Item F1465 - Letter to Spencer Routh, 1976

Identity area

Reference code

F1465

Title

Letter to Spencer Routh, 1976

Date(s)

  • 1976 (Creation)

Level of description

Item

Extent and medium

1 1.; 17 cm.

Context area

Name of creator

(1901-1984)

Biographical history

Xavier Herbert was born in Geraldton, Western Australia, on 15 May 1901. When he was twelve his family moved to Fremantle. He trained as a pharmacist and worked and lived in Melbourne, Sydney, Darwin and then England, where he met Sarah (Sadie) Cohen, née Norden, and wrote his first novel Capricornia, which was published by P.R. Stephensen in 1938. Herbert returned to Australia in 1932. During World War Two he served with the Australian Imperial Force in the Pacific Theatre from 1942 to 1944. In 1951 he settled with Sadie at Redlynch, near Cairns, Queensland, and they married on 26 June 1953.

Herbert's other works include the autobiographical Disturbing element (1963), the novel Soldiers' women (1961), the novella Seven emus (1959) and the short story collection Larger than life (1963), as well as short stories and many articles expressing his strongly held opinions on various aspects of Australian life. His last work 'Poor Fellow My Country' was published in 1975 and won the Miles Franklin Award that year. Since his death two collections of Herbert's writings have been published: Xavier Herbert (1992), edited by Peter Pierce and Frances De Groen, which includes extracts from novels with other fiction, nonfiction and correspondence, and South of Capricornia (1990), edited by Russell McDougall, with reprints of stories written before 1934 and often published under pseudonyms. Xavier Herbert was awarded honorary doctorates by the Universities of Queensland and Newcastle. He died on 10 November 1984 in Alice Springs and was buried in a local cemetery.

Name of creator

Biographical history

Dr Spencer Routh OAM was appointed the first Reference Librarian at the University of Queensland in 1959. He has been a Queensland contributor to the Australian Dictionary of Biography since 1975. The Lilley, Ryan, and Byrnes medals were awarded for academic excellence within the Queensland system of public examinations. Spencer Routh was convenor of the Queensland Working Party for the preparation of Australia 1788-1988. [A Bicentennial History (Reference)].

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Letter 29 June 1976 to Spencer Routh, personal.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Unrestricted access.

Conditions governing reproduction

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

Language and script notes

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Finding aids

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Related units of description

Related descriptions

Notes area

Note

Handwritten.
Letterhead: Redlynch, Qld.

Alternative identifier(s)

Alma MMS ID

991007902669703131

Access points

Place access points

Name access points

Genre access points

Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

Rules and/or conventions used

Status

Migrated

Level of detail

Dates of creation revision deletion

Migrated from LMS: April 2019, P.A.

Language(s)

Script(s)

Sources

Accession area

Related people and organizations

Related genres

Related places