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.

Correspondents: 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.

Separate folders have been created for Bruce Beaver, Carmen Callil (Chatto & Windus), Manning Clark, Rosemary Dobson, Helen Garner, Peter Porter, Judith Rodriguez, Tom Shapcott, Jeffrey Smart and Patrick White.

Art work depicting David Malouf by Neil Moore. Pen and ink half-length portrait of David Malouf. Signed above the sitter’s right shoulder. Undated.

Two publications and 26 published reviews, articles, short stories, speeches and interviews.
Folder 1: The School Window, Brisbane Grammar School, no. 8, Sept 1948. Contains an illustration on page 11 and three stories by David Malouf, Form IV. A. The stories are: Dream Journey, pages 18-19; The Longest Hour, page 26, winner of the first Thomas Thatcher Memorial Prize; Et tu, Brute, page 28.

Malouf, D., & Australian Broadcasting Corporation. (1999). A spirit of play : the making of Australian consciousness, Sydney: ABC Books for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 128 pages, with many manuscript emendations.

Folder 2:
A group of 26 published reviews, articles, short stories, speeches and interviews, extracted from magazines and newspapers. Includes: What we know – A Meditation on Experience, Knowledge and Memory. An edited version of an address delivered at the Supreme Court of New South Wales Annual Conference on 13 June 1997. Extract from Judicial Officers’ Bulletin. Vol. 9, No. 11. December Pp. 81/82 and 87/88.

This series is comprised of draft typescripts and related documents for eight Opera Libretti by David Malouf (both published and unpublished): Voss : Opera in Two Acts After the Novel by Patrick White, Invocation to Earth, Remembering Babylon, 'The Aspern Papers', 'You can't think of everything', 'A Winter's Tale', The Fox and the Magpie. In addition there are two versions of 10,000 Miles Away, written by Malouf for theatre.

Ten typescript book reviews of non-fiction books, 3-4 pages each, for the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s (ABC’s) Books for comment programme, second half of 1969. Includes: two drafts with emendations; and eight final scripts with an ABC ‘With compliments’ slip attached.
Typescript titled 'The Poetry of John Bligh' on foolscap paper headed Australian Broadcasting Commission, no date. 14 pages.

Comprises:

1. Diary entries on Child’s Play and Fly Away Peter, Jan and Feb 1981, removed from annual calendar, titled on front page.
2. Diary of a trip to Lebanon and Syria with Carmen Callil [editor at Chatto & Windus], Apr 1994, A6 notebook, [Ca. 100p].
3. Typescript from a diary: account of a trip to Lebanon and Syria in 1994 with Carmen Callil, for printing an anthology, 19p, undated.
4. Copy of extract from water-stained diary together with ‘typed extracts from a personal diary kept by David Malouf from October to December 1976', with relevance to the material in the subseries for An Imaginery Life.