Correspondence Xavier Herbert to Sadie Herbert, Xavier, 1901-1984 Herbert & Sadie Herbert to Laurie Hergenhan; manuscripts, papers, and audiotapes relating to "Poor fellow my country".

Series A: Correspondence, 1963-1981
Box 1
Letters Xavier Herbert to Sadie Herbert, from Atherton Hospital 1964-1965.
Letters Xavier Herbert to Sadie Herbert from Maryborough 1963-1966.
Boxes 8-9
Letters Xavier Herbert to Laurie Hergenhan, 1970-1981.
Box 10
Letters Sadie Herbert to Laurie Hergenhan, 1971-1974.

Series B: Drafts of Poor fellow my country
Boxes 2-6
Drafts of Poor fellow my country.
Boxes 14-15
Manuscript of Poor fellow my country

Series C: Diaries and logbooks
Box 7
Diaries and logbooks, mostly relating to Poor fellow my country

Series D: Audio recordings
Box 13
Tapes 1-23: Audio recordings, mostly of Xavier Herbert talking to Laurie Hergenhan and Xavier Herbert discussing Poor fellow my country. Three are offair recording from ABC.
Tapes 24-43: Xavier Herbert discusses the composition of Poor fellow my country. In addition to reviewing chapters, sections and drafts of the book, Xavier discusses the writing process, comments on Australian society, Australian literature and various other topics extraneous to the reviewing of the book. Sadie comments in background. Xavier often asks for Sadie's input.
Tape 44 is blank.
[Tapes 45-55]: Audio recordings (11 cassettes) of interviews by Laurie Hergenhan with Xavier Herbert.

Series E: Photographic material, 1975
Box 13
Twenty black and white photographs. Three are of the Xavier and Sadie at the dinner table with two others; and the rest of, possibly, 90 Broughan Street, Woolloomooloo. Accompanied by twenty black and white 35 mm negatives (on five strips), a handwritten note and the packet that held the prints which has a handwritten note "Xavier Herbert: room in Wooloomooloo Sydney, where he began writing".

Notebooks (referred to by Herbert as "literary logs"), manuscript drafts, proofs and other papers relating to Poor Fellow My Country, Disturbing Element, Soldiers' Women, and "The Little Widow" together with short stories, poems, articles, publications, newspaper cuttings, correspondence, photographs, financial records and artwork by Xavier Herbert.

Four letters from Xavier Herbert to Ken Wilder, 1978-1979; newspaper cutting re Xavier Herbert; inscribed copy of book Poor Fellow my Country, and oil painting by Ray Crooke (60 x 91 cm framed) used for the dust jacket image.

Preliminary design for the dustjacket of the Miles Franklin Award winning novel, first published in Sydney by Collins in 1975. Oil painting on stiff card, the size of the book, 29 x 51 cm folded as a dustjacket. The rough sketch by Crooke shows his initial thoughts regarding the design of the wrapper. The bleak landscape insert would be reworked and developed to encompass the whole jacket. Accompanied by finished cover with annotations.

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.

Correspondence relating to the literary journal The Austrovert, research material for The Puzzled Patriots: The Story of the Australia First Movement published in 1968, transcripts, newspaper cuttings and journals.

Typescript, carbon copy, dated 9 Aug 1959. Final copy of Soldiers' women by Xavier Herbert.

Sadie Herbert, wife of Xavier Herbert, is interviewed by Fryer Librarian Nancy Bonnin while Xavier is Writer-in-Residence at the University of Queensland English Department. Audiovisual Librarian Marjorie Roe and Librarian Marianne Ehrhardt contribute. Sadie talks about various aspects of Xavier's work, life and family; about her own life; and their shared experiences in Australia and abroad.

Letters from Xavier Herbert written to his editor Robert Roseman at Collins Publishers during the final year of writing his novel Poor Fellow My Country.

Draft of "Who killed my Sadie" (25 l., typescript photocopy) and letter (5 l. holograph) from Xavier Herbert.