Series 1 General correspondence, 1939-91

Only a small number of letters have survived from Clark’s years in Melbourne and Oxford or even from his first years in Canberra. The correspondence essentially begins in 1953, when Clark and his family moved into the house in Tasmania Circle, Forrest, designed by Robin Boyd. Clark lived there for the rest of his life and most of the papers were accumulated in that house.

Until the late 1960s most of the letters were filed simply by date. Clark then began to devise a more complex filing system, forming sequences under such headings as ‘Comments on my work’, ‘My great friends’ and ‘Public life’. Sadly, there were great inconsistencies in his filing. Letters from a particular person can be found under several headings, while routine or business letters can be found under the heading ‘My great friends’. Some sequences were abandoned and near the end of his life he again filed many letters simply by year. Despite the inconsistencies, the files have been left largely intact.

In his last years Clark began to create files for specific individuals, especially close friends, and he removed their letters from the more general files. This rearrangement was incomplete at the time of his death. The Library has not created any new files for individuals, but where a file already existed it added letters from the individual found elsewhere in the general correspondence.

Many of the files contain newspaper cuttings and printed ephemera, as well as letters. This is especially true of the sequences ‘Comments on my work’ and ‘Public life’.

Clark wrote most of his letters and postcards by hand and did not keep copies. The bulk of the correspondence therefore consists of incoming letters. However, he often made handwritten drafts of letters of importance and they can be fond among the letters he received. In addition, there is one folder of out-letters and drafts (1/65).

The series is a large one, containing well over 10,000 letters. Clark maintained a very wide correspondence and in some cases it continued for decades. His most prolific correspondents were Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Geoffrey Fairbairn, James McAuley, R.M. Crawford, John La Nauze, Sir Keith Hancock, Frank Kellaway, Geoffrey Dutton, Don Baker, Barbara Penny, Russel Ward, Judah Waten, Patrick White, Bruce Grant, Ken Inglis, G.P. Shaw, John Ritchie, Lyndall Ryan, Suzanne Welborn, Pat Dobrez, Humphrey McQueen, Helen Garner and John Embling. A more extensive list of the principal correspondents can be found in Appendix I. It should be noted that many of the correspondents only used their first names and often it has not been possible to identify them with certainty.

Most other series in the collection also contain correspondence. In particular, letters can be found in the series entitled Australian National University (7), Harvard University (8), Journeys (10), nearly all the series on publications (11-26) and Family correspondence (30).

Folder

1 1939-40

2 1950-53

3-4 1953-54

5-6 1954-55

7 1955

8 1956

9 1956

10 1956

11 1956-57

12 1957

13-14 1957

15 1958

16 1958

17 1958

18 1958

19 1959

20-21 1959

22-23 1959

24-25 1959

26-27 1959-60

28-29 1960

30 1960

31-32 1961

33-34 1961

35-36 1962

37 1963

38 1964

39-40 1964-65

41-45 1966-67

46 1967

47-48 1970-71

49-51 1971

52-53 1972

54 1972-73

55-57 1975

58 1988

59-60 1989

61-63 1990

64 1991

65 Out-letters and drafts, 1965-80

66-67 Correspondence about publications, 1953-72

68-71 Comments on my work, 1960-76

72-73 Comments on my work, 1970-72

74-75 Comments on my work, 1977

76-82 Comments on my work, 1979

83-88 Comments on my work, 1980

89-94 Comments on my work, 1981

95-99 Comments on my work, 1982

100-5 Comments on my work, 1983

106-9 Comments on my work, 1984

110-12 Comments on my work, 1985

113-15 Comments on my work, 1986

116 Comments on my work, 1987

117-24 My great friends, 1967-81

125-29 My great friends, 1981-82

130-33 My great friends, 1983

134-36 My great friends, 1984

137-38 My great friends, 1985

139-49 Personalia, 1986-90

150-55 Writers — miscellaneous, 1965-87

156-59 Letters from writers, 1974-91

160 Correspondence with other writers, 1982

161-63 Public life, 1973-76

164 Public life, 1976-77

165-66 Public life, 1978

167 Kurt Baier, 1987

168 Don Baker, 1964-90

169 Geoffrey Blainey, 1953-90

170 David Campbell, 1967-78

171 Helen Crisp, 1986-90

172 Blanche d’Alpuget, 1980-87

173 Eleanor Dark, 1946-80

174 Pat and Livio Dobrez, 1982-91

175 Rosemary Dobson, 1976-90

176 Geoffrey Dutton, 1960-91

177 Judith Egerton, 1957-90

178 Jane Elliott, 1989

179 John Embling, 1980-88

180-81 Geoffrey Fairbairn, 1945-80

182 Kathleen Fitzpatrick, 1953-90

183 Bill Gammage, 1964-89

184 Helen Garner, 1978-90

185 Bill and Ann Golding, 1975-83

186 Bill Grant, 1987-90

187 Xavier Herbert, 1978-80

188 Barry Humphries, 1965-88

189 Frank Kellaway, 1979-91

190 James McAuley, 1956-76

191 Humphrey McQueen, 1981-90

192 David Malouf, 1983-90

193 Alan Marshall, 1966-84

194 Ian Milner, 1967-90

195 Ed Morgan, 1989-90

196 Iris Murdoch, 1967-90

197 Sidney Nolan, 1967-80

198 Rima Rathausky, 1984-87

199 Margaret Reynolds (Chewton, Vic.), 1960-87

200 Artem Rudnitsky, 1987-91

201-2 Lyndall Ryan, 1968-91

203 Susan Ryan, 1981-89

204 Christina Stead, 1981

205 Douglas Stewart, 1953-83

206 Judah and Hyrell Waten, 1954-85

207 Don Watson and Hilary McPhee, 1983-91

208 Suzanne Welborn, 1973-91

209 Patrick White, 1961-89

210 Mick Williams, 1957-86

211 David Williamson, 1973-88

212 Judith Wright, 1967-88

213-17 Australian of the Year, 1981

218-20 Companion of the Order of Australia, 1975

221 Extension to house, 1974-75

222 Federal election, 1972

223 Houses, 1949-53

224 Parkinson Show, 1980

225-26 St Vincent’s Hospital, 1983

227 Wapengo, 1980

228 Miscellaneous letters