commencing July 5th 1945 (in C of A notebook) (File 14) - Box 2
Voyage of HMAHS Manunda to Japan, March 9th to May 19th, 1946 (in C of A notebook) (File 15) - Box 2
Sydney on the Bush, Mobil Run film script, Yesterday, Dictionary of Slang, New York World's fair; includes draft of first scene for Light me a Lucifer, drafts of Addo and Peto (File 16) - Box 2
Projects '66-'67; includes ideas for a "Weird Mob" cartoon strip, New Guinea diary, Vietnam diary (File 17) - Box 2
"Weird Mob" film treatment, Beatles concert, N.T diary, Pokin' around (rewritten and extended), profit out of Hey Snow - where's Paddy? film, 88 cents in your kirk; includes diary of trip to north Queensland (back cover of exercise book detached) (File 18) - Box 2
Notes for Gone Gougin' and The Housekeeper for Melb Sun; includes diary of two trips to Lightning Ridge (File 19) - Box 2
Aussie English 2, notes from north Queensland, Irish family mottos: includes end of Are you Irish or normal, second half of Aussie English (binding on spine is coming away) (File 20) - Box 3
What did you say your name was? Al Porje, Brampton diary, play notes, Listen mate (File 21) - Box 3
Yesterday: includes first chapter for Where's yourfeathers?, a thinly disguised autobiography about the war (File 21) - Box 3
Includes The Originals, Integrated Adjective, Ecumenical, notes for commentary on Cyril Pearl's book So you want to be an Australian, draft screen play for They're a weird mob, and editing note for Gone fishin (File 22) - Box 3
Weird Mob film (diary of the making of the film) (File 23) - Box 3
Series [unnumbered]. Drafts (handwritten)
They're a Weird mob (presumed first draft, handwritten in minute book) (File 24) - Box 3
They're a weird mob (handwritten, loose leaf, as sent from Samoa, with handwritten pages deleted from original manuscript) (File 25-26) - Box 3
Cop this lot (handwritten in two notebooks) (File 27-28) - Box 3
Gone fishin' (original title-Scaled and gutted) (File 29-30) - Box 4
Always dreamin' or Saddle a white horse (draft of Gone Troppo) (File 31) - Box 4
No kava for Johnny (File 32-33) - Box 4
The things they do to you (File 34-35) - Box 4
Gone gougin' (File 36) - Box 4
Aussie Etiket, Smoky Joe (File 37) - Box 5
Dog house cook book, columns for Melbourne Age (Newsday) (File 38) - Box 5
Essays (so sue me) (File 39) - Box 5
Aussie Grog (draft of Your shout, mate) (File 40) - Box 5
There was a time (draft of There was a kid) (File 41) - Box 5
Notes for Down Under Topside (File 42) - Box 5
Down under to topside (File 43) - Box 5
Irish stew (File 44) - Box 5
Series [unnumbered]. Drafts (typewritten)
O'Grady typed all his manuscripts himself
Gone troppo (File 45-46) - Box 6
Are you Irish or normal (with handwritten corrections) (File 47-48) - Box 6
Are you Irish or normal (publishers paste-up) (File 49-50) - Box 6
Are you Irish or normal (editors copy) (File 51-52) - Box 6
Gone gougin' (File 53) - Box 6
Aussie etiket (File 54) - Box 6
Your shout, mate (much of this is handwritten) (File 55-56) - Box 7
So sue me and other pieces (File 57) - Box 7
Survival in the doghouse (File 58) - Box 7
Down under to topside Stage Plays (most were written while he was running the Sydney Repertory Theatre) (File 59-60) - Box 7
They're a weird mob (referred to in Samoan letters but never produced, handwritten loose-leaf pages, cardboard front and back covers detached) (File 61) - Box 7
Handwritten drafts of Mr Slattersby, Green Olives, Unstrung Bow and Joseph of Arimathaea (written in war-time Italian medical records book) (File 62) - Box 7
Mr Slattersley (three typed copies) (File 63) - Box 8
Green Olives (two typed copies) (File 64) - Box 8
The Valley (two typed copies) (File 65) - Box 8
Unstrung Bow (File 65) - Box 8
Joseph of Arimathaea (File 65) - Box 8
Series [unnumbered]. Other manuscripts
There was a student (was to be second volume of his autobiography but his health was failing fast) (File 66) - Box 8
Thieme Book, referred to in Samoan letters, written immediately after They're a weird mob but before publication, never published, written in a 1957 diary (File 67) - Box 8
There was a ship (unfinished section of his autobiography) (File 68) - Box 8
There was a ship (two typed copies) (File 69) - Box 8
Come the revolution, The machine that went onka (two episodes of proposed radio serial for children, never submitted), Egoectomy, Uncle Fred's Christmas for Coast to Coast, 8th Mobil Economy Run diary and commentary for film (File 70) - Box 8
Assorted essays (File 71-72) - Box 9
"Weird Mob" tour of Vietnam, and "Light me a Lucifer" manuscript, TV play produced by ABC TV, December 1962 (File 73) - Box 9
Short pieces - mainly columns but variously reproduced (File 74-76) - Box 9
Idiomatic version of Julius Cesare - incomplete (handwritten, cover of notebook detached) (File 78) - Box 9
'Specially on Sundays' - a comedy drama for television (File 79) - Box 9
Series [unnumbered]. Miscellaneous
Screenplay for Weird Mob by Richard Imrie (with handwritten notes) (File 80) - Box 9
They're a weird mob screenplay by Richard Imrie (with handwritten notes) (File 81) - Box 10
They're a weird mob screenplay by Richard Imrie (File 82) - Box 10
On the beach (screenplay by John Paxton; given to O'Grady while discussing Peck version of Weird Mob as film) (File 83) - Box 10
Erzahtechnik and sociale probleme in Nino Culotta's Romanen (thesis with letters by Friederike Stiegler) (File 84) - Box 10
File entitled "No kava for Johnny", includes press clippings, promotional material, copy of Australian writer and Dramatist, spring edition (File 85) - Box 10
Two account books 1960-82, with letters (File 86-87) - Box 10
Royalty statements (1959-70) (File 88-89) - Box 10
2 notebooks: listing gifts of money to family, and with itinerary for southern tour, expenses for trip to NT and QLD (File 90) - Box 11
File entitled "Cop this lot", includes contracts and royalty statements 1957-76 (File 91-93) - Box 11
Oatley house building contract 1959; copy of will (File 94) - Box 11
File entitled "Film notes They're a weird mob et al”, includes assorted papers, including copy of Il progresso, December 25 1965 (File 95) - Box 11
Quadrant, winter 1958 (File 96) - Box 11
Script, screen and saac, Vol. 1, no. 6, 1968 (File 96) - Box 11
ABTA Bulletin, January 22, 1966 (File 96) - Box 11
Australasian Post, May 13 1965, June 17 1965 (File 97) - Box 11
Gone fishin was researched on the George's River when he went professional fishing with local man Kenny Denis (photographs) (File 98) - Box 11
Box of black and white photographs, labelled "Pictorial record - Tokelau Islands", probably 1958, with negatives (File [unnumbered]) - Box 12
Box of unidentified black and white photographs of Western Samoa, with negatives (File [unnumbered]) - Box 12
Class Acc08-174. Consignment added 2008
Comprises a box of slides that belonged to O'Grady. Subjects include Apia Samoa, Algernon Street Oatley, Tokelau Islands, Georges River, Atlantic Ocean and the Panama Canal.
Contained in 1 packet.
Class Acc11-060. Consignment added 2011
Comprises typescripts of poetry and one short story written by O'Grady. Some of the typescripts were compiled during the Second World War and subsequently when O'Grady was working as a pharmacist on the island of U'polo.
Contained in 1 folder.