Guide to the Papers of Elizabeth Riddell

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MS 9235

National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record

Collection Summary

Creator
Elizabeth Riddell
Title
Papers of Elizabeth Riddell
Date Range
1982-1990
Collection Number
MS 9235
Extent
0.15 metres (1 box)
Language of Materials
English
Repository
National Library of Australia

Introduction

Scope and Contents

The collection includes drafts of poems and reviews by Riddell and correspondence with Barrett Reid and Stephen Murray-Smith.

Conditions Governing Access

Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1761691).

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Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions.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 Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.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 Elizabeth Riddell, National Library of Australia, MS 9235, [box number and series and/or file number]'.

Provenance

The papers were donated in 1995, under the Taxation Incentives for the Arts Scheme, to the National Library.

Arrangement

Riddell kept the papers in files and the arrangement has been preserved by the Library.

Bibliography

The Oxford companion to Australian Literature (pp.648) 'Elizabeth Riddell' by James Hall, in The Australian, 7 July 1998 (p. 16).

Biographical Note

Poet, journalist and reviewer. Riddell was born in 1910 in Napier, New Zealand. She came to Australia in 1925 to work for Erza Norton.

During the War Riddell worked as a War Correspondent in London for the Daily Express and the Daily Mirror. She came back to Sydney at the end of the War to work for the Daily Mirror and The Australian.

Between 1948 and 1994 she published six books of poetry, including the Selected poems (1972) and her works also appeared in journals (including Overland and The Bulletin). She was won the Grace Leven Prize (1971), the Christopher Brennan Award (1971), the NSW Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry (1992), NSW Book of the year (1992) and the Gold Medal of the Australian Literature Society (1993).

Riddell died in Sydney in 1998.

Item Descriptions

Drafts of poems by Riddell, including those published in Overland and The Bulletin (File 1-3)

Drafts of poem the 'First hearing' and an article by Riddell and poems by others (including 'A marriage' by John Tranter and 'Migrating' and 'At country airfields' by Duncan Richardson) (File 4)

Riddell's miscellaneous drafts of reviews and cuttings, including 'Some people in summer' (File 5-6)

12 letters and eight cards, 1984-90, from Barrett Reid. Most were written while Reid was the editor of Overland. The subjects include personal news, Reid's comments on Riddell's writings (eg. her poems 'Musk duck' 'His life', 'November' and 'The poet and the wind processor' and radio program), Reid's readings (eg. Illywacker), invitation for Riddell to write reviews for Overland (eg. the Labour ward by John Strauss, This goes with this by P. Goldsmith and Honey by Kate Llewellyn) and news of the death and an account of the funeral of Stephen Murray-Smith (Sept. 1988) (File 7)

Cuttings and typescripts of articles and 18 poems by Barrett Reid, including an obituary of John Reed and 'A landscape painter: the Sidney Nolan Retrospective Exhibition' and copies of Reid's correspondence with Max Harris (File 8)

Papers concerning Patrick White, including Riddell's review of Flaws in the glass, a manuscript poem by Patrick White entitled 'Ryme dreamed after a talk with someone on recipes for suicide, Australia Day 1981' and a photocopy of an article entitled 'Guests of Patrick White' by Brother G.C. Davy (in Our studies, May 1964) (File 9)

Letters of Stephen Murray-Smith (1982 and 1988) concerning The dictionary of Australian quotations (File 10)


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