Guide to the Papers of Randolph Stow

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MS 4912, MS Acc10.128.MS Acc10.195, MS Acc16.013

National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record

Collection Summary

Creator
Stow, Randolph
Title
Papers of Randolph Stow
Date Range
1935-2010
Collection Number
MS 4912, MS Acc10.128.MS Acc10.195, MS Acc16.013
Extent
1.83 metres 12 MS boxes, 1 packet
Language of Materials
English
Repository
Special Collections (Manuscripts)
Sponsor
Sponsor note: This guide was prepared by the Pictures & Manuscripts Branch with the assistance of the Ray Mathew and Eva Kollsman Trust.

Introduction

Scope and Contents

The papers in this collection were accumulated over the course of Stow's life and career. They comprise correspondence, drafts of novels and poetry, photographs and slides, research notes, notebooks, personal diaries, news clippings; files on dealings with agents and publishers reviews by and about Stow; and a thesis on Stow's writing. Correspondents include Patrick White, A.D. Hope, Geoffrey Dutton, David Foster, A.N. Jeffares, Ralph Steadman, Naomi Mitchison, Annette B. Weiner, Russell Soaba, George Malko, Marlis Thiersch, Nevil Shute, Vincent Buckley, Max Cramer, Mary Durack Miller and Nicholas Jose. There is also a group of letters from Stow to his mother, Mary Stow and his sister Helen McArthur.

Conditions Governing Access

Access conditions may apply to this collection, please refer to the collection's catalogue record for further information(http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1109597.

Preferred Citation

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Randolph Stow, National Library of Australia, [class/series/file/item number(s)]'.

Provenance

The initial instalments of papers were acquired from Randolph Stow over a period of time commencing in 1975. The two instalments in 2010 and one in 2016 were received from Stow's sister.

Audio recording Randolph Stow reads a selection of his poetry, recorded in 1973

Audio recording Randolph Stow interviewed by Hazel de Berg, recorded in 1974

Collection Retrieval Advice

Please note: each class 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.

Finding Aid Source(s)

Please note : This finding aid may comprise or contain descriptive information provided by donors, researchers and/or volunteers

Biographical / Historical

Novelist, poet and academic. Julian Randolph Stow was born in Geraldton, Western Australia, in 1935 and educated at Geraldton Primary School and Guildford Grammar School. While studying for his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Western Australia, he published two novels, A haunted land (1956) and The bystander (1957). In 1957 Stow's collection of poems, Act One: poems, won the gold medal of the Australian Literature Society. His third novel, To the islands (1958) was influenced by his contact with indigenous people in remote areas and won him another Australian Literature Society gold medal and the Miles Franklin Award. In 1959, Stow was posted as assistant Government Anthropologist in the Trobriand Islands and Milne Bay area of New Guinea. Ill-health, however, forced his evacuation to Australia.

During the 1960s Stow held teaching positions at universities in England and Australia and, in 1965, travelled in the United States on a Harkness Fellowship. In 1969, Stow settled permanently in England. He nevertheless maintained his ties with Australia and in 1987 the Randolph Stow Fiction and Poetry Award was established. Stow wrote six other novels and two further volumes of poetry, Outrider (1962), illustrated by Sidney Nolan, and A counterfeit silence (1969). In 1967, he published a successful children's book, Midnite: the story of a wild colonial boy. He also collaborated with English composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies on two music theatre works. Stow's contribution to Australian literature attracted many awards and honours including the Britannica-Australia Award in 1966, the Grace Leven Poetry Prize, 1969, and the Patrick White Literary Award in 1979. Stow died in Essex, England, in 2010.

Item Descriptions

Class MS 4912. Initial consignment received 1975

Hand-amended typescript and manuscript drafts of the novels The bystander, To the islands, Tourmaline, The merry-go-round in the sea, Midnite: the story of a wild colonial boy, Visitants, The girl green as elderflower, The suburbs of hell: a novel and Keith Farnham; a collection of poems Outrider: poems, 1936-1962; and, a libretto for the composition of Peter Maxwell Davies, Miss Donnithorne's maggot

Series 1. The Bystander, 1957

The typescript has the title 'Keithy Farnham', the name of the protagonist in The Bystander

Typescript with manuscript annotations (File 1) - Box 1 (MS 4912)

Series 2. To the islands, 1958

The typescript has the title 'To The Islands: A Morality'. The draft is written on the back of a number of other pages of drafts for the novel To the Islands, essays, reviews, and school assignment papers

Typescript with manuscript annotations of To the islands (File 1) - Box 1 (MS 4912)

Series 3. Outrider: poems, 1962

Typescript with manuscript annotations of poems for Outrider and a letter signed Jack to Stow critiquing Outrider: poems, 1936-1962, dated 30 August 1961

The folder contains multiple manuscripts for some poems (File 1) - Box 1 (MS 4912)

Series 4. Tourmaline, 1963

Typescript with manuscript annotations of Tourmaline (1963), Randolph Stow, 'Tourmaline', Meanjin, July 1961 (Melbourne: Meanjin Press), pp. 133-154, and a letter signed Jack to Stow critiquing Tourmaline, dated 20 July 1962

The first draft of chapter one of Tourmaline was published in the Meanjin article included in the folder (File 1) - Box 1 (MS 4912)

Series 5. The merry-go-round in the sea, 1965

Typescript with manuscript annotations of The merry-go-round in the sea (File 1) - Box 1 (MS 4912)

Series 6. Midnite: the story of a wild colonial boy, 1967

Typescript with manuscript annotations o amended typescript drafts of Midnite: the story of a wild colonial boy (File 1) - Box 1 (MS 4912)

Series 7. Miss Donnithorne's maggot, 1974

Typescript with manuscript annotations of libretti of Miss Donnithorne's maggot (File 1) - Box 1 (MS 4912)

Series 8. Visitants, 1979

First handwritten manuscript, first typescript with manuscript annotations, and typescript proof of Visitants (File 1) - Box 2 (MS 4912)

Series 9. The girl green as elderflower, 1980

First handwritten manuscript, first typescript with manuscript annotations, and typescript proof of The girl green as elderflower (1980) (File 1) - Box 2 (MS 4912)

Series 10. The suburbs of hell: a novel, 1984

Handwritten manuscript of The suburbs of hell: a novel (1984) (File 1) - Box 2 (MS 4912)
Typescript proof of The suburbs of hell: a novel (1984) (File 2) - Box 2 (MS 4912)

Class MS Acc10.128. Consignment received 2010

Personal correspondence with notable correspondents including Patrick White, A.D. Hope, Geoffrey Dutton, David Foster, A.N. Jeffares, Ralph Steadman, Naomi Mitchison, Annette B. Weiner, Russell Soaba, George Malko and Marlis Thiersch. Photographic prints and slides including portraits of Randolph Stow, family, and travels, including Tourmaline, Suffolk, Geraldton and Stour Estuary; material relating to Stow's work in the Forrest River Mission in Western Australia, Port Moresby and the Trobriand Islands, notebooks (many concerning local language) with writings, photographs, slides, letters, and articles by Annette B. Weiner. Research notes, manuscripts and typescripts for Stow's poetry and novels, including The girl green as elderflower and To the islands; research notes and writing on the Batavia; ephemera and correspondence relating to adaptations of Midnite; files on dealings with agents, publishers, royalty payments; personal papers including passports, birth certificate, academic records; reviews by and about Stow; personal diaries; theses on Stow's writing; biographical articles; bibliographies on Stow; various monographs containing loose correspondence and notes between pages; and, journals containing Stow's writing, including some in Swedish

Correspondence, research notes typescript and handwritten relating to the Batavia disaster - includes translation of 1630 Swedish papers by Stow detailing the trial of painter Torrentius; letters from Simon Jones and Max Cramer; loose copy of Peter Goldsworthy's published poems from ABR with note; Bound photocopy of Lyds Veer-Schuyts Praetjen in Swedish with photographs, 1964-2001 (File 1) - Box 1 (MS Acc10.128)

Randolph Stow - The Opinions of Torrentius - essays and translations; Manuscript draft - Leyden Ferryboat Gossip and notebook; Photographic negatives and prints - illustrations for book?; Booklet Terra Australis Incognita containing loose letter, postcard, note book (File 2) - Box 1 (MS Acc10.128)

Photographic enlargement of Journal of Ongeluckighe Voyage (1628) inc request and copyright notice (File 3) - Box 1 (MS Acc10.128)

Contracts (publishing), 1989-2008 (File 4) - Box 1 (MS Acc10.128)

Contracts (publishing), 1955-1989 (File 5) - Box 1 (MS Acc10.128)

Photocopy of Moondyne - John Boyle O'Reilly 128 pp.; Journal Lyrikvannen (3/77) includes loose typescript poems by Stow in Swedish; Notecards with biographical information and accounts of the mutiny on the Batavia. There, behind the lids by Peter Skrzynecki signed copy; letters to Stow from Skrzynecki inside (Wrapper says 'Library Service of WA), 1970-1977 (File 6) - Box 1 (MS Acc10.128)

Photograph album - portraits of family, friends, holidays - most captioned on verso; tourist map of Constable Country walks in English, French and Dutch, 1959-1991 (File 7) - Box 2 (MS Acc10.128)

Articles, lectures, papers, interviews, 1983-1990 (File 8) - Box 2 (MS Acc10.128)

Correspondence handwritten and typeset between Stow and John Beston; includes bibliography, articles, interviews etc, 1963-1975 (File 9) - Box 2 (MS Acc10.128)

Photographic negatives and prints - portraits of Stow, English scenes; Letter enclosing sheet music with lyrics translated from Latin to English (sender unidentified), 1976-c1999 (File 10) - Box 2 (MS Acc10.128)

Thesis: L'Opera de Randolph Stow Nell Letteratura Australiana Postcoloniale: Visitants (1979) - Roberta Marsi includes draft correspondence to Marsi in notebook, 1996-1997 (File 11) - Box 2 (MS Acc10.128)

Correspondence, handwritten drafts (by Stow?) - includes press release (1999), 1999-2007 (File 12) - Box 2 (MS Acc10.128)

Correspondence - includes small number of photographs, news clippings, 2001-2010 (File 13) - Box 2 (MS Acc10.128)

Correspondence, 1999-2009 (File 14) - Box 3 (MS Acc10.128)

Book: The Book of Pidgin English by John H. Murphy (1956) ; Articles: The reproductive model in Trobriand Society - Annette B. Weiner; Reprint of article: Trobriand Descent - Annette B. Weiner Ethos, Spring 1977, 1956-1977 (File 15) - Box 3 (MS Acc10.128)

Notebook: Notes for The Orange Road [a singular life] and Weep, all ye little rains - Loose letters, drafts between pages, nd (File 16) - Box 3 (MS Acc10.128)

Packet titled 'Dave Foster letters' - includes series of letters from David Foster, photographs; also 1 letter from Geoffrey Dutton, 1979-1996 (File 17) - Box 3 (MS Acc10.128)

Correspondence - mostly business matters, including letters from Literature Board, Australia Council, Tax Office, Patrick White award, 1969-1997 (File 18) - Box 3 (MS Acc10.128)

Used passports, copies of birth certificates dating back to 1902 (including Stow and family members), 1935-1991 (File 19) - Box 3 (MS Acc10.128)

Reviews, 1979-1980 (File 20) - Box 3 (MS Acc10.128)

Photographic slides: x 280 Western Australia - Geraldton ; Forrest River Mission (?), nd (File 21) - Box 3 (MS Acc10.128)

Book: Tao Te Ching: the Book of the Way and its Virtue - transl. from the Chinese by J.J.L. Duyvendak (loose typewritten notes inside from cover) ; Book: Strange Country: a study of Randolph Stow - Anthony J. Hassall (letters held loosely inside front cover), 1954-1960; 1990-2009 (File 22) - Box 4 (MS Acc10.128)

Journal: Artes: Tidskrift for Litteratur Konst och Musik (1/1979) - contains Stow's writing (letter held loosely in book); Journal: Kunapipi - Vol I, No. 1, 1979, 1979 (File 23) - Box 4 (MS Acc10.128)

Slides (most individually captioned) Tourmaline, Suffolk and Geraldton (1960-2), Stour Estuary, PNG, Minsmere and Dunwich (Oct. 1977), 1960s-1970s (File 24) - Box 4 (MS Acc10.128)

Photographic prints - Trobriand Islands; Small notebooks - The Bird-Scarer Boy; The Orange Road; Birds - Geraldton District, 1959 (File 25) - Box 4 (MS Acc10.128)

Typescript The Girl Green as Elderflower with minor editing, nd (File 26) - Box 4 (MS Acc10.128)

Research notes on Batavia, Torrentius, Jeronimus Conelisz; Typescript papers including The opinions of Terrentius,The Southland of Antichrist, talk by Stow; includes clippings, photographs, 1969-1981 (File 27) - Box 4 (MS Acc10.128)

Statement of Academic Record; Photographic negatives - images for book in annotated sleeve and accompanying list, 1965-1968 (File 28) - Box 4 (MS Acc10.128)

Loose papers - reviews, booklets etc; exercise book - drafted notes for books and loose typescripts, 1970's-c1990's (File 29) - Box 4 (MS Acc10.128)

Thesis: Randolph Stow's Tourmaline - Margherita Sartori-Borotto (inscribed by author to Stow), 1974-1975 (File 30) - Box 5 (MS Acc10.128)

Theatre programme Midnite for bicentennial tour of the UK (includes loose papers inside front cover); News clippings, copy of 'Rants to instruments',, 1988 ; 1970's-1980's (File 31) - Box 5 (MS Acc10.128)

Typescripts of To the Islands (includes loose letters inside), 1958, 1981 (File 32) - Box 5 (MS Acc10.128)

Typescript for A picture story by Brian Eastman, including loose leaves with corrections, and b&w photograph, C1978 (File 33) - Box 5 (MS Acc10.128)

Typescript of screenplay by George Malko of Stow's To the islands. Letter from Malko to Stow held loosely in pages, 1989 (File 34) - Box 5 (MS Acc10.128)

Proof copy - Midnite: the story of a wild colonial boy by Randolph Stow (loose letter from publisher inside cover), 1984 (File 35) - Box 5 (MS Acc10.128)

Typescript for A picture story by Brian Eastman, including letter from the author inside front cover; Someone is mad among us notes etc - interview with Charlie Mower, 3 February 1983 - loose photograph of Mower and newsclipping held inside, 1978; 1983 (File 36) - Box 5 (MS Acc10.128)

Diary 1959 - photocopy of entries mainly up to 1962 with occasional entries up to 1982, 1959-1982 (File 37) - Box 5 (MS Acc10.128)

Essays and accompanying correspondence - including The station garden, Transplantable roots, Gaeledom and the Western District, Remembering Mr Atkinson, Forked roots, Rememberance of Crimes Past, Blood sea and ice, Hollow men's country, Victorian legs, 1970's-1994 (File 38) - Box 5 (MS Acc10.128)

Photocopy of articles from Aboriginal History vol 6, 1-2, 1982; Tempo booklet no. 2 - Peter Maxwell Davies - studies from two decades; Correspondence;The Wild Colonial Boy: the life and times of Jack Donahoe by John Meredith - limited edition, autographed by the author, 1979; 1982 (File 39) - Box 6 (MS Acc10.128)

Concert programmes - Musica Viva The Fires of London; The Pierrot Players - includes loose clippings; Brochure 8 Songs Shiraz - letter from Peter Lehmann with packing slip (2000), 1970-2000 (File 40) - Box 6 (MS Acc10.128)

Notebooks - some titled - eg. Iwa-Kitava-Megaliths, Grammar, Canoe Launching etc, Vocabulary, Spells and legends, nd (File 41) - Box 6 (MS Acc10.128)

Handwritten draft The girl green as elderflower by Stow; loose notes ad correspondence inside front cover, c1978 (File 42) - Box 6 (MS Acc10.128)

Notebook titled 'Notes and texts', includes hand drawn map of Forrest River Mission from memory; Folder titled 'Trobriand Islands' - includes typescripts of Fey, Magic, Kaitalugi: a kukwanebu, Cargo, 1950's-1960's (File 43) - Box 6 (MS Acc10.128)

Dokonikan; map - fabric (formerly backed with brown paper) colour hand drawn of island Districts and alliances (File 43a) - Map-Folio 43a (MS Acc10.128)

Loose handwritten notes, letters, ephemera - including location booklet and programme for the film The Merry-Go-Round in the sea, 1970's-1990's (File 44) - Box 7 (MS Acc10.128)

Photographic prints and negatives - portraits, family, holidays - some captioned, 1959-2000 (File 45) - Box 7 (MS Acc10.128)

Medieval Suffolk Legends - notes, drafts, articles, visitor guides, c1960s (File 46) - Box 7 (MS Acc10.128)

Loose notes re. grammer, vocab, translation - perhaps Kiriwina?; Folder titled 'Kiriwina-English', c1950's (File 47) - Box 7 (MS Acc10.128)

James Bird - memoir (photocopy); Dunwich: a tale of the splendid city - James Bird (photocopy) (File 48)) - Box 7 (MS Acc10.128)

Good Weekend feature article on Stow by Jane Wheatley, and associated correspondence; Correspondence with UQ Press - cover designs for Girl green as elderflower and Visitants; Photographic prints - Brains trust of Britain; Tony Hassall's article on Stow for Dictionary of Literary Biography - photocopy; Roger Averill - interview with Randolph Stow 2001, article 2002 - includes photographs; Letter from Murray Debus - 'Rapt' - Midnite animation (1998), 1998-2002 (File 49) - Box 8 (MS Acc10.128)

Trobriand Islands - anthropological notes, 1959 (File 50) - Box 8 (MS Acc10.128)

Weep, all ye little rains - exercise book with handwritten notes, sheet music, typescripts (some loose), 1950's-1960's (File 51) - Box 8 (MS Acc10.128)

Reviews by Stow for the Times Literary Supplement - clippings, 1976-1998 (File 52) - Box 8 (MS Acc10.128)

Scrapbook - handwritten reviews, some loose photographs and other papers included among pages, 1988-2003 (File 53) - Box 8 (MS Acc10.128)

Comb-bound volume: photocopy of Chronicles and memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages - copied 2010, 2010 (File 54) - Box 8 (MS Acc10.128)

Loose assorted typescripts for the Terra Australis Incognita Exhibition interfiled in exercise book - including catalogue of display items, research notes, letters, invitation list, 1970's (File 55) - Box 8 (MS Acc10.128)

Reviews - clippings, 1951-1984 (File 56) - Box 8 (MS Acc10.128)

Diary 1959 - occasional entries up to 1988; loose - drivers license, obituaries and small pressed flower; Exercise book - JR Stow, Taurama Hospital, Port Moresby - contains loose correspondence and typescripts; Proofs and correspondence for The Literary Review (2001), 1959-2001 (File 57) - Box 9 (MS Acc10.128)

Notebook - contains typescript and handwritten loose papers - including correspondence with Allan Edwards (UWA), MA Preliminary The Dream and the Dark Powers: Conrad and Jim; Randolph Stow: a bibliography; Midnite - Festival of Perth programme, associated correspondence and reviews, 1961-1968 (File 58) - Box 9 (MS Acc10.128)

The Bird-scarer Boy: memoranda of his life by John Goodlad - also includes loose news clippings, c1980's (File 59) - Box 9 (MS Acc10.128)

Royalty statements to late 90s and 2009-2010, 1980-2010 (File 60) - Box 9 (MS Acc10.128)

Royalty statements, 1980-2007 (File 61) - Box 9 (MS Acc10.128)

Personal correspondence - including several letters from Patrick White ; photographs of Salman Rushdie, Anita Desai, and Stow in Sweden. Other correspondents include AD Hope, Dr Fiona Stanley, A.N. Jeffares, Patsy Millett, Ralph Steadman, Naomi Mitchison, Annette B. Weiner, Russell Soaba, George Malko, Marlis Thiersch, and Stow's mother, 1956-2000 (File 62) - Box 9 (MS Acc10.128)

Personal correspondence and papers - Max Cramer, Phillip Playford; Photograph of Stow's gravesite and photocopies of Woodland of remeberance (2010); photocopies and articles in plastic sleeve labelled Cokaygne, Cuccagna, Schlaraffenland (1991), 1991-2010 (File 63) - Box 9 (MS Acc10.128)

Class MS Acc10.195. Consignment received 2010

Letters from Stow to his mother, Mrs Mary Stow, covering a long period from his school and university days, work in the Forrest River Mission and Papua New Guinea, travels abroad, writing career, and residence in England; letters from Stow to his sister Helen McArthur and her family; letters to Stow from various correspondents including Nevil Shute Norway, Vincent Buckley, Max Cramer, Mary Durack Miller and Nicholas Jose. There are also photographic portraits of Stow, photographs of various Stow family houses in Western Australia and Stow's house in Harwich, research notes, news clippings and passport

Personal correspondence - large number of letters from Stow to his mother Mrs Mary Stow ; several letters from Stow to his sister Helen McArthur and her family ; letter to Stow from Mary Durack Miller, 1952-2006 (File 1) - Box 1 (MS Acc10.195)

Personal correspondence - large number of letters from Stow to his mother Mrs Mary Stow ; letters from Stow to his sister Helen McArthur ; letter to Stow from Mary Miller; letters to Stow from Vincent Buckley and Max Cramer, 1952-1999 (File 2) - Box 1 (MS Acc10.195)

Personal correspondence - large number of letters from Stow to his mother Mrs Mary Stow ; letters from Stow to his sister Helen McArthur ; Stow's passport issued 1965 ; travel itinerary - New York City to Roanoke VA (1964) ; small notebook; hand sketched small map of the Trobiand Islands, 1953-2009 (File 3) - Box 1 (MS Acc10.195)

Personal correspondence - large number of letters from Stow to his mother Mary Stow (originals with photocopies) - includes typescript of family tree (1956); letters from Stow to his sister Helen McArthur and her family ; letters to Stow from several people at the Forrest River Mission including Paddy Bruce Hudson, Ronnie Williamson ; letters to Stow from Sal Gare, Antigone Kefala, Nevil Shute Norway and Howard Sergeant (Outpost Publications), 1951-2002 (File 4) - Box 1 (MS Acc10.195)

Photographs, including portraits of Stow, pictures of Stow's house in Harwich, family homes in WA, St George's College (Perth) ; postcard from Nicholas Jose ; news clippings ; letters from Max Cramer ; photograph of Stow's grave and map of its position in Wrabness; research notes and articles, c1990's-2010 (File 5) - Box 1 (MS Acc10.195)

Class Acc16.013. Consignment received 2016

A watch used by Randolph Stow in his later years, c1962 (File 1) - Piece 1 (MS Acc16.013)


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