Guide to the Papers of Peter Ryan, 1927-2015

Summary

Collection number:

MS 9897, MS Acc12.099, MS Acc22.166, MS Acc23.006

Creator:

Ryan, Peter, 1923-

Extent:

(20 boxes, 4 folio boxes)

Language:

English and English

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Peter Ryan, National Library of Australia [class number, box number and series and/or file number]'.

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for research. Not for loan.

Background

Content Summary:

The papers comprise correspondence, newspaper cuttings, talks, photographs, articles, research notes, reviews, handwritten notes, legal documentation, patrol reports and conference papers. The largest series in the collection relates to Manning Clark and consists of extensive newspaper cuttings, correspondence, drafts of articles and notes covering the controversy caused by Ryan's criticism in Quadrant (1993) of A History of Australia and Manning Clark as a historian generally, and claims by the Brisbane Courier Mail (1996) that Clark received an Order of Lenin medal during the Cold War.

Correspondents include Manning Clark, Sir Zelman Cowen, Geoffrey Blainey, Sir John Barry, Robin Boyd, Michael Cannon, L. F. (Fin) Crisp, Beatrice Davis, Geoffrey Dutton, Tom Fitzgerald, Ian Fitchett, Bill Gammage, Alec Hope, Sir Paul Hasluck, Sir Keith Hancock, Harry Jackman, Ken Inglis, John La Nauze, Alan Marshall, Sir Walter Murdoch, Susan Ryan, Alec Bolton, Ross Campbell, Blanche D'Alpuget, B. A. Santamaria, Geoffrey Serle, Kenneth Slessor, Gavin Souter, Jim Taylor, Patrick White, William Macmahon Ball, Hilary McPhee, Sir John Minogue, Stuart Macintyre, Stephen Murray-Smith, Hugh Stretton, Clem Semmler and Maslyn Williams.The MS Acc22.166 instalment comprises correspondence, newspaper cuttings, certificates, obituaties, speeches, personal military records and honours, photographs, media, articles, research notes, reviews, employment documents, records from the Australian Commonwealth Repatriation Department, manuscripts, permits, requirements and permissions and book launch publicity. Some files are quite early personal papers from the 1920's through to the early 1940's. Additional correspondence with dates ranging from the 1940's to a time close to Peter Ryan's death in 2015. The instalment includes the complete files relating to Peter Ryan's best-known book 'Fear Drive My Feet.' In particular, the original copies of letters written during WWII to his mother became reference points in the writing of his book. The instalment has the complete files detailed about allowing Sgt Major Kari to be admitted to Australia from New Guinea in 1959. It also includes the files relating to a series of articles on The Pacific War commissioned by the National Times. Peter Ryan's Quadrant Columns form a complete collection of his newspaper works.The MS Acc23.006 instalment comprises five bound Guard books containing newspaper articles written by or about Peter Ryan, covering the years 1944 - 2006. The large scrapbooks include published articles pasted in and a rough index guide. The large scrapbooks also includes a few of loose newspapers and photocopies of articles.

Biographical Note:

Peter Allen Ryan was born on 4 September in 1923, one of three sons to Emmett Ryan and his wife Doreen (née Allen). After being educated at Malvern Grammar School, he joined the Victorian Crown Law Department. He left in 1941 at the age of eighteen to enlist in the Army. For eighteen months he worked on special intelligence work in New Guinea behind the Japanese lines, he won the Military Medal in 1943, and was mentioned in dispatches. When he returned to Australia he was posted to Victoria Barracks in Melbourne. In 1944-1945 he was an officer in the Army's Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs under Colonel Alf Conlon, serving both in Melbourne and at the LHQ School of Civil Affairs at Duntroon, Canberra.

In 1946 Ryan began studying at the University of Melbourne for an Arts degree, graduating with an honours degree in History in 1948. While studying Australian history he was taught by Manning Clark. Ryan eventually became Clark's publisher of the six volumes of a History of Australia. In 1993 Ryan caused a controversy by publishing a long essay in Quadrant criticising Clark's character and his writings.

Between 1958 and 1962, Ryan was Public Relations Manager of Imperial Chemical Industries, Australia and New Zealand (ICIANZ). In 1962 he became Director of Melbourne University Press (MUP), where he was to remain until his retirement in 1988. Works published during his directorship of MUP included the first twelve volumes of the Australian Dictionary of Biography (to which Ryan was also a contributor), Insects of Australia and Norman Lindsay's Micomicana and books by such well-known authors as Manning Clark, Macfarlane Burnet, Paul Hasluck and A. D. Hope. Ryan was also pivotal in establishing the MUP's high quality publishing subsidiary, the Miegunyah Press.

Since the mid-1980s Ryan has held a number of executive positions, including member of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (1985-1988); Executive Officer for the Council of Legal Education (1988-2003); Administrative Officer, the Council of Law Reporting in Victoria; and Secretary of the Victorian Board of Examiners for Barristers and Solicitors. He retired from the latter two appointments in 2003.

In addition to numerous articles in the press, including The Australianand The Age, and book reviews and articles for Quadrant, Ryan has written several books including Fear Drive My Feet (1959), Redmond Barry(1972), William Macmahon Ball: A Memoir (1990), Black Bonanza: A Landslide of Gold(1991), Chance Encounters: A.D. Hope with a memoir of A.D. Hope by Peter Ryan (1992), Lines of Fire : Manning Clark and Other Writings (1997) and Brief Lives (2004).

Ryan married Gladys Davidson on 23 May 1947 and they have one son and one daughter.

Who's Who in Australia 2005, p. 1645

Samuel Griffith Society website: http://www.samuelgriffith.org.au/index.html

Ryan, Peter. Lines of Fire: Manning Clark and Other Writings, 1997.

Provenance:

The original consignment was purchased by the Library from Peter Ryan in December 2003. Further papers were received in 2012, 2022 and 2023.

Arrangement:

Most of the papers had been arranged by Peter Ryan into labelled and dated files that formed six logical series. The personal and semi-official correspondence was received in two expanding files (1962-1982 and 1983-1988) and a lever arch file in alphabetical order by name of correspondent. The remainder of the collection was filed in manila files.

The Library has retained the order of each of the files and, for the most part, the original file titles. The general arrangement into six series and the order of the files within series has been imposed by the Library, as has the series relating to Manning Clark (Series 6). As many of the manila files were large, it was often necessary to divide the contents into two or more envelope files. (Thus the file 'Articles and speeches prior to 1977', 1 of 2, indicates that the original file has been divided into two).

Conditions Governing Access:

The collection is available for research.

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 Peter Ryan, National Library of Australia [class number, box number and series and/or file number]'.

Location of this collection:

National Library of Australia

Parkes Place

Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

Contact:

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