Boobooks, 1903-1963

 
Component identifier:
Series 15
Content Summary:

The Boobooks were a group of Melbourne academics and professional men who dined and argued together every month or so. The first meeting was in November 1902 when B. A. Levinson and F. W. Eggleston called together fifteen friends at the Old Mitre Tavern to hear Bernard O'Dowd give a paper on 'Democracy and the Poet'. Latham, the first secretary, was for a time Arch-Boobook, and was still a member at the time of his death.

This small series includes a paper read by Latham in June 1903 on the philosophy of Goethe's Faust, some Boobook verse, including 'The masque of the Boobooks' (1912, 1958), minutes and notices of meetings, dinner menus, and correspondence with the secretaries H. W. Allen and G. L. Wood. There are many references to the Boobooks in Series 1 and other series.

Comprises Files 1-2 (Items 1-78).

Immediate source of acquisition:
The bulk of the collection was presented to the National Library by Sir John Latham in December 1963, a few months before his death. In November 1974 the Library purchased some further papers from a secondhand book dealer. They comprised family letters and photographs, some diaries and papers relating to the High Court. These papers have been amalgamated into the original collection.

Access and use

Parent Restrictions:
Available for research. Not for loan.
Parent Terms of Access:
Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.
Location of this collection:
Parkes Place
Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
Contact: