Guide to the Papers of Randolph Stow, 1935-2010

 

Collection context

Summary

Collection number:
MS 4912, MS Acc10.128.MS Acc10.195, MS Acc16.013
Creator:
Stow, Randolph
Extent:
1.83 metres and 12 MS boxes, 1 packet
Language:
English
Preferred citation:
Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Randolph Stow, National Library of Australia, [class/series/file/item number(s)]'.
Availability:
Available
Access conditions:
Available for research. Not for loan.

Background

Content Summary:
The papers in this collection were accumulated over the course of Stow's life and career. They comprise correspondence, drafts of novels and poetry, photographs and slides, research notes, notebooks, personal diaries, news clippings; files on dealings with agents and publishers reviews by and about Stow; and a thesis on Stow's writing. Correspondents include Patrick White, A.D. Hope, Geoffrey Dutton, David Foster, A.N. Jeffares, Ralph Steadman, Naomi Mitchison, Annette B. Weiner, Russell Soaba, George Malko, Marlis Thiersch, Nevil Shute, Vincent Buckley, Max Cramer, Mary Durack Miller and Nicholas Jose. There is also a group of letters from Stow to his mother, Mary Stow and his sister Helen McArthur.
Biographical / Historical:

Novelist, poet and academic. Julian Randolph Stow was born in Geraldton, Western Australia, in 1935 and educated at Geraldton Primary School and Guildford Grammar School. While studying for his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Western Australia, he published two novels, A haunted land (1956) and The bystander (1957). In 1957 Stow's collection of poems, Act One: poems, won the gold medal of the Australian Literature Society. His third novel, To the islands (1958) was influenced by his contact with indigenous people in remote areas and won him another Australian Literature Society gold medal and the Miles Franklin Award. In 1959, Stow was posted as assistant Government Anthropologist in the Trobriand Islands and Milne Bay area of New Guinea. Ill-health, however, forced his evacuation to Australia.

During the 1960s Stow held teaching positions at universities in England and Australia and, in 1965, travelled in the United States on a Harkness Fellowship. In 1969, Stow settled permanently in England. He nevertheless maintained his ties with Australia and in 1987 the Randolph Stow Fiction and Poetry Award was established. Stow wrote six other novels and two further volumes of poetry, Outrider (1962), illustrated by Sidney Nolan, and A counterfeit silence (1969). In 1967, he published a successful children's book, Midnite: the story of a wild colonial boy. He also collaborated with English composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies on two music theatre works. Stow's contribution to Australian literature attracted many awards and honours including the Britannica-Australia Award in 1966, the Grace Leven Poetry Prize, 1969, and the Patrick White Literary Award in 1979. Stow died in Essex, England, in 2010.

Collection Retrieval Advice:

Please note: each class in this collection has a separate box number sequence (i.e. there are multiple Box 1's). Please cite the relevant Class number as well as the Box number when requesting retrieval of material from the collection.

Provenance:

The initial instalments of papers were acquired from Randolph Stow over a period of time commencing in 1975. The two instalments in 2010 and one in 2016 were received from Stow's sister.

Access and use

Conditions Governing Access:
Access conditions may apply to this collection, please refer to the collection's catalogue record for further information(http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1109597.
Preferred citation:
Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Randolph Stow, National Library of Australia, [class/series/file/item number(s)]'.
Location of this collection:
Parkes Place
Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
Contact: