Professional correspondence, 1953-1991

Component identifier:

Series 2

Content Summary:

This series consists of: letters; press cuttings; lecture manuscripts, typescripts and copies; minutes of meetings and other records of societies and associations of which Hope was a member; award certificates; photographs; legal and financial papers; and reports.

Hope maintained two categories of professional correspondence: papers relating to the publication of his poetry, prose works and reviews; and those documenting invitations and arrangements to lecture in Australia and overseas and other professional commitments (including travel papers and Hope's radio broadcasts). Copies of Hope's own letters are filed amongst the papers.

Editors and others with whom Hope corresponded regarding publication of his works include Tim Curnow (Hope's agent at Curtis Brown), Douglas Stewart and Beatrice Davis (Angus and Robertson), Jim Davidson and Clem Christesen (Meanjin), Grahame Johnston (University of New South Wales Press), Stephen Murray-Smith (Overland), Roger McDonald (University of Queensland Press), Max Harris (Australian Book Review), Geoffrey Dutton (Sun Books and Australian letters), Peter Ryan (Melbourne University Press) and Ian Mudie (Rigby).

A note in File 673 signed by Hope states that 'all previous correspondence [ie prior to 1953 was] destroyed in Canberra University College [later Australian National University] fire 1952'. This may only apply to the papers received by the Library in 2003, which were previously kept by Hope at the ANU and progressively lodged by him in the Menzies Library.

In the preliminary finding aid for the Hope Papers there were two File 533s. File 533 in Box 64 is in this series. File 533 (also marked '532a' on the file) in Box 63 is in Series 7.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The A.D. Hope Papers were purchased from Hope in ten consignments between 1978 and 1992. In 2001 two files of obituaries and tributes, published after the death of Hope in 2000, were donated to the Library by Hope's daughter-in-law, Sarah Burns. In 2003 further papers were donated to the Library by the Menzies Library at the Australian National University (Acc03/87). These papers had been lodged by Hope over a number of years at the Menzies Library, where they were catalogued under the title, 'The A.D. Hope collection of literary manuscripts'.

Names:

Hope, A. D. (Alec Derwent)

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