Guide to the Papers of Kate Baker

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MS 2022

National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record

Collection Summary

Creator
Kate Baker
Title
Papers of Kate Baker
Date Range
1882-1953
Collection Number
MS 2022
Extent
1.6 metres (10 boxes + 2 folios)
Language of Materials
English
Repository
National Library of Australia

Introduction

Scope and Contents

The collection consists chiefly of letters from various correspondents, including Kate Baker's letters to A.K. Wilson and Margaret Boyd; Joseph Furphy's letters to his mother, William Cathels, Kate Baker and A.G. Stephens. Also included are drafts of brief biographical sketches of various Australian writers called Silhouettes by Kate Baker, and prose and poetry - published and unpublished - by Joseph Furphy. Press cuttings, printed material and photographs complete the collection.

Conditions Governing Access

Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2266108).

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Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions.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 Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.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 Kate Baker, National Library of Australia, MS 2022, [box number and series and/or file number]'.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The material in the Kate Baker collection was received from three separate sources. Kate Baker presented the bulk of it in 1950 to the National Library. Subsequent gifts of related material were received from Margaret Boyd in 1952 and 1964 and from A. Kaye Wilson in 1957 and 1958.

Arrangement

The material is arranged in two parts. Series 1 to 4 is Kate Baker's personal collection. Series 5 to 8 is the Joseph Furphy material which she assembled into one collection.

Biographical Note

KATE BAKER (1861-1953): Catherine (Kate) Baker was born in Cappoquin, Ireland, on 23rd April, 1861. In 1870 she came to Australia with her mother. After finishing her schooling she joined the Victorian Education Department, her first appointment being to the North Williamstown State School. She was transferred to the country school at Wanalta Creek where she boarded at the home of Isaac Furphy, brother of Joseph Furphy. The Following year she moved to Burrambool School, boarding this time with his parents.

Kate Baker finally met Joseph Furphy in 1886, just as she was leaving the district. She talked to him at some length, and, after reading some of his sketches, urged him to write a book. Such is life, the first of Joseph Furphy's books, was published in 1903. It impressed literary people but had no immediate public appeal.

After Furphy's death in 1912, Kate Baker resolved to dedicate her life to the task of proving the writer's worth. As a result of her constant efforts Furphy's name has been kept before the Australian public.

Although the critical work, Joseph Furphy: the legend of a man and his book (1944) by Miles Franklin in association with Kate Baker, was Baker's only published writing, her valuable, if indirect, contribution towards the advancement of Australian literature was recognised. In 1937 she received the decoration O.B.E. 'for services to Australian literature'.

Kate Baker died at the home of her nephew in Melbourne on 7 October, 1953.

JOSEPH FURPHY (1843-1912): Joseph Furphy, son of Samuel Furphy, an Irishman, who emigrated to Australia in 1841, was born at Yering, now Yarra Glen, Victoria, on 26th September, 1843. He received his early education from his mother, his first books being the Bible and Shakespeare.

In 1852 the family moved to Kyneton where Samuel Furphy entered business as a hay and corn merchant. In 1864 Joseph Furphy bought himself a threshing plant and travelled the surrounding districts with it. He turned to farming after he was married in 1866. The land he selected at Colbinabbin was poor and in 1873 he sold out and bought a team of bullocks with which he set up as a wool carrier. He followed this occupation for seven years and then, after an outbreak of pleuro-pneumonia among his cattle, he went to Shepparton to a position in an agricultural implement foundry owned by one of his brothers.

Furphy worked for twenty years in Shepparton. During this time he turned in a serious way to writing by contributing paragraphs and articles to the Sydney Bulletin under the pen-name Tom Collins. In 1905 Joseph Furphy moved to Fremantle, W.A., where two of his sons had established a foundry. He died at Claremont on 13th September, 1912. A portrait plaque of him was erected in 1934 at Yarra Glen, Victoria, near his birthplace.

Joseph Furphy saw the publication of only one of his writings, Such is life. The others, Rigby's romance, The Buln-buln and the Brolga and The poems of Joseph Furphy were all published posthumously. It is with Such is life that Furphy's reputation rests. H.M. Green wrote some fifty years after its appearance, 'Such is life is what Stephens said it was fit to become 'an Australian classic, or semi-classic'. Along with Lawson, though in a very different manner, Furphy represents the Australia of his day, and for good and ill he stands, more than Lawson or any other writer, for 'aggressive Australianism'.' (Ref: Green, H.M., A history of Australian literature Vol. 1. 1789-1923. Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1961, p633.)

Item Descriptions

Series 1. Correspondence - Box 1-2

The correspondence covers the period 1894-1953 though few letters remain from the first two decades. The letters deal with a range of subjects but most are related in some way to Kate Baker's interest in Joseph Furphy and Australian literature. Items 1-1701.

Series 2. Biographical sketches

The series includes the brief biographical sketches of writers forming the chapters of Silhouettes. These particular literary personalities were chosen by Kate Baker because they had something to say about Such is life or its author. In some cases other material relating to these figures is included along with the typescript drafts. Items 1-151.

Preface to Silhouettes; Ada Cambridge (File 1) - Box 3-4

Frank Tate; Charles R. Long (File 2) - Box 3-4

Edith Coleman; Bernard Patrick O'Dowd; Rev. Charles Strong (File 3) - Box 3-4

A.G. Stephens (File 4-5) - Box 3-4

John Shaw Neilson (File 6) - Box 3-4

Hubert Church (File 7) - Box 3-4

Dowell O'Reilly; Vance and Nettie Palmer; Melbourne Literary Club, including Robert Henderson Croll, E. Coulson Davidson and Gerald Byrne (File 8) - Box 3-4

Dr James Booth; Robert Samuel "Bob" Ross; Alice Henry; Marie E.J. Pitt; Miles Franklin (File 9) - Box 3-4

Canon Hughes; Charles William Lacon Bryde; John Keith Ewers; Victor Kennedy (File 10) - Box 3-4

Charles Hartley Grattan; 'Brent of Bin Bin'; Edward Harrington; 'Riverina' Cecil H. Winter (File 11) - Box 3-4

Henry Lawson Society; John Kinmont Moir (File 12) - Box 3-4

Material not included in Silhouettes: John Francis Archibald; Joseph Furphy; Broadcast on the occasion of the centenary of Joseph Furphy; Poem - 'Ecstacy'; Essay - 'My favourite character in fiction - Sidney Carton' (File 13) - Box 3-4

Series 3. Papers relating to Kate Baker - Box 3-4

Items in this series include an address by Bernard O'Dowd on the presentation of a portrait plaque in bronze to Kate Baker, and her response, a paper to Kate Baker on the occasion of her 90th birthday, two papers by A. Kaye Wilson 'A Tribute to a Great Lady' and 'Prelude to Kate Baker's letters' and newspaper clippings when Kate Baker was awarded the O.B.E. Items 1-15.

Series 4. Miscellaneous - Box 3-4

This includes some newspaper clippings, publishing houses' circulars, miscellaneous notes, poems and plays, accounts and receipts, eisteddford sheets, Christmas cards and photographs. Items 1-212.

Series 5. Correspondence - Box 5

The Joseph Furphy correspondence covers the period 1889-1910. Most of the letters were written by Furphy to his mother (Judith Furphy), William Cathels and A.G. Stephens. Items 1- 404.

Series 6. Manuscripts

Handwritten and typescript drafts of some of Furphy's short stories, poems and articles. The series also includes miscellaneous corrections and notes. Items 1-56.

Manuscript draft and published version of My birthday, an Ollapodrida (File 1) - Box 5-6

Short stories: 'A romance of the system'; 'The passing of a pioneer'; 'Providence and a cattle pup'; 'My uncle's treasure'; 'A vignette of Port Phillip' (File 2) - Box 5-6

'The discovery of Christmas Reef'; 'High art'; 'The haunted tunnel'; 'A spec. that failed'; 'The unburied past'; 'James Thorpe, Junior' (File 3) - Box 5-6

Poems (File 4) - Box 5-6

Miscellaneous pieces (File 5) - Box 5-6

Series 7. Diary - Box 6

A diary kept by John Furphy for the year 1865.

Series 8. Papers relating to Joseph Furphy - Box 6

Handwritten and typescript notes, newspaper clippings and published articles written about Joseph Furphy. The bulk of this material was written after his death. It includes biographical notes, tributes, broadcasts and addresses given on occasions such as the Joseph Furphy Memorial Pilgrimage to Yarra Glen in 1935. Items 1-34.

Series 9. Reviews and criticisms of Joseph Furphy's writings - Box 6

Newspaper clippings and review articles of Such is life, Rigby's romance, and Furphy's poems. Items 1-62.

Series. Additions - Box 7-10

Material added to the collection includes miscellaneous papers and printed material.


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