Ruth Park and D'Arcy Niland aggregated collection of papers

fonds

1906, 1930s-2005

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Photographs, Posters, Nonmusical Sound Recordings

9668417

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)

COLLECTION 1
Ruth Park papers, 1938-1976, together with the unrelated correspondence of Eve Langley, 1960-1961

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

COLLECTION 3
Ruth Park and D'Arcy Niland literary papers, 1950-1992

COLLECTION 4
Ruth Park and D'Arcy Niland papers relating to Les Darcy, ca. 1906-1997

COLLECTION 5
Ruth Park further literary papers, 1938-1994

COLLECTION 6
Ruth Park further papers, 1982-1999

COLLECTION 7
Ruth Park further papers, 1929-2002

COLLECTION 8
Ruth Park and D'Arcy Niland album of literary

COLLECTION 9
Collection 9: Ruth Park and D'Arcy Niland further literary papers, 1943-1991, 2005

In copyright:
Reproduction Restricted:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and courtesy copyright holder