Robin Dalton papers, 1926-2009

fonds

1926-2009

Textual Records, Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Moving Images, Clippings, Ephemera

897655

3.68 metres of textual material (includes 3 DVDs, sound recordings) (23 boxes)

Robin Eakin was born in Sydney in 1920, the only daughter of a respected doctor. She grew up in Kings Cross with her parents, grandparents and a great aunt—an experience that formed the basis for her first published book, the much-loved Aunts Up the Cross, 1965. My Relations, an entirely fictitious account, was written when Robin was eight and first published eighty-six years later, in 2015. She married briefly in 1940 before moving to London in 1946. Through her association with David Mountbatten, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven, Robin entered high society, meeting numerous international celebrities. She then met an Irish doctor named Emmet Dalton, whom she married in 1953. They had two children, Lisa and Seamus, and after an approach by her friend Prince Chula of Thailand, Robin began working as an intelligence agent for the Thai Government. When Emmet died suddenly at age 33 during heart surgery, she left the Thai diplomatic corps and lived for a time in Italy and Australia before returning to London.
In 1963 she started a life with Bill Fairchild, who became her third husband in 1992, and became a literary agent. Her list of clients included four Booker Prize winners—David Storey, Bernice Rubens, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and Iris Murdoch—as well as Edna O’Brien, John Osborne, Margaret Drabble, playwrights Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams, and movie directors Peter Weir and Louis Malle. Dalton went on to become a successful film producer with credits to her name for Oscar and Lucinda and Madame Sousatzka, among others. Bill died in 2000. Robin has written several books including Aunts Up the Cross (1965), An incidental memoir (1998), My Relations: by Robin Ann Eakin, aged 8, 1929 (2015) and One Leg Over: Having Fun—Mostly—in Peace and War (2017).
In 2013 Robin was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), "for significant service to the film industry as a producer, literary agent and author, and as a mentor to emerging actors and writers".

SERIES 01
Robin Dalton papers, 1953-1957, relating to employment as a press attache for the Thai Government

SERIES 02
Robin Dalton papers, 1983-2001, relating mainly to the film production of Emma's War (1986), Country Life (1994), Madame Sousatska (1988) and Oscar & Lucinda (1997)

SERIES 03
Robin Dalton literary papers, 1929-2008, relating to her career as a journalist, television performer and author of two autobiographical novels, Aunts Up the Cross, (1965, 1998) and An Incidental Memoir (1998)

SERIES 04
Robin Dalton business correspondence, 1959-2008, relating to her career as a literary agent, a management agent for Robin Dalton Associates and film production company, Robin Dalton Films

SERIES 05
Robin Dalton personal papers, correspondence, DVD and sound recordings, 1926-2009

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