Chapter 1 - The Evidence of the Archive

Summary

Literature made front-page news in Australia on 3 November 2006: not a common occurrence. In Patrick White's home town, the lead story in the broadsheet Sydney Morning Herald was a report by his biographer David Marr about the National Library of Australia's purchase of a collection of Patrick White's papers, previously thought destroyed, from his agent and literary executor, Barbara Mobbs. ‘The old bastard,’ Marr began. ‘Patrick White told the world over and over again that none of this existed. “Don't bother hunting for drafts and manuscripts,” he snapped when I asked him years ago. “They've all gone into the pit.” They hadn't.’ Other media, both in Australia and internationally, picked up the story. The Times Literary Supplement ran a major essay on White by novelist David Malouf, while the Australian Book Review carried a piece by Marie-Louise Ayres, then the Library's curator of manuscripts, in which she described the material and indicated some of the insights it provides.

In preparation for the announcement of this extraordinary acquisition, Dr Ayres had led National Library of Australia (NLA) staff in an operation conducted in secrecy. They compiled a finding list of the 33 boxes of material found for release simultaneously with the announcement: an extremely valuable document describing the various items in the collection, which itself made history because of the way in which it was put together. Such catalogues are usually the work of a single librarian over an extended period, whereas this team performed the task in a matter of weeks. A small exhibition accompanied the announcement: it included realia like White's trademark beret and beanie, a pair of his spectacles and a selection of manuscript material. The librarians involved were aware that they were part of a once-in-a-lifetime experience; scholars round the world were stirred (there were early enquiries from as far afield as Scandinavia and the United States); and there was considerable public interest.

Soon, it was apparent that this material constituted ‘literary treasure’ in Marr's phrase. He was able to show, for example, that throughout the 10 working notebooks are scattered drafts for the openings of half a dozen of White's novels, including The Aunt's Story (1948). The richness of the treasure has become even more apparent as we have embarked on plumbing the depths of MS9982.