Guide to the Papers of Yusuf Peter Louis Bladen-Pryor, 1938-2000

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Summary

Collection number:
MS 7407
Creator:
Bladen-Pryor, Yusuf Peter Louis and Yusuf Peter Louis Bladen-Pryor
Extent:
11.25 metres and (58 boxes) + 3 fol. boxes + 1 carton + 3 large cartons + 1 small carton.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:
Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Papers of Yusuf Peter Louis Bladen-Pryor, National Library of Australia, [class/series and/or file number]'.
Availability:
Available
Access conditions:
Available for research. Not for loan.

Background

Content Summary:
MS 7407 includes personal and family correspondence; correspondence relating to Expression magazine, business and property correspondence; diaries, published and unpublished writings including poems, plays, novels, short stories and theses; reviews of Bladen's works; family papers, personal documents, scrapbook; photographs; artwork; literary publications by other authors, memorabilia and other papers.
Biographical / Historical:

Peter Louis Bladen was born in Perth in 1922. His studies at the University of Western Australia were interrupted by the Second World War, during which he served in the Royal Australian Navy. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (honours) in 1951, and later from the University of Melbourne with a Masters degree.

Bladen's first book Selected Poems (1945) was published under the name L. Bladen. He subsequently published under the names Peter Bladen, L. Bladen and Yusuf Peter Louis Bladen-Pryor. He won a prize in the Commonwealth Jubilee Literary Competition Long-Poem Section in 1951 for his first major work The Old Ladies at Newington: a Poem or Several Voices.

In the 1960s Bladen moved to the eastern states and worked as a journalist and writer, including some time writing for the Mavis Bramston Show. He published and edited the literary quarterly Expression, the official journal of the Writer's Guild of Queensland, from 1962 to 1972.

In 1984 Bladen moved to Turkey and continued to write. There he became a Muslim, assuming the name Yusuf Peter Louis Bladen-Pryor. In the 1990s he travelled through the United States. In later years he concentrated on the sonnet, culminating in the 2000 publication of his collection of a thousand sonnets Millefleurs, written between 1944 and 1999.

Bladen died in October 2001 and was survived by his sister, Joy Foster. She described him as a gentle man who was highly intelligent, thrifty and methodical. His brother, Geoffrey pre-deceased him. Bladen's literary executor Professor Les Marchant said in a eulogy that his writing bestowed fame on his university, state and nation.

Indexed terms

Names:
Bladen-Pryor, Yusuf Peter Louis

Access and use

Conditions Governing Access:
Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2037185).
Conditions Governing Use:
Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.
Preferred citation:
Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Papers of Yusuf Peter Louis Bladen-Pryor, National Library of Australia, [class/series and/or file number]'.
Location of this collection:
Parkes Place
Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
Contact:
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