Guide to the Papers of Frank Dalby Davison

Collection Summary

Creator

Frank Dalby Davison

Title

Papers of Frank Dalby Davison

Date Range

1859-1970

Collection Number

MS 1945

Extent

2 metres (13 boxes, 1 folio item)

Language of Materials

English

Repository

National Library of Australia

Introduction

Scope and Contents

The collection contains correspondence with Davison's mother and family, and letters from literary figures including Nettie and Vance Palmer, Kylie Tennant, Henry Handel Richardson, Walter Murdoch, Patrick White, Tom Inglis Moore, Marjorie Barnard, R. D. FitzGerald, Katharine Susannah Prichard, Xavier Herbert and others. The papers also include typescript drafts of some of his novels and some published novels inscribed to Davison from the authors. There is also an ABC television interview transcript with Davison conducted by Owen Webster and the unedited working script of an interview with Davison recorded in 1969, the text of a talk on Christopher Brennan by Hilary Lofting, war service documents, and Davison family photographs.

Conditions Governing Access

Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2571291).

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Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions.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 Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.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 Frank Dalby Davison, National Library of Australia, MS 1945, [series and/or file number]'.

Provenance

The papers were donated to the Library by Davison in 1962. Two small additions were received in 1988 and 1994.

Related Materials

Other Davison Papers are held at MS 764 and MS 8825. Related material is held in the Owen Webster Papers at MS 4805; the Pixie O'Harris letters at MS 4805; the Kay Davison Papers at MS 5183.

Arrangement

The papers were organised into four series by Library staff.

Biographical Note

Frank Dalby Davison was born Frederick Douglas Davison in Hawthorn, Melbourne, on 23 June 1893. He was educated at Caulfield State School, leaving at the age of 12 to be a farm labourer. After 1909 Davison travelled in the United States, Canada and the West Indies. He served with the British Army in France during World War I and in 1915 married Agnes (Kay) Ede, by whom he had one son and one daughter. In 1919 Davison returned to Australia and took up a selection on a soldier settlement farm near Injune, Queensland. The farm failed, and in 1923 Davison moved to Sydney where he worked in real estate and as an advertising manager for his father's magazine, the Australian. During the depression, Davison began writing full time, winning the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal for his novel Man-shy in 1931. His concern at the destruction of the Australian natural environment led to his stories Blue coast caravan (1935), 'The wasteland' (1935), and Children of the dark people (1936). Davison was awarded a Commonwealth Literary Fund Fellowship in 1939-1940. Davison made political commentary through his writings "to reveal the Australian situation and to promote liberal democratic values." He saw literature as a means by which people might be helped to know themselves and their society as a necessary prelude to reform. He was active in the Fellowship of Australian Writers and formed a close working relationship with Marjorie Barnard and Flora Eldershaw. In 1938 he was appointed M.B.E. for his services to literature. In 1944, Davison's marriage was dissolved and he married Edna Marie McNab. The couple bought a farm 'Folding Hills' at Arthur's Creek (Victoria) where he wrote his last major work, The white thorntree (1968). Davison died in Melbourne on 24 May 1970. References: Who's who in Australia, 1968 The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (2nd edition), 1994 Monash biographical dictionary of 20th century Australia 1994 Australian dictionary of biography vol. 13