This subseries is comprised of:
Folder 1 An imaginary life. Based on the novel by David Malouf. The Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust. Folded sheet with insert. First performed on 19 Feb 1986. With associated review. Blood relations. The State Theatre Company and the Sydney Theatre Company. 1987. 24p. Voss. The Australian Opera at the Sydney Opera House. 18 Oct 1990. Single-leaf sheet. Contained in a red folder with gilt-embossed title and string. Also contains six cards in envelopes addressed to Malouf.

Folder 2 Mer de Glace. The Australian Opera, 1991. Baa-baa black sheep. An opera in three acts. Music by Michael Berkeley. Cheltenham International Festival of Music 3 Jul 1993. [and] Opera North 15 (Leeds, UK). 13, 16, 17 and 19 Nov 1993.

Folder 3 1914. Inspired by Fly Away Peter. The Australian Ballet. 7-27 Apr 1998. Exotic pleasures. From stories of Peter Carey and David Malouf. Theatre of Image at the Seymour Centre at the University of Sydney. York Theatre. 12 Mar to 3 Apr 1999. A3 broadsheet programme. [Mary Ellen Snodgrass: Peter Carey. A literary companion dates this adaptation to mid-January 1999, and describes it as a ‘dance-cinema-puppet montage’. In January 1999 Theatre of Image offered a workshop based on Exotic Pleasures at Macquarie University. With copies of newspaper reviews. Johnno. Adapted for the stage by Stephen Edwards. Derby Playhouse and La Boite Theatre. 14 Jul – 5 Aug 2006. Powerhouse Theatre.

This subseries consists of a copy of a letter from David Malouf to Yvonne Smith discussing the writing of An Imaginary Life, and extracts selected and typed by David Malouf from the diary he kept when writing An Imaginary Life. The letter and diary extracts show that the various pieces were written within a short time frame, commencing with the “poppy passage” on Sunday 24th October 1976 and with the rest following soon after.
Comprises: Photocopy of original letter from David Malouf to Yvonne Smith, 29 Nov 2001, 4 p., handwritten [original water-damaged]; Typed copy of letter from David Malouf to Yvonne Smith, 29 Nov 2001, 3 p.; Photocopy of diary extracts selected and typed by David Malouf from the diary he kept when writing An Imaginary Life, 21 Oct 1976 to 10 Nov 1976, 3 p., typescript [original water-damaged]; Re-typed version of the diary extracts, with explanatory material by Yvonne Smith, 4 p.

Bicycle and Other Poems is Malouf’s first book of poetry, published by UQP in 1970, and later published in the United States as The Year of the Foxes and Other Poems (1979). This subseries contains two folders of poems that appear in the 1970 publication by UQP. Many have handwritten corrections and notes by the author giving the place and date of composition for some poems and where each poem was initially published.

Voss is an opera in two acts based on the novel by Patrick White. The score is by Richard Meale and the libretto by David Malouf. This subseries includes a handwritten outline of Voss, a typescript of the libretto with many handwritten corrections, and a photocopy of the music score, inscribed by Richard Meale to David Malouf.

Correspondence from Manning Clark – 13 letters.
Comprises:
[File 1]: 1974 to 1991. Includes: 17 Jan 1990 – enclosing a typescript with manuscript emendations; 21 May 1991 – two days before his death – writing ‘David, I will miss you. […]. Manning’.

The collection of autobiographical essays, 12 Edmonstone Street, A Place in Tuscany, A Foot in the Stream, and The Kyogle Line were published as 12 Edmonstone Street, by Chatto and Windus in 1985. This subseries consists of a note by David Malouf originally intended to introduce the book, drafts of 12 Edmondstone Street with editorial material, and drafts of A Place in Tuscany, A Foot in the Stream, and The Kyogle Line. Handwritten and typescript drafts, handwritten emendations, white-out corrections, and cut and paste inserts (attached with sticky tape, now degrading).

Correspondence from Peter Porter - 24 letters
Comprises:
[File 1]: 1974 - 1999

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.

Remembering Babylon, set mainly in a mid-nineteenth-century settlement in Queensland, is a compressed epic, centering on the theme of exile and the strange challenge posed by one who, like William Buckley, had lived with the Aborigines, becoming ‘a white black man.’ It was first published in 1993. This subseries consists of six folders of notes, handwritten drafts, three typescripts with many handwritten corrections and additions, publishers’ proofs with many corrections, and a re-typed transcript with corrections throughout.

Correspondence from Elizabeth Riddell, Mrs Elizabeth Greatorex – 41 letters
Comprises:
[File 1]: 1974 to 1998