Nan McDonald papers, together with 'Transmigrations', ca 1940-2008

MLMSS 9792

fonds

ca 1940-2008

1000570

0.05 metres of textual material - manuscript; typescript; published

Nancy May (Nan) McDonald (1921-1974), poet and editor, was born on December 25, 1921 at Eastwood, Sydney. In 1943 McDonald joined the editorial staff of Angus & Robertson Ltd. McDonald's poetic output was small but highly regarded, with poems appearing mostly in Sydney journals from the 1940s to the 1960s. Her first collection, Pacific Sea (1947), was praised as 'a book of sea and bush and flowers and birds', won the first Grace Leven prize for poetry in 1947. Nan lived with her sister Margaret at Mount Keira, and died there 7 January 1974.

Source:
Australian Dictionary of Biography

Collection of published and unpublished poetry by Nan McDonald.

1. 'The Devil's Isle'. Worksheet in pencil in 32 lines over two pages of an early poem. Unsigned but in McDonald's hand.
2. 'The Vanished Dream'. Holograph in pencil of a poem in 12 lines of three four line rhymed stanzas. Signed, 'N. McDonald'. Marked 'Terribly private' with doodles, notes and drawings.
3. 'A Forsaken Garden. Holograph in ink of a 2 paragraph prose poem of 16 lines and 9 lines. Signed, 'Nancy McDonald'.
4. 'Swamp Country'. 2 page typescript poem in 36 lines, few changes in pencil. Unsigned.
5. Untitled poem in a 2 page typescript of eight four line stanzas.
6. 'To Pines'. Holograph in ink, of a 12 line poem in three four line stanzas. Signed, 'Nancy McDonald'.
7. 'The Night Was Made for Loving'. 2 page typescript poem in seven four line stanzas with handwritten corrections and amendments.
8. 'To the Australians Coming to Help Us' (dedicated to Australian Troops). Holograph in ink of a rhymed poem in fourteen lines addressed to ANZAC soldiers in France during the Great War. With cuttings 'The Ship' from The Bullentin, 27 September, vol. 65 no. 3372, 1944, page 4; and, 'Blue Mountain Walk' from The Bullentin, 22 October, vol. 68 no. 3532, 1947, page 29.
9. 'Transmigrations' by Nan McDonald, drawings by Jan Brown. Canberra: Ampersand Duck, 2008. No 14 of 90 copies signed by the printer and illustrator.
10. An autograph letter from the poet's sister Margaret, commenting at length on the project and the production of published work 'Transmigrations'. Dated May 12, 2008.
11. Printed biography of Nancy May (Nan) McDonald.

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

Work is undated. Dates based of time of activity of published works.