Other writings, c1938-c1983

Component identifier:

Series 16

Content Summary:

In addition to novels, short stories and articles, Stivens' papers include drafts of his writings in other genres, many of which were unpublished. There are bound typescripts of a novel entitled 'Well Anyway'; a collection of short stories entitled 'Bounce on the two-backed beast and other bawdy tales'; a natural history book entitled 'Stop...look...and wonder', which comprises selected copies of Stivens' natural history articles arranged into sections, and a book entitled 'An ABC of natural history wonders' with an accompanying letter from Stivens' agent, Curtis Brown, advising that they had been unable to find a publisher for the book. There are also scripts of plays; drafts of children's stories; notes for speeches and lectures, drafts of letters to the editor, poetry and ideas for novels.

In 1946, Stivens was the scriptwriter for the production of a series of ABC Radio programs about Australian folklore entitled Tall tales. There are scripts from the program, together with the typescript of a play entitled 'Nothing to what I've done', from the same period. Also in this series are miscellaneous papers accumulated by Stivens relating to writing style, including a copy of Writing to sell by Scott Meredith, 1950.

Stivens wrote the script for an ABC TV production about eccentric characters in history. Entitled See it my way, it was first televised in 1972 and included in this series are editorial notes by Denis Oran, research material, synopsis, film sequences and letters of congratulation to Stivens from Bill Scott, Harry Heseltine and Nancy Keesing.

There is a large group of typescripts of short stories by other authors, which it appears were for a proposed anthology of Australian writing. Some of the stories were included in Coast to coast, Australian stories 1957-58, which were selected by Stivens and published in 1958.

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