Correspondence, 1859-1970

Component identifier:

Series 1

Content Summary:

The series contains letters from Frank Dalby Davison to his mother comprising some 192 letters, 1945-1951. The letters are mainly of a domestic nature but also contain vivid descriptions of surroundings and people and of his social life in Melbourne, and later at Folding Hills, including meetings with Vance and Nettie Palmer, Flora Eldershaw, Ian Mair, Leonard Mann, Dal Stivens, Noel Counihan, Jossel Bergner and Vic O'Connor.

Other family correspondence includes letters by Edna Marie (wife of Davison) to his mother c. 1948; a letter to Davison from Doris Lister and Peter Davison ; letters to his daughter Doris and twenty-three letters to him from his mother being, in part, replies to his letters mentioned above.

The series also includes general correspondence, comprising 429 letters from 110 correspondents over the period 1925-1962, principally relating to literary matters. There are also congratulatory letters on Davison's published works and correspondence on the Sydney 150th Anniversary competition.

Personal friends, publishers and fellow Australian authors are among the correspondents who include Nettie Palmer (51 letters), Vance Palmer (41 letters), Kylie Tennant, Henry Handel Richardson, Walter Murdoch, Patrick White, Dal Stivens, Hal Porter, Tom Inglis Moore (13 letters), Ian Mudie, Miles Franklin, Xavier Herbert, Eleanor Dark, Marjorie Barnard, Gavin Casey, Hans Heysen and Elioth Gruener.

Also included is the text of a talk on Christopher Brennan by Hilary Lofting.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The papers were donated to the Library by Davison in 1962. Two small additions were received in 1988 and 1994.

Names:

Frank Dalby Davison

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