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.’

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

Correspondence from Patrick White – 7 letters
Comprises:
[File 1]: 1976 to 1990

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.

'The year is 1827, and in a remote hut on the high plains of New South Wales, two strangers spend the night in talk. One, Carney, an illiterate Irishman, ex-convict and bushranger, is to be hanged at dawn. The other, Adair, also Irish, is an officer of the police who has been sent to supervise the hanging. As the night wears on, the two discover unexpected connections between their lives, and learn new truths. Outside the hut, Adair's troopers sit uneasily, reflecting on their own pasts and futures, waiting for the morning to come. With ironic humour and in prose of starkly evocative power, the novel moves between Australia and Ireland to explore questions of nature and justice, reason and un-reason. , the workings of fate, and the small measure of freedom a man may claim in the face of death.' Source: Publisher's blurb (Vintage reprint).
This sub-series contains handwritten and typescript drafts, with emendations.

Unpublished typescripts by David Malouf.

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.