MS 7401
Papers of Brenda Niall (1930- )



Scope and Content Note

  • Papers
  • 1911-91
  • 2.38m (13 boxes and 1 folio)
  • Available for reference

The papers of Brenda Niall were donated in two instalments to the Library in October 1987 and April 1995 under the Taxation Incentive for the Arts Scheme. The collection comprises drafts, typescripts, correspondence, newspaper cuttings, and copies of official papers relating to research for and publication of two of Niall’s books.

Niall kept her papers in good working order, and the Library has maintained this arrangement. The following list of series to the collection is based on lists received from Niall.


Biographical Note

Brenda Niall

Brenda Niall was born in Melbourne, Victoria in 1930. She gained her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Melbourne prior to moving to the Australian National University where she gained her MA. In 1964 she took up an appointment as a teaching fellow with the English Department at Monash University where she gained her PHD. She became a Senior Lecturer in 1975 and a Reader in 1994.

Dr Niall has held visiting fellowships at Michigan and Yale Universities. She was American Council of Learned Societies Visiting Research Fellow in 1975 and Visiting Scholar, Humanities Research Centre at the Australian National University, in 1983 and 1987.

Dr Niall retired from her position as Reader in English Literature at Monash University of Victoria in 1995. She was the recipient of the Nettie Palmer Award for non-fiction in the Victorian Premier’s awards for Georgiana: a biography of Georgina McCrae, painter, diarist, pioneer. Her biography Martin Boyd: a life received the National Book Council (Banjo) Award in 1989.

Dr Niall’s books include:

  • Martin Boyd: a bibliography (1977)
  • Seven little Billabongs: the world of Ethel Turner and Mary Grant Bruce (1979)
  • Australia through the looking glass: children’s fiction 1830-1980 (1984) [a social history of children’s fiction with Frances O’Neill]
  • Martin Boyd, a life (1988)
  • Georgiana: a biography of Georgiana McCrae, painter, diarist, pioneer (1994)
  • She has also edited
  • The Oxford book of Australian schooldays (1997) [with Ian Britain]
  • The Oxford book of Australian letters (1998) [with John Thompson]

Martin à Beckett Boyd

Martin à Beckett Boyd was born in Lucerne, Switzerland in 1893 of Anglo-Australian parents. He was brought to Australia at six months old. Boyd was a member of a distinguished artistic family. His father, Arthur Merric Boyd, and his mother, Emma Minnie à Beckett, were painters; his brother Merric was a potter and Penleigh a painter.

Boyd’s original areas of interest were theology and architecture. He joined an English regiment at the start of World War One, and later the Royal Flying Corps, serving in France from 1915-18. His experiences there permanently influenced his attitude to war and the British ruling class and he became both anti-authoritarian and a pacifist. After a short time with his parents in Melbourne in 1921 he returned to England where he undertook a religious vocation in a Franciscan order in the Church of England. It was after this he started his career as a novelist.

Boyd’s writing reflects a strong sense of tradition and aristocratic, anti-bourgeois beliefs, pacifism and cultural ties to both Europe and Australia. His first major work The Montforts (1928) received the Australian Literature Society’s gold medal. Among his most striking literary achievement are Lucinda Brayford (1946) and the Langton tetralogy: The cardboard crown (1952), A difficult young man (1955), Outbreak of love (1957) and When blackbirds sing (1962).

Boyd returned to Australian in 1948 and settled in his grandfather’s house at Berwick. However ill health and dissatisfaction with post-war Australian life led him to return to England in 1951 where he remained until 1957, when he moved to Rome. He died there in June 1972.


Series List

  1. Australia through the looking glass; letters from writers, 1981-82
  2. Martin Boyd, a life; correspondence, 1972-86
  3. Martin Boyd, a life; research material, 1923-89
  4. Martin Boyd writings, 1911-85
  5. Martin Boyd, a life, 1985-91


Series Description

Original instalment October 1987

Series 1 Australia through the looking glass; letters from writers 1981-82
This series contains 40 letters received by Brenda Niall while researching her book Australia through the looking glass: children’s fiction 1830-1980 (1987). The letters are from writers of Australian children’s books in reply to a questionnaire sent by Brenda Niall requesting details of their experiences and views on ‘the emergence of a distinctively Australian literature for children’. Copies of the questionnaire are included. Writers who replied to the questionnaire included Nance Donkin, Simon French, Ruth Manley, Ruth Park, Eleanor Spence, Colin Thiele and Patricia Wrightson (2 letters).
Folder
1 A copy of the questionnaire form sent by Niall and the responding letters, 1981-82

Instalment added June 1995

Series 2 Martin Boyd: a life, correspondence 1972-86
This series contains letters to and from Brenda Niall while researching her book Martin Boyd: a life (1988). Also included are copies of her original letters.
The correspondents include Desmond O’Grady, Geoffrey Dutton, Graham Pollard, Alan Shadwick, Shelley Fausset, Isla à Beckett Marsh and Terry O’Neill.
Folder
1

Correspondence with Desmond O’Grady, 1972-84

2

Correspondence with Geoffrey Dutton, 1973-85

3

Correspondence, 1970-85

4

Correspondence, 1977-87

5

Correspondence, 1982-88

6

Correspondence, 1986

7

Correspondence, 1988-89

8

Correspondence A-L, 1985-86

9

Correspondence M-Z, 1984-86


Series 3 Martin Boyd, a life: research materials, 1923-89
This series contains copies of letter from Martin Boyd received by others; notes and copies of official documents and papers held privately and in institutions including publishers’ archives; references, index cards, photocopies of printed sources, annotated books, a copy of a thesis on Penleigh Boyd; notes by other researchers, particularly Terry O’ Neill on visits to family members; photographs and lists of where the original photographs were held.
Folder
1-4

Copies of Martin Boyd’s letters A-E, 1923-71. Correspondents include Joan Burnett, W. R. Crocker and Curtis Brown (publishers).

5-6

Copies of Martin Boyd’s letters F-L, 1926-83. Correspondents include, Shelley Fausset, Rachel Geering and R. D. FitzGerald.

7-8

Copies of Martin Boyd’s letters L-Z, 1919-71. Correspondents include Marion McNaughton, Isla à Beckett Marsh, Lloyd O’Neill, Graham Pollard and Alan Shadwick.

9-10

Copies of letters from Martin Boyd to Guy and Phyllis Boyd, 1961-72

11

Correspondence between Martin Boyd and Arthur and Yvonne Boyd, 1961-72 (copies)

12

Letters from Martin Boyd to Arthur Boyd, 1953-72 (copies)

13

Letters from Martin Boyd to Arthur and Guy Boyd, undated

14

Letters about Martin Boyd, 1978-82. Correspondents include Alan Shadwick and Terry O’Neill.

15

Letters from Martin Boyd to Joan Lindsay and Mim Pollak, 1940-68

16

Letters from Dallas Kenmare to Martin Boyd, 1960-65

17

Letters from Martin Boyd to Dallas Kenmare, 1960-65

18

Copy of Letters from Martin Boyd (1950-71) by Quin Geering, 1983

19

J.G. Murray correspondence, 1956-72. Correspondents include John Grey Murray, John Bull and A. D. Peters.

20-21

James B. Pinker correspondence (James Pinker & Sons Inc. Literary, Dramatic and Motion Picture Agents), 1926-78. Correspondents include D. L. Chambers and Nancy Wyatt Greene.

22

Boyd family, 1860-1983. Includes copies of wills and receipts from the Office of Probates and index cards on the exhibitions of Emma Minnie Boyd.

23

Captain J. T. T. Boyd, 1908-86. Includes copies of death notices, certificates and extracts from published sources.

24

Captain J. T. T. Boyd ‘Glenfern’, 1882-1986. Includes copies of newspaper articles on Glenfern and a handwritten list of references to Glenfern from La Trobe University.

25

à Beckett family, 1832-1985. Includes a list of newspaper references to Emma à Beckett paintings extracts from her diaries and a copy of a thesis on Sir William à Beckett.

26

Sir William à Beckett, 1789-1987. Includes a list of references to Literary news (1837) and extracts from the Melbourne monthly magazine (1855).

27

Copies of Argus references to Sir William à Beckett, 1849-53

28-29

Dr Robert Martin, 1789-1986. Includes a copy of the death notice of Dr Martin from the Argus, 1874.

30-32

John Mills, 1833-1987. Includes a transcript from the Surgeon’s report from the Marion (1845) and correspondence between Brenda Niall and the Bristol City Records Office.

33

Mills/Robinson dispute, 1856-1984. Includes copies of the Victorian Law Times and the Observer from May 1856 regarding the legal dispute over John Mill’s will.

34

Wills, Probate records, 1858-1974. Includes copies of the wills of John Mills, Emma à Beckett and Martin à Beckett Boyd.

35

Julian Ashton Geering, undated. Includes a copy of Martin Boyd’s horoscope.

36

Letters from Brian Marsh and Guy Boyd granting permission to Brenda Niall to quote from the papers of Isla Marsh and Martin Boyd, 1987
Copy of Hannah Robinson’s will, undated.

37

Boyd family: Emma Minnie, Arthur Merric and Gilbert. Includes Niall’s notes on Emma Minnie; list of exhibitions of Emma Minnie’s art work; copies of the wills of Emma Minnie and Arthur Merric; typescript of a letter from Emma Minnie to Annie Langford (1896); transcript of Argus report on the death of Gilbert Boyd (1896).

38

Arthur Merric Boyd, 1911-84. Includes copy of an extract from the Australian Dictionary of Biography, and a typed list of records checked from the National Gallery of Victoria Art School.

39-40

Copies of poems and stories written by Emma Minnie Boyd, 1932.

41

Penleigh Boyd, 1918-23. Includes a list of letters to Edith Boyd in the Australian War Memorial; a copy of an extract from Salvage with drawings by Penleigh Boyd, published by the British Australasian.

42-43

Thesis on Penleigh Boyd by Hamish McDonald, 1986

44

Copies of extracts from Fanny Barber’s diary, 1887-1985

45

Copies of auction notices for Penleigh House, 1897-1966

46

World War One, 1915-87. Includes an information booklet on Boyd’s regiment; a list of Boyd’s services and promotions; an original letter from Helen Harben to Brenda Niall regarding Boyd’s time in England in the 1920s.

47

Lists of Boyd’s addresses from 1957-72; copies of the British Australasian (1923-72).

48

Copy of Frank Davidson’s article Australia’s challenge to Martin Boyd published in Spar in 1987; copies of Table talk (1890); copies of the series list from the Martin Boyd Papers at the National Library of Australia.

49

Martin Boyd, biographical details and family background, 1920-84. Includes copies of newspaper articles written after his death in 1972; notes on his association with the Melbourne Club; notes on Luciano Trombini taken from Boyd’s diary.

50

Martin Boyd’s early records: school/family/home, 1917-86. Includes a copy of an article written by Martin Boyd on Trinity Grammar School; a copy of article written by Joan Lindsay for Overland (1985) entitled Student days.

51

Copies of Table talk (1890); copy of an article by Paul M. St Pierre entitled Martin Boyd: the last years; copies of photographs of Martin Boyd.

52

Copies of newspaper articles on Martin Boyd, 1929-72.

53

Pacifist materials, 1978. Includes copies of I sit at the window by Stephen Spender (undated) and Haunted by Walter de la Mare (undated); a copy of a letter from Shelley Faussett to Terry O’Neill explaining Boyd’s role in producing pacifist broadsheets.

54-55

Copies of extracts from Alan Shadwick’s diaries with notes on references to Martin Boyd, 1946-56

56

Notes made by Brenda Niall and Geoffrey Dutton from Emm à Beckett’s diaries (1837-1905)

57-58

Notes made by Brenda Niall from Martin Boyd’s diaries, 1953-72

59

Photographs of the Boyd and à Beckett families, 1860-1965. Mostly prints with small number of originals; transparencies of paintings ‘The Grange interior with Figures 1875’ by Emma Minnie Boyd and ‘à Beckett Road, Harkaway’ by Arthur Boyd, 1949

60

Notes made by Brenda Niall from the Terry O’Neill interviews, 1978-82

61

Notes made by Brenda Niall on family sources used in Martin Boyd’s novels, 1985

62

Typescript of an interview with Joan Burnett talking about Boyd’s time in Italy (undated); notes made by Brenda Niall from an interview with Bill and Joan à Beckett (1985).

63

Anne, Arthur and Yvonne Boyd, 1984-86. Includes typed notes on Anne Boyd and handwritten notes from an interview with Martin Boyd.

64-65

Interview notes; including 16 cassettes of interviews conducted by Brenda Niall 1985-89

66

Transcripts of Terry O’Neill interviews on Martin Boyd. Interviewees include Alan Shadwick, F.A.W. Mann and Lady Hay.

67

Published sources including Sir William’s muse by Clifford Pannam (1992) and Merric Boyd: the late drawings by Gavin Fry (1985)

68

Typed list of materials and sources used during the research for Martin Boyd; a life. Undated, not checked by Brenda Niall


Series 4 Martin Boyd writings, 1911-85
This series contains photocopies and transcripts of Boyd’s letters to newspapers; lists of his reviews; lists of his literary contracts and photocopies of Boyd’s novels
Folder
1

Photocopies of poems written by Boyd; copies of newspapers and publications containing his work including the British Australasian, the Westminster Gazette and The book lover. 1911-43

2

Copy of Brangane, 1921

3

Copy of The aristocrat - a memoir, 1928

4

Copy of The Madeleine heritage, 1928

5

Copies of ‘The cat’s tail’, ‘They have ears’, ‘A dream realised’ and ‘Expatriates dine’, Short stories written by Martin Boyd, 1929-69

6

Copies of handwritten poems by Martin Boyd, including ‘Certainty’, ‘King’s Chapel’ and ‘To Margaret who is ill’; copy of a handwritten unfinished poem; copy of a handwritten fragment of a play by Boyd; copy of an article written with Shelley Fausset entitled ‘What will happen if I don’t fight Hitler’, 1943-79

7

Photocopies of newspaper articles written by Martin Boyd, 1920-61

8

Photocopies of letters to newspapers, written by Martin Boyd, 1942-68

9-10

Photocopies of book reviews written on Boyd’s novels, 1920-85

11

Typescript of letter from Ian Donaldson relating his mother’s (Elizabeth Weigall) speculation on sources for Lucinda Brayford 1978; copy of an article by Brenda Niall on The Montfords (1978) published by the Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand


Series 5 Martin Boyd, a life 1985-91
This series contains notes and handwritten drafts of chapters; copies of the final draft; notes for an unpublished lecture on Martin Boyd; letters received by Brenda Niall after publication commenting on the book, cuttings and photocopies of reviews.
Folder
1 Chapter notes and copies of Boyd family letters, 1891-1988
2 Notes made by Brenda Niall on chapter 2 including early handwritten drafts, undated
3-4 Final draft with publisher’s layout and notes; including a final draft on disc, 1988
5 Reviews and letters, 1985-91. Includes copies of letters from Sir Paul Hasluck, A. J. Hassall, Lloyd O’Neil, Sir Walter Crocker, Joan Ells and Alan Shadwick; newspaper cuttings of reviews, including a review by Manning Clark and an article on Niall receiving the Banjo award.

Box List

Box

Series

1

1/1

1

2/1-2/9

2

3/1-3/6

3

3/7-3/15

4

3/16-3/23

5

3/24-3/33

6

3/34-3/41

7

3/42-3/47

8

3/48-3/55

9

3/56-3/61

10

3/62-3/67

11

3/68

11

4/1-4/8

12

4/9-4/11

12

5/1-5/3

13

5/4-5/5

Folio

3/29, 3/31

Folio

4/2

Guide prepared January 1999