Collection 7: Ruth Park further papers, 1929-2002

MLMSS 8727/Boxes 1-4
MLMSS 8727/Box 5X

sub-fonds

1929-2002

Textual Records, Clippings

447426

1.05 metres of textual material (5 boxes)

Ruth Park 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 and 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 a biography of Les Darcy. 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.

Harold Stewart was a poet who, together with James McAuley perpetrated the Ern Malley hoax. In 1963 he became a practising Shin Buddhist and in 1966 left Australia and settled in Kyoto, Japan where he continued to write. He lived in Japan until his death in 1995.

Nancy Bruce was a New Zealand writer of poems, stories, plays, radio scripts and music scores for pantomimes.

Reference:
Library Correspondence File

BOX 1

Folder 1
My sister Sif: preliminary notes, personal research and observations, ca. 1980s

Folder 2
My sister Sif: 1st draft, editorial discussion with Robert Sessions, Penguin Books, ca. 1980s

Folder 3
My sister Sif: photocopy of final manuscript, letters and newscuttings, ca. 1980s

Folder 4
Hiroshima: brochures and personal Japanese notes, ca. 1980s

Folder 5
'Interesting letters Part 1' including letters regarding publishing permissions, letters from school children and letters about research on Eve Langley, ca. 1990s

Folder 6
'Interesting letters Part 2' including letters regarding publishing permissions and letters from school children, 1992-2000

BOX 2

Folder 1
Notebook with pasted-in press clippings of poetry, short stories, playlets and articles by Ruth Park. Some appear under the names of Jean Ingram and Chris Barlow, presumably pseudonyms used by Park. Clippings are undated but appear to date from before her departure from New Zealand. The earliest clipping gives her age as 12, 1929-1960s

Folder 2
Account book used by Ruth park and D'Arcy Niland to record income from writing. Details include source, story and amount, 1964-2001

Folder 3
D'Arcy Niland clean copies of 24 short stories, part 1. Some annotations possibly by Ruth Park, ca. 1980s

Folder 4
D'Arcy Niland clean copies of short stories, part 2. and Wooloomooloo - radio script, ca. 1960s-1980s

Folder 5
1930s Depression. Research material for Swords and crowns and rings. Includes newscuttings, interview and book research notes as well as reminiscences of various people's experiences of the Depression including a sailor, a Sydney artists' model and W. Ellis of Five Dock, ca. 1930s-1970s

Folder 6
A century of headline news. Compilation of front pages from the Evening Post, Wellington New Zealand, 1965

Folder 7
The night traveller: research notes and newscuttings about psychiatry, ca. 1969-1980s.

Folder 8
Mog's mountain: research notes, press clippings and small tourist publications about the eruption of Mount Tarawera and the destruction of the Pink and White Terraces at Rotorua, ca. 1940s to 1970s

BOX 3

Folder 1
Glimpses of true love, carbon and typed manuscript, 1983

Folder 2
Glimpses of true love, clean copy, ca. 1980s

Folder 3
Glimpses of true love, major notes, ca. 1980s

Folder 4
Glimpses of true love, research material includes assorted handwritten and typed notes and newscuttings and some also used in Playing Beatie Bow and Pink flannel, ca. 1960s-1980s

Folder 5
Research material - early colonial notes including newscuttings, including handwritten and typed notes, ca. 1961-1975

BOX 4

Folder 1
Ruth Park and Harold Stewart correspondence. They discuss personal news, poetry, her work, Buddhism and eastern philosophy, life in Japan, his regrets about the influence that the Ern Malley hoax had on his subsequent reputation, clean copies of three of his poems, ca. 1981-1984

Folder 2
Ruth Park and Tess Van Sommers correspondence regarding Harold Stewart's will and archives and possible publication. Letters from Peter Ackland and the National Library and a copy of Harold Stewart's will, ca. 1995-1996

Folder 3
Correspondence between Harold Stewart's sister Marion, Ruth Park and Tess Van Sommers about Harold Stewart's papers, copies of photographs of Harold Stewart, as well as a copy of the National Library's guide to the Harold Stewart papers, 1996

Folder 4
Notes for an article about Harold Stewart and Kyoto, ca. 1989

Folders 5-8
Ruth Park letters to her friend Nancy Bruce in Wanganui, New Zealand. Topics include personal news, writing and the death of D'Arcy Niland. Inlcudes a letter from D'Arcy Niland reporting the birth of their son, ca. 1949-1998

BOX 5X

My Sister Sif: original final draft; Glimpses of true love: carbon copy of typed manuscript with andwritten corrections; Glimpses of true love: discards and rewritten notes, ca. 1980s

Restricted: Prior approval from donor is required for access. Any requests for access will be referred to donor by the Head of Manuscripts.
For access to this collection please submit your request through Ask a Librarian

Copyright status:: In copyright. This collection has multiple rights owners.
Reproduction Restricted:
Approval for reproduction required: - 2060 - From the copyright owners