Correspondence, 1939-2003

Component identifier:

Series 2

Content Summary:

This series consists of correspondence between Wannan and his agent, Tim Curnow of Curtis Brown, various publishers, readers of Wannan's Australasian Post column and of his many publications on the subject of folklore, Australian writers, family and friends. In business matters Wannan was diligent in retaining copies of his own letters. Amongst the correspondence also are book reviews by Wannan and reviews of his books, press clippings, photographs and newsletters.

Much of the correspondence was inside manila files when received by the Library and this material has been transferred to new files in the order in which it was received. Correspondence which was loose and unarranged has been placed in files maintaining as far as possible the order in which it was removed from the cartons. Apart from a short run of alphabetical files of correspondence, a number of files of royalty statements (Files 61-65) and some correspondence relating to specific publications and television projects, all other files of correspondence have been arranged in a rough chronological sequence. There is considerable overlap between files and many of them cover long periods.

Files 49-57 contain a sequence of files in alphabetical order by correspondents' names, some of which were also numbered by Wannan (numbers 1-2 and 8 of 16 are missing; number 3 is a file of miscellaneous correspondence which can be found in File 6 in this series). Correspondence with these people may also be found elsewhere in this series. Wannan's military papers and correspondence relating to Wannan's mother's estate which were originally in correspondence files can be found in Series 1, Files 2 and 5 respectively.

Correspondence from Wannan's agent, publishers and readers appear in most of the files in this series. Significant correspondence with specific people are highlighted in the list of files below, but letters from the same people may also appear elsewhere in this or other series. Correspondence can also be found in many other series, particularly in Series 7, Persons files and Series 7, Subject files.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Wannan's papers were donated to the Library in 2003 by his daughter and son-in-law, Paula and Roger Hyland. A collection of 49 books by Bill Wannan were purchased from Wannan's estate and can be found in Series 3.

Names:

Wannan, Bill, 1915-2003

Contents

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