Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1969-1975. (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
3 letters ; 30cm. and smaller.
Context area
Name of creator
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
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.
Repository
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
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
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Alma MMS ID
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Herbert, Xavier, 1901-1984 (Subject)
- Roughsey, Dick (Subject)
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.