Contact Information:
Special Collections
Academy Library
UNSW@ADFA
CRICOS Provider Code: 00100G
Australian Defence Force Academy
Canberra ACT 2600
Phone: +61 2 6268 6270
Fax: +61 2 6247 2324
Email: specialcollections@adfa.edu.au
URL: http://www.lib.adfa.edu.au/speccoll/speccoll.htm
| Date completed: | August 2002 |
| Last updated: | April 2007 |
©2001 Australian Defence Force Academy. All rights reserved.
| Creator: | Vivian Smith, 1933- |
| Title: | Papers of Vivian Smith |
| Date Range: | 1966-1994 |
| Reference Number: | MS 41 |
| Extent: | 1.82m (13 boxes) |
| Repository: | Academy Library, UNSW@ADFA |
| Abstract: | This collection comprises manuscript papers and related material produced or accumulated by Vivian Smith. |
This collection contains manuscript material relating to the publication of The poetry of Robert Lowell (1974), Selected poems (1985), The effects of light : poetry of Tasmania (edited by Smith and Margaret Scott, 1985), Australian poetry 1986 : the finest of recent Australian poetry (edited by Smith, 1986), Australian poetry 1988 : the finest of recent Australian poetry (edited by Smith, 1988), Nettie Palmer : her private journal Fourteen years, poems, reviews and literary essays (edited by Smith, 1992), Sydney's poems : a selection on the occasion of the city's one hundred and fiftieth anniversary 1842-1992 (edited by Robert Gray and Smith, 1992). It also contains reviews, articles, correspondence from publishers, literary editors, students and writers and correspondence and poetry by contributors to Quadrant, and office material.
Correspondents include Alec Bolton, Tom Shapcott, Anne Fairbairn, Alan Gould, Gary Catalano, Norman Talbot, Mark O'Connor, Les Murray, Jeremy Nelson, Craig Powell, Bob Brissenden, Geoff Page, A D Hope, Margaret Scott, Jeff Guess, Thelma Forshaw, Andrew Sant, Robert Habost, Peter Porter, Graham Rowlands, Judith Beveridge, Bruce Dawe, Philip Hodgins, Walter Tonetto, Timoshenko Aslanides, David Brooks, Joan Priest, Michael Hulse, Judith Rodriguez, Margaret Diesendorf, Geoffrey Dutton, Rosemary Dobson, Rhyll McMaster, Robert Harris, Philip Martin, Judith Wright (photocopy), Bruce Beaver, Rod Moran, Michael Sharkey, Jan Owen and Fay Zwicky.
Vivian Brian Smith was born on the 3 June 1933 in Hobart, Tasmania. After attending local schools, he graduated with an MA in French from the University of Tasmania. After teaching French for ten years, Smith moved to Sydney in 1967. He completed a PhD in English at the University of Sydney and taught there for many years, retiring as reader in English in 1996.
Smith published his first volume of poetry The other meaning in 1956. Since then he has published five more volumes, the most notable being Tide country (1982) which won the Grace Leven Prize and the NSW Premier's Poetry Prize. Smith's poetry maintains a close connection with Tasmania, but his descriptions of Sydney have drawn comparisons with the poetry of Kenneth Slessor. Influenced by Slessor and Judith Wright, Smith's poetry is often preoccupied with landscape and the sea, exploring themes such as loss and endurance, decay and renewal.
In addition to his poetry, Smith has edited a number of anthologies. He edited Letters of Vance and Nettie Palmer (1977) and wrote the poetry section of The Oxford history of Australian literature (1981). Smith has also written significant studies on Australian writers such as James McAuley, Vance Palmer and the American poet Robert Lowell.
Smith was awarded:
Patrick White Award, 1997: winner
Centenary Medal For service to Australian society and the humanities in the study of Australian literature
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Poetry, 1983: winner for Tide country
Grace Leven Poetry Prize, 1982: winner for Tide country.
References:
AustLit : The Resource for Australian Literature, May 2006.
Papers of Vivian Smith, Academy Library, UNSW@ADFA, Australian Defence Force Academy, MS 41, Box [Number], Folder [Number].
Further material relating to Vivian Smith is located in the papers of Vivian Smith, at the National Library of Australia, Canberra, NLA MS 4853.
This collection originally included a number of publications, listed below. These works have been catalogued separately, and added to the Library's main collection.
Smith, Vivian. The poetry of Robert Lowell. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1974.
Gray, Robert and Vivian Smith, editors. Sydney's poems : a selection on the occasion of the city's one hundred and fiftieth anniversary 1842-1992 . Sydney: Primavera, 1992.
Smith, Vivian, 1933- -- Archives.
McAuley, James, 1917-1976 -- Criticism and interpretation.
Palmer, Nettie, 1885-1964 -- Criticism and interpretation.
Box 6
Box 7
Folder 21
Manuscript, annotated typescript and annotated published pages and annotated photocopied published pages of poems for draft of Selected poems (1985)
Folder 22
Manuscript, annotated photocopied typescript and annotated photocopied published pages of poems for draft of Effects of light : the poetry of Tasmania (1985) - incomplete
Folder 23
Typescript, photocopied typescript and annotated photocopied typescript drafts of some poems not included and drafts of some poems accepted for Australian poetry 1986 : the finest of recent Australian poetry (1986)
Box 8
Box 9
Folder 30
Continuation of Folders 27-29. Typescript, annotated typescript, photocopied typescript, annotated photocopied typescript, published pages, annotated published pages of draft for Nettie Palmer : her private journal Fourteen years, poems, reviews and literary essays (1988) - incomplete
Folder 31
Galley proofs of Nettie Palmer : her private journal Fourteen years, poems, reviews and literary essays (1988) and photocopied newspaper clippings of reviews
Folder 32
Correspondence with literary editors, publishers and literary trustees regarding Nettie Palmer : her private journal Fourteen years, poems, reviews and literary essays (1988)
Box 10
Folder 35
Typescript, annotated typescript and photocopied typescript drafts of articles by Vivian Smith
Folder 36
Manuscript, annotated typescript, photocopied typescript and carbon typescript drafts of poems by Noel Rowe, Judith Wright, A D Hope, Robert Adamson, Manfred Jurgenson and other contributors to Quadrant
Folder 37
Manuscript (exercise book) list of poems used in Quadrant from 1981 to 1986 and photocopied manuscript list of poem numbers archived on disc
Box 11
Box 12
Folder 46
Annotated typescript and photocopied typescript and photocopied published pages of drafts of articles by Australian writers
Box 13
Folder 49 AV items
Photographs:
B/w photograph of Nettie Palmer;
B/w photograph of Gerald Murnane
Audio cassettes:
The poetry of Kenneth Slessor (1973);
'Vivian Smith' Poetica 9/5/89 and 'Flight paths' Poetica 16/5/98;
'Preview sample' - 'These wrens, this wattle tree' and 'The last summer';
'With changing key' - M Jones