Writings by Hughes, 1907-1952

Component identifier:

Subseries 5_1

Content Summary:

The first subseries chiefly pertains to four of Hughes' five books: The case for Labor (1910), The splendid adventure (1929), Crusts and crusades (1947), and Policies and potentates (1950). Papers relating to Australia and wartoday (1935) are in Series 35. There are drafts of each of the four books, correspondence with Hughes' publishers, readers of the books, people seeking autographs for their copies, and cuttings of reviews. The main correspondents are F. W. Waid, Sir Ernest Benn, Gordon Robbins, Sir Keith Murdoch, Brian Penton and Beatrice Davis.

The remainder of the subseries consists of correspondence with newspaper editors about articles by Hughes and with authors requesting Hughes to write forewords to their books, and cuttings of articles by Hughes published in newspapers and magazines. These include The Daily Telegraph, Life, The Sun, and The Sunday Sun, The Pacific, The Sydney Mail, and The Daily Chronicle.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The W. M. Hughes Papers were presented to the National Library of Australia by Dame Mary Hughes in 1953. The collection was received in two consignments. One consisted of papers taken from the Perpetual Trustee Company comprising material from Hughes' Lindfield home and from his office rooms at the Commonwealth Offices, Sydney; the other came directly from Lindfield. Lists of the contents of both consignments are held in the Library's Manuscript Branch. With the agreement of the executors and the Library, much of the collection, was for a time, held at the Australian National University by Fitzhardinge. He was permitted sole access to the collection while writing the biography Hughes commissioned in 1951. Fitzhardinge's own papers documenting the writing of the biography are also held by the Library (MS 5400). The papers transferred to the Library in 1953 are by no means the total collection of Hughes' personal papers, although it is impossible to say what proportion has survived. (see Fitzhardinge, p.936).

Names:

Hughes, W. M. (1862-1952)

Contents

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