General correspondence, 1931-1965

Containers:

Box 29-30

Component identifier:

Subseries 2(a)

Content Summary:

The letters and cards dating from 1931 until 1965 are arranged chronologically and contain correspondence between Fitzpatrick and his colleagues in the fields of literature, history and politics.

They discuss Fitzpatrick's Fellowship at the University of Melbourne; his expulsion from the Australian Labor Party in 1944; applications for academic positions in 1947 and 1958; the grant he received in 1955 from the Social Science Research Council of Australia; and the Conference of Historians he attended in Canberra in 1957. There are also letters relating to his writings in Smith's weekly, Meanjin quarterly, New Zealand monthly review, The Rationalist and Overland, together with letters and circulars from the Australian Journalists' Association, the Fellowship of Writers and the Australian Society of Authors.

In 1931 Fitzpatrick published privately a collection Songs and poems and received a letter of congratulation from Walter Murdoch. In 1948 Murdoch asked permission to include one of the poems 'Cenotaph' in his anthology A book of Australian and New Zealand verse (Oxford University Press, 1949). Details of Bernard O'Dowd's will were discussed in letters to W. Slater in 1948, and in 1957. Fitzpatrick corresponded with Sir John Latham about references made in Civil Liberty (v.3, no 1-2, July 1957) to Sir John Medley and Sir David Rivett.

A small number of letters and Christmas cards are included from friends Vance and Nettie Palmer, Eric and Eleanor Dark, Dymphna Cusack, Clem Christesen, Sir John Barry, Robin Gollan, Jim Davidson, Hugh Hesher, A.W. Sheppard and others. Most were written during the period 1955-1965.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The National Library received the bulk of the papers of Brian Fitzpatrick from his widow, Mrs Dorothy Fitzpatrick, during 1975 and 1976. Papers added as Series 2(d) and 2(e), and added to Series 1(d), 2(c), 10 and 13(m), were received in 2001 together with the papers of Dorothy Fitzpatrick. This material was received from the Fitzpatrick's children, Professor Sheila Fitzpatrick and Professor David Fitzpatrick.

Names:

Brian Fitzpatrick

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