Guide to the Papers of Vivian Smith [MSS 041]

Manuscript Name	Papers of Vivian Smith
Manuscript Number	MSS 041
Last Updated	August 2021
Extent	1.82m (13 boxes)
Location	Special Collections, UNSW Canberra
Abstract	This collection comprises manuscript papers and related material produced or accumulated by Vivian Smith.

Collection Subject Type

Literary

Scope and Content

This collection contains manuscript material relating to the publication of The poetry of Robert Lowell (1974), Selected poems(1985), The effects of light : poetry of Tasmania (edited by Smith and Margaret Scott, 1985), Australian poetry 1986 : the finest of recent Australian poetry (edited by Smith, 1986), Australian poetry 1988 : the finest of recent Australian poetry (edited by Smith, 1988), Nettie Palmer : her private journal Fourteen years, poems, reviews and literary essays (edited by Smith, 1992), Sydney's poems : a selection on the occasion of the city's one hundred and fiftieth anniversary 1842-1992 (edited by Robert Gray and Smith, 1992). It also contains reviews, articles, correspondence from publishers, literary editors, students and writers and correspondence and poetry by contributors to Quadrant, and office material.

Correspondents include Alec Bolton, Tom Shapcott, Anne Fairbairn, Alan Gould, Gary Catalano, Norman Talbot, Mark O'Connor, Les Murray, Jeremy Nelson, Craig Powell, Bob Brissenden, Geoff Page, A D Hope, Margaret Scott, Jeff Guess, Thelma Forshaw, Andrew Sant, Robert Habost, Peter Porter, Graham Rowlands, Judith Beveridge, Bruce Dawe, Philip Hodgins, Walter Tonetto, Timoshenko Aslanides, David Brooks, Joan Priest, Michael Hulse, Judith Rodriguez, Margaret Diesendorf, Geoffrey Dutton, Rosemary Dobson, Rhyll McMaster, Robert Harris, Philip Martin, Judith Wright (photocopy), Bruce Beaver, Rod Moran, Michael Sharkey, Jan Owen and Fay Zwicky.

Date Range of Content

1966-1994

Biographical Note

Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivian_Smith_(poet)

Vivian Brian Smith was born on the 3 June 1933 in Hobart, Tasmania. After attending local schools, he graduated with an MA in French from the University of Tasmania. After teaching French for ten years, Smith moved to Sydney in 1967. He completed a PhD in English at the University of Sydney and taught there for many years, retiring as reader in English in 1996.

Smith published his first volume of poetry The other meaning in 1956. Since then he has published five more volumes, the most notable being Tide country (1982) which won the Grace Leven Prize and the NSW Premier's Poetry Prize. Smith's poetry maintains a close connection with Tasmania, but his descriptions of Sydney have drawn comparisons with the poetry of Kenneth Slessor. Influenced by Slessor and Judith Wright, Smith's poetry is often preoccupied with landscape and the sea, exploring themes such as loss and endurance, decay and renewal.

In addition to his poetry, Smith has edited a number of anthologies. He edited Letters of Vance and Nettie Palmer (1977) and wrote the poetry section of The Oxford history of Australian literature (1981). Smith has also written significant studies on Australian writers such as James McAuley, Vance Palmer and the American poet Robert Lowell.

Smith was awarded:
Patrick White Award, 1997: winner
Centenary Medal For service to Australian society and the humanities in the study of Australian literature
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Poetry, 1983: winner for Tide country 
Grace Leven Poetry Prize, 1982: winner for Tide country.

References:
AustLit : The Resource for Australian Literature, May 2006.

 

Administrative Information

 

Access and Copying Conditions

Access: Check with Curator

This collection contains a variety of copyright material. Copyright is held by the creator of each item. Specific conditions for this collection are listed below. If no conditions are stipulated then the standard terms of the Copyright Act apply for published and unpublished items. Digitised material from manuscript collections is provided to clients by UNSW Canberra in good faith for private study and research only, and may not be published or re-purposed without the express and written permission of the individual legal holder of that copyright. Refer also to the UNSW copyright, disclaimer and takedown policy

Copying: Check with Curator

Preferred Citation

Papers of Vivian Smith, Special Collections, UNSW Canberra, Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Box [Number], Folder [Number].

Provenance

The collection was acquired from Vivian Smith in five instalments between 1987 and 1994.

 

Additional Information

 

Related Material

Further material relating to Vivian Smith is located in the papers of Vivian Smith, at the National Library of Australia, Canberra, NLA MS 4853 http://nla.gov.au/nla.ms-ms4853.

This collection originally included a number of publications, listed below. These works have been catalogued separately, and added to the Library's main collection.

Smith, Vivian. The poetry of Robert Lowell. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1974.

Gray, Robert and Vivian Smith, editors. Sydney's poems : a selection on the occasion of the city's one hundred and fiftieth anniversary 1842-1992 . Sydney: Primavera, 1992.

 

Subject Keywords

 

Subjects

Critics, Australian critics, Australian authors

Personal Names

Vivian Smith 1933-

James McAuley 1917-1976

Nettie Palmer 1885-1964

Occupations

Critics, authors

 

Container List

 

Box 1

Folder 1 
Correspondence, 1966-1973

Folder 2 
Correspondence, 1975-1979

Folder 3 
Correspondence, 1980-1981

Folder 4 
Correspondence, 1982

Folder 5-6 
Correspondence, 1983

 

Box 2

Folder 7 
Correspondence, 1984

Folder 8 
Correspondence, 1985

 

Box 3

Folder 9 
Correspondence, 1986

Folder 10 
Correspondence, January-June 1987

 

Box 4

Folder 11 
Correspondence, July-December 1987

Folder 12 
Correspondence, 1988

 

Box 5

Folder 13 
Correspondence, 1989

Folder 14 
Correspondence, 1990-1991

Folder 15 
Correspondence, 1992

Folder 16 
Correspondence, 1993-1994

 

Box 6

Folder 17 
Correspondence, undated

Folder 18 
Manuscript and carbon typescript draft for The poetry of Robert Lowell (1974)

Folder 19 
Material relating to Vivian Smith's attendance at the 4th World Congress of Poets July 2-7, 1979 in Seoul, Korea. Includes schedules, poetry and travel/tourist material

Folder 20 
Typescript draft of Introduction to Poetry Australia No. 86 January 1983 and a published copy. Annotated photocopied typescript draft of Occasional Paper No. 37 Tasmania and Australian poetry for 1983 James McAuley Memorial Lecture delivered on 13 September 1983 and a published copy

 

Box 7

Folder 21 
Manuscript, annotated typescript and annotated published pages and annotated photocopied published pages of poems for draft of Selected poems (1985)

Folder 22 
Manuscript, annotated photocopied typescript and annotated photocopied published pages of poems for draft of Effects of light : the poetry of Tasmania (1985) - incomplete

Folder 23 
Typescript, photocopied typescript and annotated photocopied typescript drafts of some poems not included and drafts of some poems accepted for Australian poetry 1986 : the finest of recent Australian poetry (1986)

Folder 24 
Manuscript, annotated photocopied typescript and annotated published pages of draft for Australian poetry 1986 : the finest of recent Australian poetry (1986) - incomplete

Folder 25 
Manuscript, photocopied typescript, annotated photocopied typescript and published pages drafts of some poems not included and some poems accepted for Australian poetry 1988 : the finest of recent Australian poetry (1988)

 

Box 8

Folder 26 
Annotated typescript, annotated photocopied typescript, annotated newspaper clippings and annotated published pages draft of Australian poetry 1988 : the finest of recent Australian poetry (1988)

Folder 27-29 
Typescript, annotated typescript, photocopied typescript, annotated photocopied typescript, published pages, annotated published pages of draft for Nettie Palmer : her private journal Fourteen years, poems, reviews and literary essays (1988) [continued in Folder 30]

 

Box 9

Folder 30 
Continuation of Folders 27-29. Typescript, annotated typescript, photocopied typescript, annotated photocopied typescript, published pages, annotated published pages of draft for Nettie Palmer : her private journal Fourteen years, poems, reviews and literary essays (1988) - incomplete

Folder 31 
Galley proofs of Nettie Palmer : her private journal Fourteen years, poems, reviews and literary essays (1988) and photocopied newspaper clippings of reviews

Folder 32 
Correspondence with literary editors, publishers and literary trustees regarding Nettie Palmer : her private journal Fourteen years, poems, reviews and literary essays (1988)

Folder 33 
Correspondence from Les Murray and research material regarding Quadrant, twenty-five years, (1982) and a photocopy of music and words for 'Tasmania - for S.S.A.A. Choir', 1990

Folder 34 
Photocopy of annotated page proofs of Sydney's poems : a selection on the occasion of the city's one hundred and fiftieth anniversary 1842-1992 (edited by Robert Gray and Smith, 1992); includes an unbound unopened published copy

 

Box 10

Folder 35 
Typescript, annotated typescript and photocopied typescript drafts of articles by Vivian Smith

Folder 36 
Manuscript, annotated typescript, photocopied typescript and carbon typescript drafts of poems by Noel Rowe, Judith Wright, A D Hope, Robert Adamson, Manfred Jurgenson and other contributors to Quadrant

Folder 37 
Manuscript (exercise book) list of poems used in Quadrant from 1981 to 1986 and photocopied manuscript list of poem numbers archived on disc

Folder 38 
Manuscript list of poems used in Quadrant from 1984 to 1989

Folder 39 
Annotated typescript, photocopied and annotated page proofs of some poems used in Quadrant

Folder 40 
Typescript, photocopied typescript and photocopied published pages of drafts of poems by Smith; photocopied draft of poems and music 'The last summer' and 'Night sowing' [1956]

 

Box 11

Folder 41 
Annotated typescript, annotated photocopied typescript drafts and newspaper clippings of reviews written by Smith, reviews of Smith's publications and other reviews

Folder 42 
Miscellanea

Folder 43 
Miscellaneous newspaper clippings

Folder 44 
Small press items including This roundabout by Joy Boughton 1981; Quadrant No. 194, Volume XXVII, No. 10 October 1983; Poetry Kanto No. 7 Summer 1990; Night in Sydney [1993]; programme for the 4th International Symposium of Korean Literature, Sydney, 1993

 

Box 12

Folder 45 
Publishers catalogues

Folder 46 
Annotated typescript and photocopied typescript and photocopied published pages of drafts of articles by Australian writers

Folder 47 
Typescript and annotated typescript drafts of articles; curriculum vitae of several Australian writers

Folder 48 
Photocopy of annotated page proofs of A Porter selected by Peter Porter (1989)

 

Box 13

Folder 49 AV items 
Photographs: 
B/w photograph of Nettie Palmer; 
B/w photograph of Gerald Murnane

Audio cassettes: 
The poetry of Kenneth Slessor (1973); 
'Vivian Smith' Poetica 9/5/89 and 'Flight paths' Poetica 16/5/98; 
'Preview sample' - 'These wrens, this wattle tree' and 'The last summer'; 
'With changing key' - M Jones