Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1953-2004. (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent and medium
23 boxes, 4 parcels.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Thea Astley, novelist and short story writer, was born in Brisbane on 25 August 1925 and educated at All Hallows Convent and the University of Queensland, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1947. She was a school teacher in Queensland from 1944 to 1948 and in New South Wales from 1948 to 1967. In 1968 she joined the English Department at Macquarie University, Sydney. She retired as Fellow in English, Macquarie University in 1979. She has won numerous awards, including the Miles Franklin Award four times: in 1962 (The Well Dressed Explorer), 1965 (Slow Natives), 1972 (The Acolyte) and 2000 (Drylands). She received the Order of Australia in 1992, and an Hon D. Litt was conferred on her by University of Queensland in 1988. She was made a Creative Fellow of the Australia Council in 1993.
Repository
Archival history
Collection previously titled as: Papers, 1953-2004
Collection alternatively titled as: Thea Astley Collection.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Manuscripts, notebooks, correspondence, research notes, literary awards, publishing contracts, diaries, drafts of speeches, some Astley family history material. Includes two portable Hermes typewriters: green, in case 7 x 29 x 31 cm; and cream, in case 8 x 31 x 32 cm.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Unrestricted access.
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Uploaded finding aid
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Publication note
Material from this collection has been cited in:
Grundy A (2022) Editing Fiction, Cambridge University Press, doi:10.1017/9781009039383.
Sheridan, Susan (2011). Nine lives: postwar women writers making their mark. St Lucia, Qld: UQP.
Taylor C (2019) ‘'To my brother': Gay love and sex in Thea Astley's novels and stories’, Queensland review (St. Lucia), 26(2):269–284, doi:10.1017/qre.2019.32.
Taylor C (2021) ‘The Genesis of Thea Astley's The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow’, Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature : JASAL, 21(1):1–24.
Publication note
'Guide to the Papers of Thea Astley, The University of Queensland Library, Fryer Library'. (2001). Guide to Australian literary manuscripts. University of Western Australia Library & Australian Literary Manuscript Collections Project.
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Alma MMS ID
Millennium Local System Number
Libraries Australia ID
OCLC Number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Astley, Thea (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, 24-Aug-2021. Revised, AM, 01-Jun-2020. Migrated from LMS: April 2019, P.A.