This collection of David Malouf contains corrected manuscript and typescript drafts of Bicycle and Other Poems, Johnno, An Imaginary Life, Child's Play, Eustace, The Prowler, Fly Away Peter, Harland's Half Acre, Antipodes : Stories, 12 Edmonstone Street, The Great World, Remembering Babylon, The Conversations at Curlow Creek, Every Move You Make, and Ransom.

There are draft typescripts and related documents for Opera Libretti by David Malouf (both published and unpublished): Voss : Opera in Two Acts After the Novel by Patrick White, Invocation to Earth, Remembering Babylon, 'The Aspern Papers', 'You can't think of everything', 'A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 David Malouf for theatre.

This collection has over 1700 letters written to David Malouf from an extensive number of 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.

The file is comprised of: Early notes for dialogue, 2 leaves ; Letter to Richard Meale from Malouf, 1 leaf, 20 Jun 1979, with early dialogue notes on verso; Marked up copy of the Penguin Modern Classics 1960 published edition of Voss by Patrick White, sections of text marked in black pen, handwritten notes on last page and inside back cover.

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.

Photocopy of early draft of the music score for Voss by composer Richard Meale; 30 leaves, 30 cm, hand numbered 1-30; 27 pages, 35.5 cm, hand numbered 31-86; 23 folded leaves, 42 cm.

A Foot in the Stream is part of 12 Edmonstone Street, a collection of autobiographical essays published by Chatto and Windus in 1985. This is a typescript draft, with handwritten emendations in blue ink, white-out corrections, unnumbered pages, undated.

A Place in Tuscany is part of 12 Edmonstone Street, a collection of autobiographical essays published by Chatto and Windus in 1985. This draft is a photocopy of the typescript draft (with handwritten emendations), some corrections of the photocopy in red pen, pages numbered at top right-hand corner, undated.

Typescript draft of An Imaginary Life, 89 leaves, handwritten emendations by author and others in blue biro, black biro and orange pen. On last page 'Sydney I.XI.76 - 7.I.77'.

The original typed up version of An Imaginary Life was professionally typed. The top copy went to Braziller, the publisher. This is the second copy which later went to Curtis Brown.
Typescript draft of An Imaginary Life, 137 numbered leaves, 1 unnumbered title page, and 2 unnumbered leaves with the Afterword. The title page has the stamp 'From: Curtis Bown (Aust.)' (literary agent) and includes editorial corrections, mostly in green pencil, and some black biro. There are a few pages that are copies of the typescript draft. Undated.

Handwritten and typescript draft of Part II of Harland's Half Acre, handwritten emendations, white-out corrections, undated.

Draft, version 10, 115 leaves, with handwritten emendations, white-out corrections.