Johnno is Malouf’s most outwardly autobiographical novel and has been much praised as a realistic presentation of wartime Brisbane. It traces the childhood and early adult life of the narrator, and his relationship with the school rebel Johnno until Johnno’s untimely death. It was first published in 1975. This series includes two typescripts (both carbon copies) of the original manuscript version of Johnno. The earlier copy has extensive handwritten reworking by Malouf and uses the name “Johnny” throughout. In the later copy is again reworked and the author has manually changed “Johnny” to “Johnno.” There are significant textural alterations, cuts and additions, between these two drafts. Earlier drafts of the manuscript are held in the National Library of Australia collection and the top copy is held in the Fryer Library University of Queensland Press Archive. These typescripts provide a valuable link between the two. Published in 1975 by University of Queensland Press.

Child’s Play is an account of the experiences of an Italian terrorist and his special interest in his victim. It was first published in 1981 with another novella, The Bread of Time to Come (later changed to Fly Away Peter). It was republished in 1982 with two short stories, Eustace and The Prowler. This subseries includes manuscript drafts for original first draft, first typescript draft, and second typescript draft. All the drafts have explanatory notes by David Malouf.

In The Great World Malouf enters familiar Australian territory with a story of war experience and mateship. The narrative contrasts the personalities of two men and their experiences in the Second World War, Digger Keen, the archetypal, taciturn Australian, gifted with a photographic memory, and Vic Curran, whose ambition and drive take him from poverty to the top of the business world. The Great World was first published in 1990 and won the Miles Franklin Award in 1991, the Adelaide Festival Award and two international awards, the 1991 Commonwealth Prize for fiction and the Prix Femina Etranger in France for the best foreign novel. This subseries consists of a draft early version of the novel, originally titled ‘The Memorialists’, the first handwritten draft of the novel, and a typescript draft in five parts with many handwritten corrections and additions.

Comprises two drafts of Invocation to Earth by Diana Blom. Libretto by David Malouf.

'You can’t think of everything'. Opera in one act, after Alfred de Musset. Typescript with amendations, 9 leaves, [David Malouf’s 2017 note: Chamber opera libretto for Diana Blom. Ca. 1977. Music unwritten]

'A Winter’s Tale (The Round of Time). After William Shakespeare'. Three versions of draft for libretto, [ca. 30 leaves each], [David Malouf’s 2017 note: Commissioned by the English National Opera, 1988/9. Michael Berkeley set part of the text (Paulina) in a song-cycle. The commission fell through.] With two associated pieces of correspondence by Malouf and Berkeley

Correspondence in the form of letters, greeting cards, and postcards, from 1960 to 2016, from numerous correspondents including: Glenda Adams, Luciana Arrighi, Murray Bail, Bruce Beaver, John Bell, Bruce Beresford, Michael Berkeley, John Blight, Michael Brennan, David Brooks, Bille Brown, Felicity Bryan, Carmen Callil, Ian Callinan, Felix Calvino, Nancy Cato, Clem Christesen [writing to Judith Green, later Rodriguez], John Clanchy, Alison Clark, Dymphna Clark, Manning Clark, John Coetzee, Adele Cohen, Matthew Condon, Jim Davidson, Robyn Davidson, Bruce Dawe, Robert Dessaix, Rosemary Dobson, Espie Dods, Eve Duncan, Don Dunstan, Geoffrey Dutton, Nin Dutton, Christopher Edwards, Nick Enright, Michele Field, Helen Garner, Marea Gazzard, Clem Gorman, Lisa Gorton, Kate Grenville, Elizabeth Harrower, Kenneth J Harvey, Dennis Haskell, Ihab Hassan, Shirley Hazzard (Shirley and Francis Steegmuller), Janette Turner Hospital, Brian Howard, Barry Humphries, Ivor Indyk, Elizabeth Jolley, Gail Jones, Nicholas Jose (Nick Jose), Beate Josephi and Andrew Taylor, Nancy Keesing, Thomas Keneally, John Kinsella, Manoly Lascaris, David Leavitt, Gerard Lee, Geoffrey Lehmann, Kathy Lette, Alan Lightman, Stephen McClymont, Mark McKenna, Robert Macklin, Tony Maniaty, David Marr, Mandy Martin, Gillian Mears, Drusilla Modjeska, Frank Moorhouse, Mal Morgan, Les Murray, Philip Neilson, Cees Nooteboom, Mark O’Connor, Carlo Olivieri, Margaret Olley, Michael Ondaatje, Tony Page, Peter Porter, Pixie Pratt [Pixie O’Harris], Judith Rodriguez, David Rowbotham, Ethel Rowbotham, Lilian Roxon, John Ralston Saul, Jaya Savige, Scripsi (Michael Heyward and Peter Craven], Penelope Seidler, Tom Shapcott, Lidija Simkus-Pocius (Lidija Simkute), Ian Sinnamon, Norah Smallwood, Jeffrey Smart, Christina Stead, Lurline Stuart, John Tranter, James Tulip (Jim Tulip), UQP [Frank W Thompson, Roger McDonald, Craig Munro], Christopher Wallace-Crabbe (Chris Wallace-Crabbe), Robin Wallace-Crabbe, Jacki Weaver, Peter Weir, Gough Whitlam, Phyllis Webb, Patrick White, and many others.

Correspondence from Thomas Shapcott – 151 letters (1975 to 2011)
Comprises:
[File 1]: 1975 to 1977 - 12 letters.
[File 2]: 1982 to 1989 – 71 letters
[File 3]: undated, 1990 to 2011 – 68 letters

Correspondence from Helen Garner – 125 letters (1982 to 2014)
Comprises:
[File 1]: 1982 to 1985 – 22 letters
[File 2]: 1986 – 29 letters (including 8-page typescript of a short story titled ‘What we say’)
[File 3]: 1987 to 2000 – 61 letters
[File 4]: 2003 to 2014 – 13 letters

Correspondence from Jeffrey Smart – 26 letters (undated, 1978 to 2012)
[File 1]: 1978 to 1991; 1999; 2012. In a letter of 13 Sep 1980 Smart writes: ‘Dear David, It’s midnight. I’ve come down to the studio to look again at your portrait […] it is, I feel sure, the best picture I have ever painted.’