Correspondence, 1941-2001

Component identifier:

Series 1

Content Summary:

This series features letters to and from O'Shaughnessy regarding literary and theatrical projects family matters travel arrangements and other aspects of his life and work. O'Shaughnessy's letters provide a picture of the routine of his life as a director writer and actor. They include comments on family friends colleagues and contemporary Australian public figures. There is minimal editorial correspondence apart from notes by Louis Cullen regarding a File on Joseph Holt and comments by Phillip Adams on various writings.

The major correspondents include Phillip Adams Samuel Beckett Margaret Beveridge Dorothy Bradley (Collopy) Sylvia Buzzard (Lock) Louis Cullen Germaine Greer Claude Marks Brian O'Shaughnessy Desmond O'Shaughnessy Nora O'Shaughnessy Wynn Roberts and Ian Rose.

The letters of Samuel Beckett were previously held by Reading University 1995-2001 and are annotated with their accession number of MS 4294 which has been crossed out. O'Shaughnessy directed the world premieres of Beckett's plays Theatre I and Theatre 11 at Cambridge (England) in 1976 and the letters concern further productions of works by Beckett at the Triskel Theatre in Cork.

The Library has identified and maintained two sequences of correspondence. Most of the letters were roughly arranged according to the correspondent and these have been sorted in an alphabetical sequence by the correspondent's surname. There were also several bundles of miscellaneous correspondence which have been grouped together. Correspondence with Barry Humphries is located in Series 5.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Drafts of The restless years (1968) were donated to the National Library in 1969. Extracts from a transcript of a 1986 interview with O'Shaughnessy were added to the collection in 1986. The bulk of the collection was purchased from O'Shaughnessy in five instalments between November 2000 and May 2001, with a further donation of material in June 2001.

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