Guide to the Letters and poems of Kenneth MacKenzie, 1940-1944

Request this via the Catalogue
 

Summary

Collection number:
MS 8642
Creator:
Lindsay, Jane, 1920-1999
Extent:
0.14 metres and (1 box)
Language:
English
Preferred citation:
Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Jane Lindsay, National Library of Australia, MS 8642, [file/item number]'.
Availability:
Available
Access conditions:
Available for reference. Not for loan.

Background

Content Summary:

The collection comprises approximately 477 letters and 60 poems written by Kenneth MacKenzie to Jane Lindsay, Lionel Lindsay, Norman Lindsay and Rose Lindsay, from Sydney (1940-1944), Dubbo and Liverpool (April-May 1943) and Cowra (1943-1944).

The letters written to Jane Lindsay (c.1940 to 1950) document not only the relationship between MacKenzie and Lindsay but also his time as a Sydney journalist before he joined the Australian Army. A large percentage of them were written from Cowra POW camp and give descriptions of the camp and personnel.

MacKenzie's relationship with Norman Lindsay is an example of the collaboration and support that Lindsay offered the poets whom he admired. Lindsay was particularly impressed with MacKenzie and Douglas Stewart and believed Australian literature was dependent on these two poets particularly.

In 1941 when Lindsay returned to his home at Springwood he encouraged Jane to 'get on with her writing'. It was an atmosphere of discussion and work and MacKenzie was a frequent and welcome visitor. On one occasion Lindsay said to his daughter 'What Ken needs is a girl'. Her reply was 'He has one' and introduced her father to the 'Moonlit doorway' poems.

The letters also contain references to the printing of 'The moonlit doorway' and disagreements with the publishers Angus and Robertson, particularly their renowned editor Beatrice Davis. MacKenzie's advice on writing prose and poetry gives further insight to his own method of working. He was an amusing, incisive observer on his contemporaries and life in the 1940s.

This collection of intimate, loving letters by arguably one of Australia's finest inter-war poets give a background to the period, and the major influence of a liberating romance in the poet's life.

Biographical Note:

Jane Lindsay (later Jane Glad) was born in 1920, the daughter of Norman and Rose Lindsay. She was the author of Kurrajong (1945), a humorous story of rural life and Portrait of Pa (1973), an autobiography which includes reminiscences of her father. She died in Sydney in 1999.

Kenneth MacKenzie was born in Perth in 1913 and educated at Guildford Grammar School and the University of Western Australia where he studied law and agriculture. MacKenzie married Kathleen Bartlett in 1934 and moved to Sydney in the same year, at the suggestion of Norman Lindsay. MacKenzie became a close friend of the Lindsay family and Lindsay illustrated his first volume of poetry, Our earth, which was published in 1937. In Sydney, MacKenzie worked as a newspaperman and radio journalist. During World War II, he served as a corporal attached to a compound of Italian prisoners at the POW camp at Cowra. The mass breakout of Japanese prisoners in 1944 was used as the subject of his novel Dead men rising. MacKenzie's second volume of poetry, The moonlit doorway, was published in 1944. Mackenzie drowned at Goulburn in 1955.

Bibliographic Reference(s)

  • H.M. Green's History of Australian Literature, vol. II (1985)
  • The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (1994)
Provenance:

The papers were donated to the National Library in 1993, under the Taxation Incentives for the Arts Scheme, by Jane Glad (nee Lindsay).

Indexed terms

Names:
Lindsay, Jane, 1920-1999

Access and use

Conditions Governing Access:
The collection is available for reference.
Conditions Governing Use:
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.
Preferred citation:
Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Jane Lindsay, National Library of Australia, MS 8642, [file/item number]'.
Location of this collection:
Parkes Place
Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
Contact:
Contact us