Short stories

Component identifier:

Series 12

Content Summary:

Stivens was a prolific writer of short stories from the 1930s onwards. Many of his stories combined humour and irony and he was drawn to the 'tall story' genre, which he attributed to growing up with the 'yarns' of his family. He also had an interest in fantasy, science fiction and 'bawdy tales', which form the basis of other stories.

Stivens' first book, The tramp and other stories, which comprised short stories of the Depression, was published in London in 1936. Other collections were to follow, including The courtship of Uncle Henry: a collection of tales and stories (1946); The gambling ghost and other tales (1953); Iron Bark Bill (1955); The scholarly mouse and other tales (1957); Selected stories 1936-1968 (1969); The unicorn and other tales (1976) and The demon bowler and other cricket stories (1979). His stories have also been published in numerous magazines, journals, newspapers and anthologies, both national and international.

Contained in this series are drafts (mostly undated) of a large number of Stivens' short stories. In some cases there are several heavily edited drafts which illustrate well his creative processes. There is also evidence that Stivens reworked some of his earlier stories a number of years later, possibly for re-publication. There are papers relating to what appears to be a proposed publication by Penguin of a collection of Stivens' works entitled 'Best short stories of Dal Stivens'.

As with his articles, Stivens occasionally published under a pseudonym, using the names John Sidney, James Crockett, Jeff Peter and John Wilton.

The stories are grouped alphabetically by title.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The papers were purchased from Stivens in several small instalments from 1971 to 1973 and in one large instalment from Stivens' companion, Juanita Cragen, in 1999.

Contents

Access and use