Collection 2: Ruth Park and D'Arcy Niland further literary papers, 1930s-1993

MLMSS 8075

sub-fonds

1930s-1993

Textual Records, Clippings

447336

2.52 metres of textual material (12 boxes)

Ruth Park (1917-2010), was born on the 24 Aug 1917 Auckland, New Zealand. In the late 1930s she corresponded with the young Australian writer D'Arcy Niland whom she married in 1942. Determined to make a living from freelance writing, they wrote in many different forms, including short stories, radio plays, westerns, romances. Park and Niland lived for some time in the slum area of Surry Hills in Sydney, providing Park with first-hand experience of extreme poverty, domestic violence. While visiting her family in New Zealand, Park drew on this experience to write The Harp in the South, submitting it in the 1946 Sydney Morning Herald competition. After winning the £2000 first prize, Park's writing was in much demand and The Harp in the South became a bestseller in Australia and overseas.

Park is also well-known as a children's writer, most notably with the Muddle-Headed Wombat series, first produced on radio, and published regularly in book form between 1962 and 1981. She wrote many more novels, children's books, histories, guides to Sydney, and with D'Arcy Niland's extensive research a biography of Les Darcy `Home Before Dark' (Melbourne, 1995). In the 1990s she also published two volumes of an award-winning autobiography, adding to a large collection of other awards and honours, including a Miles Franklin Award, an AM and an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of New South Wales. After D'Arcy Niland's death in 1967, Park worked for some time in London, then lived on Norfolk Island between 1973 and 1985, after which she returned to Sydney. She died on 14 December 2010, at the age of 93.

D'Arcy Niland (1917-1967) was born on 20 October 1917 at Glen Innes, New South Wales. Niland married Rosina Ruth Park, a 25-year-old journalist from New Zealand. Together they pursued careers as professional writers, a decision which meant they had to produce material such as short stories, radio scripts and even jingles that would bring immediate financial returns. An account of their efforts is found in their autobiography, The Drums Go Bang (1956). D'Arcy established himself as a prolific short story writer. His knowledge of the practicalities of professional writing is evident in his book, Make Your Stories Sell (1955). In the 1948-49 S.M.H. literary competition he won second prize of £50 in the short story section, and third prize of £500 in the novel section for Gold in the Streets (London, 1959). In the 1951 Commonwealth Jubilee literary competition he won second prize of £100 in the short story section (and a special prize of £50) and second prize of £500 in the novel section for The Big Smoke (London, 1959).

Niland again took to the road for research. The resulting novel, The Shiralee (1955), told the story of a swagman and his 4-year-old daughter. The book proved an international success, and in 1957 was made into a motion picture with Peter Finch as the swagman. Niland subsequently published the novels, Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1957) and The Apprentices (1965), and four collections of short stories, The Ballad of the Fat Bushranger (1961), Logan's Girl (1961), Dadda Jumped Over Two Elephants (London, 1961) and Pairs and Loners (1966). The novel, Dead Men Running (1969), was completed two days before he died on 29 March 1967.

Reference:
AUSTLIT. http://www.austlit.edu.au (accessed 22 March 2011)
ABB Online http://adb.anu.edu.au (accessed 7 July 2011)

A collection of papers relating to the literary careers of Ruth Park and D'Arcy Niland. Among Ruth Park's papers are documents relating to her books including The Road Under the Sea, Swords and Crowns and Rings, Playing Beattie Bow, The Muddleheaded Wombat series, The Big Brass Key, The Harp in the South and Callie's family. D'Arcy Niland's papers include notebooks, short stories and journalism.


BOX 1
Notebooks, including those from Boronia Street, Redfern, 1939-1943 and pocket notebooks re: Les Darcy, 1930s-1960s / D’Arcy Niland

Printed books, being a Sunday missal and a ninepenny dictionary / D’Arcy Niland

BOX 2
Registers of manuscripts (4), including title, when and where submitted for publication, result (accepted or rejected), comment and price paid, 1942-1966 / D’Arcy Niland

Register of i.a. Royalties re English and Foreign editions, 1955-1961 / D’Arcy Niland

CHILDREN'S BOOKS
Callie’s Family (edited typescript) /Ruth Park

The Road Under the Sea
Includes corrected typescript, notes, newscuttings of research articles and letter received from Ure Smith Pty Ltd, 2 Mar. 1962 re manuscript, 1959-1962 / Ruth Park

Quiet Holiday
Include outline of story; 1st, 2nd and final versions, being corrected typescript and carbon typescripts; printed copy from School Magazine, Vol. 42, No. 8, Oct. 1957-Part 3, pp. 248-253; enlarged version, being corrected typescript, for Hodder and letters received from NSW Dept. of Education, 1952-1953, 1957; with a radio play, The New Year at Billyboona, being carbon typescript; and synopsis of The Mystery of Acorn Hill, 1952-1957 / Ruth Park

Merchant Campbell [Robert Campbell]
Includes working notes, chronology, corrected and edited typescripts and correspondence with Anne Bower Ingram, Collins, 1974-1975 / Ruth Park

BOX 3
CHILDREN'S BOOKS
The Gigantic Balloon
Includes corrected typescript and correspondence with Anne Bower Ingram (Collins), 1974 / Ruth Park

When the Wind Changes
Includes corrected typescript / Ruth Park

The Big Brass Key
Edited typescript and letter received from Jane Ferrier, Hodder & Stoughton Australia, 14 Dec. 1983 / Ruth Park

Roger Bandy (This was published but never appeared in bookshops)
Includes corrected and final typescript versions; original artwork; correspondence, 1975-1976, with Tess van Sommers, Editorial Consultant, and Rigby Ltd; with note by Ruth Park, 12 Oct. 1993, 1970-1976 / Ruth Park

Come Danger, Come Darkness
Edited typescript and letter received from Margaret D. Hamilton, Hodder & Stoughton Australia, 16 Sep. 1985

BOX 4
Swords and Crowns and Rings (1977)

Working notes, chronology

Copies of agreement between Ruth Park and Nicholas Beauman assigning rights to Swords, 1984

Film script of `Cushie & Jack' by Peter Smalley (typescript) based on the novel (option lapsed) / Ruth Park

Publisher’s shorter edited copy, typescript, carbon typescript, 812 pp. / Ruth Park

BOX 5
The Jackaman Archives [One Man’s Kingdom], being television script for 13 episodes. Includes working notes, drafts and final version, One Man’s Kingdom, being typescript and correspondence, 1962-1969, with i.e. Australian Broadcasting Commission, Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust and Henri Safran, 1962-1973 / Ruth Park, D’Arcy Niland

No Decision (winner of the Associated Television Ltd Play Competition, 1961)
Includes corrected typescript, reviews, and correspondence with Curtis Brown Ltd., London, 1961-1962 / Ruth Park, D’Arcy Niland

Correspondence, being mainly letters received, re Harp in the South (1948) (winner of the 1946 Sydney Morning Herald novel competition). Correspondents include Jon Cleary, Eleanor Dark, Beatrice Davis, Jean Devanny and Tom Hungerford, 1945-1953 / Ruth Park, D’Arcy Niland

Newscuttings mainly re SMH Competition, and of The Harp in the South, and Sunday Herald posters advertising serialisation of Poor Man’s Orange, 1946-1950s / Ruth Park

Newscuttings of articles and reviews re Ruth Park and her work, with b&w photograph of book display of Ruth Park’s Pink Flannel (1955), 1946-1977 / Ruth Park

BOX 6
How I survived the Scott Ordeal by Prof. Griffith Taylor as told to D’Arcy Niland. Cavalier Magazine, Sep. 1961, pp. 27-31, 70-76, with typescript note by Ruth Park [1993] / D'Arcy Niland

Aerial Pioneers
Printed. Walkabout, 1 May 1951, pp. 33-37 / D'Arcy Niland

Champion Axemen (Typescript) / D'Arcy Niland

Men of the Shed, The Reveller’s Homecoming and Christmas Eve at Whissonsett, being signed typescript verse / D'Arcy Niland

Shearing Shed Days: Aventures in the Outback (III), King Among the Jumbuck Barbers (Shearing Shed Days) being typescripts / D'Arcy Niland

Blue Tongues and Greasiers and The Jumbucks Are … Number 2’, being rough typescripts on reverse of letters received, 1943-1944, from i.e. ABC, Angus & Robertson and Australia National Journal / D'Arcy Niland

The Maker of Cities by Rupene Ruapapere [pseud].
Includes notes, typescript and printed copy from Argosy magazine with a radio feature, A Maker of Cities’ (carbon typescript), with note by Ruth Park, Oct. 1993 / D'Arcy Niland

The Shiralee – Ballads
Includes fragments and draft of letter from Darcy Niland to Beatrice Davis, 20 Feb. 1955, with note by Ruth Park, Oct. 1993 / Darcy Niland, Ruth Park

Papers re South Australian Film Corportion’s television rights to The Shirilee
Includes correspondence, 1987-1988, with Phillips Fox, Solicitors and Curtis Brown, London and letters received by Darcy Niland from Angus and Robertson Ltd, London , 1959, 1964 / Ruth Park, D'Arcy Niland

The Tasmania We Love (1987) by Ruth Park and Cedric Emanuel
Includes notes, worksheets, maps, index roughs, photocopied typescript and correspondence with Cedric Emanuel, 1985-1987 / Ruth Park

BOX 7
3 Muddleheaded/Wombat Books/complete files:
The Muddlehearted Wombat Stays at Home. Includes notes, rough drafts, corrected and edited typescripts

Wombat Picturebooks Nos 1-3:
1. The Muddleheaded Wombat and The Bush Band
Carbon typescript and copy of letter from Ruth Park to Angus & Roberson Ltd., 27 July 1972
3. The Muddleheaded Wombat and Clean-Up Day
Carbon typescripts (2) (finished 2.7.74)

The Muddleheaded Wombat and the Invention
Carbon typescript and Wombat in the Dry Weather, being corrected typescript of earlier version

The Muddleheaded Wombat is Very Bad (carbon typescript)

Playing Beatie Bow (1980)
Includes notes, family tree of characters, corrected and edited typescripts and letters received / Ruth Park

Correspondence re Beatie Bow tour of The Rocks, Sydney, 1985 / Ruth Park

Papers re: dispute over payment from South Australian Film Corporation, 1985-1986 / Ruth Park

BOX 8
Short Stories
Include `The Last Assignment’, and `A Cargo for Topacki’ with notes by Ruth Park, 1978, 1993, 1930-1960s / Darcy Niland

Short Stories 2, being further stories, with notes by Ruth Park, 1978, 1993 / Darcy Niland

Reviews of D’Arcy Niland’s stories and mentions in newspapers, with programme for `Harp in the South’ a play in 3 Acts’ by Ruth Park and Leslie Rees at The Independent Theatre, North Sydney, 1949, 1944-1966 / Darcy Niland

The Penguin Best Stories of D’Arcy Niland (1987)
Includes edited photocopied typescript / Ruth Park

BOX 9
The Harp in the South, being television scripts for six episodes, dramatised by Eleanor Witcombe, with revisions by Ruth Park and George Whaley (photocopied typescript) / Ruth Park

BOX 10
Papers re television production of `The Harp in the South’ by Anthony Buckley Films Pty Ltd. Includes script amendments, shooting schedule, memoranda to cast & crew and `News Bulletin No. 2 : A report to our Investor, March 1986’ / Ruth Park

Further papers re television production of `The Harp in the South’, inscribed `File Commenced 30.10.83’, with notes by Ruth Park / 1983-1986 / Ruth Park

Scripts, including cast offs of `Harp in the South’ (photocopied typescript) / Ruth Park

BOX 11
Ghosts Along The Quay (Famous old clipper ships in Sydney Harbour) by Cyril Hume and D’Arcy Niland, being a radio documentary
Corrected typescript and carbon typescript D'Arcy Niland


Walkabout folder:
Correspondence, 1965-1966, with Brian McArdle, Editor.
Walkabout; notebook and photographs re Frank Hurley and boxing / Darcy Niland

Boy With A Dream
Carbon typescript and printed copy from A.M., Jan. 1953

Ruby Robert and the Rubber Ball
MS., corrected typescript and carbon typescript, and printed copy from A.M., 12 Jan. 1954

The Great Hackensmidt
Corrected typescript, carbon typescript. Published as `The Russian Lion’ in A.M., 31 Mar. 1953

Old Battlers Lived Longer
Typescript, carbon typescript and printed copy from A.M., 21 July 1953

A Nice Boxing Day All Round
Includes notes, drafts of earlier versions ` A Very Nice Xmas All Round’ and `An Unusual Xmas Round’, and letter received from Walkabout, 11 Mar. 1966

The Small World of Jamesy Rice
Notes, drafts and printed copy from Walkabout, Dec. 1966

Geraldine by Ruth Park and D'Arcy Niland (shortlisted ATV competition) (typescript)

Printed Books (10)
The Adventures of the Muddle-Headed Wombat (A&R Commemorative edition, 1986), and Swedish, German, Norwegian and Finnish editions

BOX 12
Reviews and publicity material mainly, Call me When The Cross Turns Over (1957), Make Your Stories Sell (1955), Be Your Own Editor (1959), The Big Smoke (1959), Pairs & Loners (1966), The Apprentices (1965) and Dead Men Running (1969) / Darcy Niland

Reviews of The Muddle-Headed Wombat in the Tree Tops (1965) and The Muddle-Headed Wombat at School (1966) / Ruth Park

The Drums Go Bang (1956)
Includes notes, corrected typescript and carbon typescript of previously titled `A Welcome To Wits’ End’; correspondence, 1954-1955, with Woman’s Choice; and corrected proof copy / Ruth Park, D'Arcy Niland

In copyright: This collection has multiple rights owners
Reproduction Restricted: 14 December 2050
Approval for reproduction required: No copies to be provided until 40 years after Ruth Park's death except with the permission of literary executor or the copyright holder
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and courtesy copyright holder