Bruce Beaver - further papers, 1946-ca 2003, and photographs, ca 1916-ca 1960, ca late 1990s

MLMSS 7389/Boxes 1-6
MLMSS 7389/Box 7X
R 948/Item a
R 948/Item b

fonds

ca 1916 - ca 2003

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Objects, Clippings, Photographs

411849

1.19 metres of textual material (6 boxes, 1 outsize box) includes photographs
Textual Records
Textual Records - (typescript)
Clippings
Objects

Bruce Beaver, poet, was born at Manly, NSW, in 1928. In the 1950s he worked on the railways in country NSW as a surveyor's chainman. Thereafter he spent a short time on Norfolk Island and then several years living and working in New Zealand where he met his wife Brenda. In 1962 he returned to Manly where he was to live for the rest of his life. During his lifetime he published twelve volumes of poetry and prose and also wrote plays and novels. His collection of poems 'Letters to live poets' (1969) won the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry, the Poetry Society of Australia Prize and the Captain Cook Bicentennial Prize for Poetry, all in 1970. He was awarded the Patrick White Literary Award in 1982, the FAW Christopher Brennan Award in 1983, and a NSW State Literary Award Special Award in 1990.

MLMSS 7389
BOX 1
1. POETRY AND PROSE

Notebook of manuscript poems, 1946-1948, inscribed 'To Mother with love. Bruce. 1948'
'Letters to live poets' [published 1969]: 'Compositional drafts, 1967', being first MS. draft in four notebooks; 'Interim drafts, 1968', being second MS. draft; 'Final draft, 1969', typescript with MS. corrections
'Lauds and plaints' [published 1974]: 'Compositional drafts, 1968/72', being first MS. draft in four notebooks; 'Draft II, 1969/72' and 'Draft III, 1972', being MS. drafts; final draft, bound carbon typescript
Death's directives' [published 1978]: 'Compositional drafts, 1976', being first MS. draft

BOX 2
'As it was ...' [published 1979]: 'Compositional, interim and final drafts', being MS. drafts, undated
'Headlands: prose sketches' [published 1986]: 'Headlands (Landscape with figures) Compositional drafts' MS. draft, undated; 'Headlands (Landscape with figures) and Between the stars (unpublished sequence) Final drafts', MS. draft in one notebook, undated; MS. and typescript drafts of 'Between the stars - soliloquies' [unpublished], undated
'Charmed lives' [published 1988]:'Charmed lives R.M.R. & Tiresias Sees Compositional/Interim drafts', MS. drafts, undated
'Anima and other poems' [published 1994]: MS. and typescript drafts, undated
'Poets and others' [published 1999]: MS. and typescript drafts, undated, of most of the poems published in 'Poets and others'

BOX 3
'The Long game and other poems' [unpublished collection]: MS. draft, undated; final typescript draft, undated, with author's MS. corrections
'Beaver/Aeschylus The Persians. Translated by John Welch. Put into English verse by Bruce Beaver': MS. and typescript working, interim and final drafts, 1980
'Festival: a verse novella', first and second MS. drafts, undated
Miscellaneous poetry and prose including poems and letters to Brenda Beaver, 1962, 1987-1999; drafts, fragments and notes, ca 1980 - ca 2003

BOX 4
2. NOVELS AND SHORT STORIES
'Compositional and final drafts three short stories 1951': MS. and typescript drafts of: 'The True cross'; 'A matter of taste'; 'By the beautiful sea'
'You can't come back' [novel published 1966]: final typescript draft, 1966
'The Next bright bolt' [unpublished novel]: carbon typescript draft, 1966
3. PLAYS
Various drafts, mainly MS., of plays: 'Hunter's home', 1953-4; 'A single to the city', 1953-4; 'The Last supper' [libretto], 1954; 'A fine flash of silver', 1963; "You will remember Vienna', 1963; 'The Witness', undated; 'An island story', undated; 'The Pines, the sea and the big blue sky', undated; 'The Sisters', undated; 'King tide running', undated [by Barbara Vernon and Bruce Beaver, published 1967 in 'Australian One Act Plays']
4. OTHER WRITINGS
Essays, articles, etc., ca 1963 - ca 1997: 'Frederick Delius: a composer who lived life to the full'; 'The Tragic life of John Davidson, Scots Philosopher-Poet'; 'Long night's journey into day'; 'Flap among the Kiwis'; 'The Cosmopolitan eye' [re the four books produced in collaboration by Peter Porter and Arthur Boyd]; 'Work notes of a new book and beyond'; Notebook containing record of dreams, May 1996 - Oct. 1997

BOX 5
5. CORRESPONDENCE
Letters received from Tom Shapcott, Jan. 1978 - Jan. 1992; notebook with draft reply, ca 1994 [RESTRICTED]
Letters, including enclosed poems, received from Dorothy Porter, Nov. 1982 - Jan. 1992 [RESTRICTED]

BOX 6
6. PHOTOGRAPHS
59 photographs, ca 1916 - ca 1960, ca 1995, mainly of Bruce Beaver with his parents as a baby and young boy, 1928-1943, in Singleton in the early 1950s, with Peter Skrzynecki, ca 1995

7. WRITINGS ABOUT BRUCE BEAVER
'Bruce Beaver' by Heather Stewart: English literature B.A. Honours Thesis, Macquarie University, 1977; 'To a live poet: Bruce Beaver', essay by Lawrence Bourke; 'The Poetry of Bruce Beaver', by [Gary?]; Reviews of Beaver's 'New and Selected Poems, 1960-1990', 1991-1992; articles about Beaver from 'The Manly Daily' newspaper, 1993, 1995

8. WORKS BY OTHER WRITERS
Notebook of poems copied by Beaver, ca 1940s; Inscribed typescript copy of 'Akhenaten' by Dorothy Porter, 1990; Typescript copy of 'Minga Street: new and selected poems' by Craig Powell, ca 1993; Inscribed copy of galley proof of 'The City of home' by Tom Shapcott, with covering letter, 1995

BOX 7X
Full MS. score [photocopy] of 'Pelucid Days: for soprano, mezzo soprano, French horn & string orchestra' by Moya Henderson, 1989 [words by Bruce Beaver], inscribed to Bruce and Brenda; Notebook containing MS. transcription made by Gwen Harwood of her libretto for 'Lenz', the opera by Larry Sitsky, inscribed to Bruce and Brenda, 1973, together with covering note

R 948
9. AWARDS
Item A.
F.A.W. [Fellowship of Australian Writers] Christopher Brennan Award, 1982
Timber plaque with bronze relief carving (24 x 18.6 cm)

Item B.
NSW State Literary Award Special Award, 1990
Pewter medal in case (7 cm. diam.)

Partly restricted: Applies to MLMSS 7389/Box 5. Access requires a signed undertaking not to make any use of information contained therein, in conversation or in writing, that could cause pain or embarrassment to any living person.

Access via appointment - Applies to R 948/Item a and R 948/Item b