Item F3222 - Letters, 1969-1975: Redlynch, Queensland, to Percy Trezise.

Identity area

Reference code

F3222

Title

Letters, 1969-1975: Redlynch, Queensland, to Percy Trezise.

Date(s)

  • 1969-1975. (Creation)

Level of description

Item

Extent and medium

3 letters ; 30cm. and smaller.

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

(1923-2005)

Biographical history

Pilot, painter, explorer, and writer. Born 28 January 1923 in Tallangatta, Victoria, he spent most of his life in Far North Queensland and was active in identifying Aboriginal rock art. He wrote numerous children's picture books, many in collaboration with artist Dick Roughsey; Trezise became Roughsey's brother in a traditional Aboriginal ceremony and was given the name 'Warrenby' (sometimes spelt 'Warrenbi'). He died in Cairns, Queensland on 11 May 2005.

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

2 letters handwritten; one typescript (photocopy).
First letter, Easter Monday 1969, concerns Xavier Herbert's trip with Percy Trezise to Sandy Creek. Signed 'Your Bunga, FX'. Second letter, June 4 1979, deals with his critics, his ill health and his proposed appointment at Newcastle University coinciding with the publication of 'Poor fellow my country'. Signed 'F.X.' And the third letter, 25 June 1975, talks of the television programme 'The contract', and the treatment of Percy Trezise's 'Quinkan country'; Dick Roughsey; and the inspiration for and writing of 'Poor fellow my country'.
Includes unidentified handwritten transcript of the June 4, 1979 letter.

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

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Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Related units of description

Further related manuscript material held in manuscript collection F83 (Sadie and Xavier Herbert collection), manuscript collection F203 (Laurie Hergenhan collection).

Related descriptions

Notes area

Alternative identifier(s)

Alma MMS ID

991005132519703131

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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.

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