MS 9235
Papers of Elizabeth Riddell (1910 - 1998)



Scope and Content Note

  • Papers
  • 1982-90
  • 14cm. (1 box)
  • Available for Reference

The papers were donated in 1995, under the Taxation Incentives for the Arts Scheme, to the National Library.

The collection includes drafts of poems and reviews by Riddell and correspondence with Barrett Reid and Stephen Murray-Smith.

Riddell kept the papers in files and the arrangement has been preserved by the Library.

Biographical Note

Poet, journalist and reviewer. Riddell was born in 1910 in Napier, New Zealand. She came to Australia in 1925 to work for Erza Norton.

During the War Riddell worked as a War Correspondent in London for the Daily Express and the Daily Mirror. She came back to Sydney at the end of the War to work for the Daily Mirror and The Australian.

Between 1948 and 1994 she published six books of poetry, including the Selected poems (1972) and her works also appeared in journals (including Overland and The Bulletin). She was won the Grace Leven Prize (1971), the Christopher Brennan Award (1971), the NSW Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry (1992), NSW Book of the year (1992) and the Gold Medal of the Australian Literature Society (1993).

Riddell died in Sydney in 1998.

Reference
The Oxford companion to Australian Literature (pp.648).
‘Elizabeth Riddell’ by James Hall, in The Australian, 7 July 1998 (p. 16).


Series Description

Folder

1-3

Drafts of poems by Riddell, including those published in Overland and The Bulletin

4

Drafts of poem the ‘First hearing’ and an article by Riddell and poems by others (including ‘A marriage’ by John Tranter and ‘Migrating’ and ‘At country airfields’ by Duncan Richardson).

5-6

Riddell’s miscellaneous drafts of reviews and cuttings, including ‘Some people in summer’.

7

12 letters and eight cards, 1984-90, from Barrett Reid. Most were written while Reid was the editor of Overland. The subjects include personal news, Reid’s comments on Riddell’s writings (eg. her poems ‘Musk duck’ ‘His life’, ‘November’ and ‘The poet and the wind processor’ and radio program), Reid’s readings (eg. Illywacker), invitation for Riddell to write reviews for Overland (eg. the Labour ward by John Strauss, This goes with this by P. Goldsmith and Honey by Kate Llewellyn) and news of the death and an account of the funeral of Stephen Murray-Smith (Sept. 1988).

8

Cuttings and typescripts of articles and 18 poems by Barrett Reid, including an obituary of John Reed and ‘A landscape painter: the Sidney Nolan Retrospective Exhibition’ and copies of Reid’s correspondence with Max Harris.

9

Papers concerning Patrick White, including Riddell’s review of Flaws in the glass, a manuscript poem by Patrick White entitled ‘Ryme dreamed after a talk with someone on recipes for suicide, Australia Day 1981’ and a photocopy of an article entitled ‘Guests of Patrick White’ by Brother G.C. Davy (in Our studies, May 1964).

10

Letters of Stephen Murray-Smith (1982 and 1988) concerning The dictionary of Australian quotations.

Guide prepared July 1998