Peter Skrzynecki further literary papers, 1990-1996

MLMSS 8405

fonds

1990-1996

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Photographs

412749

0.64 metres of textual material (4 boxes)

Peter Skrzynecki was born in 1945 to Feliks and Kornelia Skrzynecki in Germany. He emigrated to Australia in 1949 with his parents on the "General Blatchford". The family lived in a migrant camp in Bathurst for two weeks before being moved on to the Parkes Migrant Centre, a former Air Force Training Base. It is this camp, in central-western New South Wales, that the poet regards as his first home in Australia.

In 1951 the family moved to Sydney. Peter attended the local Catholic school, Saint Peter Chanel's and then, in 1956, began school at St Patrick's College, Strathfield, where he completed his Leaving Certificate in 1963. After an unsuccessful year at Sydney University in 1964, he completed a Primary Teacher Training Course at Sydney Teachers' College in 1965-66 and began teaching in small schools in 1967. During the next three years he taught at Jeogla on the New England Tablelands, Kunghur on the Tweed River and Colo Heights in the Colo River district.

In 1968 he had recommenced his university studies as an external student at the University of New England. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1975. Postgraduate studies include a Master of Arts from the University of Sydney in 1984 and a Master of Letters from the University of New England in 1986.

From 1967 to 1987 Peter Skrzynecki taught in various primary public schools in the western suburbs of Sydney, in the inner-west and the south-west. In 1987 he started teaching at Milperra College of Advanced Education as a Senior Lecturer. His areas of teaching include Introduction to English Studies, American Literature, Australian Literature and he has a special interest in D.H.Lawrence. He has also taught Creative Writing courses.

Peter had his first poems published professionally in Poetry Magazine in 1967 and again in 1968. In 1970 Thomas Shapcott selected his work for inclusion in Australian Poetry Now. Roland Robinson published Skrzynecki's first book, There, Behind the Lids in 1970 with his Lyre-bird Writers Press and also his second book, Headwaters, in 1972. The latter won the Grace Leven Poetry Prize for 1972. These two collections, for the most, were concerned with the poet's experiences during the three years he taught in the country. They were reflective or meditative poems that dealt with the natural world, with the countryside, its people, its fauna and flora.

In 1975, Peter Skrzynecki's third book, Immigrant Chronicle, was published by University of Queensland Press. Though many of the poems carried traces of themes from the two earlier books, by and large, a new note or theme emerged in this collection. For the first time the poet wrote about his European background, his experiences as a migrant in Australia, the problems associated with being an exile, with his parents' dispossession and the difficulties, such as racism, bigotry and resettlement, encountered by them and other immigrants in trying to assimilate to a new life in a new land.

Peter Skrzynecki is married to Kate and has three children, Judith, Andrew and Anna.

Reference:
Peter Skrzynecki's Website: About the Author. http://www.peterskrzynecki.com/biography.htm (accessed January 23, 2012)

Drafts and page proofs of his novel 'The Cry of the Goldfinch' with related correspondence, bound into volumes by Dr Cains, some erroneously labelled

BOX 1
Volumes: Correspondence; Original Typescript (2 volumes); Original Version Submitted; Original Photocopy (is actually corrected computer typescript). Includes photographs, letters, editorial reports, ca. 1994-1996

BOX 2
Volumes: Original Unedited M.S. [Manuscript]; Finished Chapters; Corrected Typescript; Original Typescript, ca. 1995-1996

BOX 3
Volumes: Original Typed (is actually photocopy of computer typescript); Notebooks 1-4; Second Proof, ca. 1990-1996

BOX 4
Volumes: Uncorrected Proof (1-3); Second Page Proof, 1996

Copyright status:: In copyright
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Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

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