Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1963-1981 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent and medium
15 boxes.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Laurie Hergenhan was appointed Reader in the Department of English at the University of Queensland in 1971. He made a major contribution in the research and teaching of Australian literature. He was founding Director of the Australian Studies Centre, University of Queensland, 1979-1982; foundation editor of Australian Literary Studies; and has written widely on Australian literature. In 1992 he received the A.A. Phillips Award for his contribution to the study of Australian literature; in 1993 he became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities; in 1994 he became an Officer of the Order of Australia; in 1995 he was made an Emeritus Professor. He retired from the University of Queensland in 1993. He died on 21 July 2019.
Name of creator
Biographical history
In 1930, while returning to England after a failed marriage Sarah (Sadie) Cohen, nee Norden met Albert Francis Xavier Herbert. They returned to Australia in 1932, settled in Redlynch, near Cairns, Queensland, in 1951 and married at the Cairns Court House on 26 June 1953. Sadie Herbert died on 29 September 1979.
Name of creator
Biographical history
Xavier Herbert was born in Geraldton, Western Australia, and grew up there and in Fremantle. He trained as a pharmacist and worked and lived in Melbourne, Sydney, Darwin and then England where he married and wrote his first novel 'Capricornia' which was finally published by P R Stephensen in 1938. Herbert returned to Australia in 1932 and in 1946 he settled with his wife Sadie at Redlynch, near Cairns, Queensland. Herbert's other works include the autobiographical 'Disturbing Element' (1963), the novel 'Soldiers' Women' (1961), the novella 'Seven Emus' (1959) and the short story collection 'Larger than Life' (1963), as well as short stories and many articles expressing his strongly held opinions on various aspects of Australian life. His last work 'Poor Fellow My Country' was published in 1975 and won the Miles Franklin Award that year. Since his death two collections of Herbert 's writings have been published: 'Xavier Herbert' (1992), edited by Peter Pierce and Frances De Groen, which includes extracts from novels with other fiction, nonfiction and correspondence, and 'South of Capricornia' (1990), edited by Russell McDougall, which reprints stories written before 1934 and often published under pseudonyms. Xavier Herbert was awarded honorary doctorates by the Universities of Queensland and Newcastle.
Repository
Archival history
Collection previously titled as: Papers relating to Xavier Herbert, 1963-1981
Collection alternatively titled as: Laurie Hergenhan and Xavier Herbert Collection.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
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".
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Unrestricted access.
Conditions governing reproduction
In copyright. Can be reproduced for personal research and study. For other uses see About copyright. Please attribute the Fryer Library.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Digital copies of some items held in Fryer Library (Mediated Access) collection in UQ eSpace.
Related units of description
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Alma MMS ID
Millennium Local System Number
OCLC Number
Libraries Australia ID
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Herbert, Xavier, 1901-1984 (Subject)
- Herbert, Sadie, 1900-1979 (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Revised
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Revised, Linda Justo, 18-Mar-2024. Migrated from LMS: April 2019, P.A.