Guide to the Papers of Bruce Pascoe

MS 9746

National Library of Australia


Date completed: December 2003
Last updated: September 2009


© National Library of Australia. All rights reserved.


Collection Summary

Creator: Pascoe, Bruce, 1947-
Title: Papers of Bruce Pascoe
Date Range: 1983-1999
Collection Number: MS 9746
Extent: 4.06m (29 boxes)
Repository: National Library of Australia

Introduction

Scope and Content

The main part of the collection comprises papers relating to the editing and publishing of issues No. 36 to No. 61 of Australian short stories. There is correspondence with contributors and edited drafts of stories, all of which provide a good representation of the life and history of the magazine. There is also correspondence and edited drafts relating to several books published by Pascoe Publishing and edited drafts and correspondence relating to books written by Pascoe himself.

Arrangement

The papers have been placed into series by the Library, and the correspondence sorted into chronological order by year.

Access

Permission required for research during Bruce Pascoe's lifetime. Not for loan.

Provenance

The papers were acquired by the Library from Bruce Pascoe in two instalments, one in 1998 and one in 1999.

Copying and Publishing

Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions.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 Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.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 Bruce Pascoe, National Library of Australia, MS 9746, [series and/or folder number]'.

Biographical Note

Bruce Pascoe was born in Richmond, Victoria, on 11 October 1947. After graduating from Melbourne University with a Bachelor of Education, he taught as a secondary teacher and was a Curriculum Development Officer with the Victorian Education Department.

With his wife, Lyn Harwood, Pascoe manages Pascoe Publishing, a small company that has published works in a variety of genres including novels, anthologies of poetry and short stories, history, biography and Aboriginal culture.

In 1982 Pascoe and Harwood founded the quarterly magazine, Australian short stories, which they edited and published until 1998.

Pascoe has written twelve books, including four novels and won the Fellowship of Australian Writers' Literature Award in 1999.

As a member of the Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative, Pascoe is very involved in indigenous issues and conducts guided Koori tours around his home area of Apollo Bay and Cape Otway in Victoria.



Series List and Descriptions

Series 1 Correspondence, 1983-1998

Contained in this series is correspondence, mainly with contributors to Australian short stories and relating to projects undertaken by Pascoe Publishing. Correspondents include Barry Dickens, Elizabeth Jolley, Ian Middleton, Ba Phillipps and Thomas Shapcott. There is correspondence relating to a project involving Pascoe and Chester Eagle, who were approached by Professor Zhu Jiong Qiang, from Hangzhou University in China, to produce an anthology of Australian short stories in Chinese translation. Funding for the project was received from the Literature Board of the Australia Council. The book was published by Zhejiang Publishing House, Hangzhou in 1992. There are also four audio-cassette tapes of 'letters' (1994-1995) from the New Zealand author, Ian Middleton, who is blind.

Folder 1 Correspondence, 1983-1986
Folder 2 Correspondence, 1987-1991
Folder 3-4 Correspondence, 1992
Folder 5 Correspondence, 1993
Folder 6-8 Correspondence, 1994
Folder 8a Middleton audio cassette tapes, 1994-1995
Folder 9-12 Correspondence, 1995
Folder 13 Correspondence, 1995-1997
Folder 14-15 Correspondence, 1996
Folder 16-17 Correspondence, 1997
Folder 18-21 Correspondence, 1998
Folder 22 Correspondence relating to Chinese translations of Australian short stories, 1990-1992

Series 2 Australian short stories, 1991-1998

In 1982 Bruce Pascoe and Lyn Harwood founded the quarterly magazine Australian short stories. The magazine published a wide range of quality short stories by Australian authors and provided a forum for promoting the genre. Over the years, the works of over 500 authors, both established and emerging, were published in the magazine. Many of these authors, for example Gillian Mears, Matthew Condon, Steven Carroll and Tom Flood, went on to become well-known names in Australian literature. The final issue under their editorship was No. 61, which was published in 1998.

The bulk of this series comprises papers relating to the editing and production of issues No. 36 (published in 1991) to No. 61 of the magazine. There is correspondence with contributors and edited drafts of stories. There are also administrative files relating to sponsorship and television advertising and a file relating to alleged plagiarism by the author of one of the short stories published in the magazine.

Note: no papers were received for issue No. 55.

Folder 1 Issue No. 36
Folder 2-3 Issue No. 37
Folder 4-5 Issue No. 38
Folder 6-7 Issue No. 39
Folder 8-10 Issue No. 40
Folder 11-13 Issue No. 41
Folder 14-15 Issue No. 42
Folder 16 Issue No. 43
Folder 17 Issue No. 44
Folder 18 Issue No. 45
Folder 19-22 Issue No. 46
Folder 23-24 Issue No. 47
Folder 25-28 Issue No. 48
Folder 29 Issue No. 49
Folder 30-32 Issue No. 50
Folder 33-34 Issue No. 51
Folder 35-36 Issue No. 52
Folder 37-38 Issue No. 53
Folder 39 Issue No. 54
Folder 40 Issue No. 56
Folder 41-42 Issue No. 57
Folder 43-44 Issue No. 58
Folder 45-46 Issue No. 59
Folder 47-48 Issue No. 60
Folder 49-50 Issue No. 61
Folder 51 Television advertising, 1991-1992
Folder 52 Sponsorship, 1995-1996
Folder 53 Publicity flyers
Folder 54 Correspondence regarding plagiarism charges, 1992
Folder 55 A small number of drafts of miscellaneous short stories
Folder 56 Six x 3 ½" computer discs (including printouts) and one audio-cassette tape containing short stories.

Series 3 Pascoe Publishing, 1987-1999

Pascoe Publishing is a small publishing firm operated by Pascoe and his partner, Lyn Harwood. This series contains papers relating to various publications by Pascoe Publishing. They comprise mainly edited drafts, together with some correspondence with authors.

See also Series 4 for papers relating to Cape Otway: coast of secrets.

Folder 1-4 The babe is wise: contemporary stories by Australian women, edited by Lyn Harwood, Bruce Pascoe and Paula White. Published in 1987. Correspondence (1986-1987) and edited drafts.
Folder 5 Three uneasy pieces, Patrick White. Published in 1987. Proofs.
Folder 6 Beyond the pale, Robin Sheiner. Published in 1989. Correspondence, 1988-1989.
Folder 7 The factory, Lyn Hughes. Published in 1990. A small amount of correspondence (1989-1990) and a segment of typescript.
Folder 8-10 Women of the centre, edited by Adele Pring. Published in 1990. Correspondence (1987-1992) and edited drafts.
Folder 11-12 Brain death capital, Molly Guy. Published in 1991. Edited drafts.
Folder 13-15 Border country: poetry, Irene Allan. Published in 1991. Correspondence (1988-1992), edited typescripts and proofs.
Folder 16-22 A family under the jackboot, Hans Roland. Published in 1993. Small amount of correspondence (1990-1993) and edited drafts.
Folder 23-24 Luna Park at night, Judith Clarke. Published in 1991. Small amount of correspondence (199-1991), edited typescripts and publicity material.
Folder 25-26 Post Office Restaurant and other stories, Barry Dickens. Published in 1992. Edited drafts.
Folder 27-28 Bahra Bay, George Watt. Published in 1992. Edited drafts.
Folder 29-33 Folly, Dany Falconer Flint. Published in 1993. Small amount of correspondence (1991-1994), synopsis and edited drafts.
Folder 34-40 Fabulous at 50, edited by Bruce Pascoe and Lyn Harwood. Published in 1995. Anthology of short stories to mark the 50th edition of Australian short stories. Correspondence relating to publicity and the launch of the book and edited drafts and proofs.
Folder 41-47 Wathaurong: too bloody strong: stories and life journeys of people from Wathaurong, edited by Bruce Pascoe. Published in 1997. Correspondence, papers relating to an unsuccessful grant application to the Australia Council and edited drafts and proofs. Sixteen audio-cassette tapes containing oral histories relating to the project (1994-1995)
Folder 48 Ribcage: all you need is $800,000 - quickly, by Leopold Glass. Published in 1999. Manuscript draft.
Folder 49 Miscellaneous publicity material relating to publications by Pascoe Publishing

Series 4 Writings of Bruce Pascoe, 1993-1999

As well as editing and publishing the work of others, Pascoe has had his own works published. This series comprises manuscript and typescript drafts of three books written by Pascoe and one, Cape Otway: coast of secrets, written by both Pascoe and Lyn Harwood. There is also a small amount of correspondence, mostly with Pascoe's publisher, Magabala Books, in particular with Bruce Sims, regarding editing and publication of his books. Magabala Books is a publishing house specialising in publishing works which have major Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander involvement.

Folder 1-12 Ruby-eyed coucal

Published by Magabala Books, Broome, WA in 1996. Correspondence (1993-1998), rough notes, newspaper cuttings edited typescripts and proof copy. Three computer discs (5 ¼") containing drafts.

Folder 13-16 Cape Otway: coast of secrets

Published by Pascoe Publishing in 1997. Edited manuscript and typescript drafts and promotional material for attractions in the Cape Otway region.

Folder 17-21 Shark

Published by Magabala Books, Broome, WA in 1999. Correspondence (1994-1999) relating to editing and publication, together with edited manuscript and typescript drafts and proofs. One computer disc (3½") containing drafts.

Folder 22-23 Earth

Published by Magabala Books, Broome, WA in 2001. Manuscript and typescript drafts, 1996-1999.

Series 5 Miscellaneous papers, 1994

This series contains a small group of miscellaneous material accumulated by Pascoe, comprising mostly drafts of writings by others.

Folder 1-2 Wendy and Allan Scarfe

Typescript draft (nd) of All that grief: migrant recollections of Greek resistance to fascism, 1941-1949, compiled by Wendy and Allan Scarfe. They had hoped that Pascoe would be interested in publishing the work, but it was published by Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, in 1994. There is also a typescript entitled 'Theodoros Sidiropoulos 'and a copy of Shadow and flowers by Wendy Scarfe, published by Nosukumo, Melbourne in 1984.

Folder 3-8 Boys and balls

Papers relating to Boys and balls, written by Brian Nankervis and published by Allen & Unwin in 1994. It appears that Pascoe was involved in editing the text. There are edited typescripts, a small amount of correspondence (1994) and a bound copy of the script of a 55-minute documentary of the same title, written by Nankervis and Sue Thomson.

Folder 9

Bound copy of handwritten travel notes kept by Chester Eagle on a trip to France and Portugal in 1994

One audio-cassette tape entitled 'Food program: Macassan Trepangers in Arnhem Land'



Container List

Series Folder/Item Box
1 1-8 1
1 8a-15 2
1 16-22 3
2 1-7 4
2 8-13 5
2 14-18 6
2 19-24 7
2 25-32 8
2 33-38 9
2 39-44 10
2 45-50 11
2 51-56 12
3 1-7 13
3 8-15 14
3 16-19 15
3 20-22 16
3 23-28 17
3 29-33 18
3 34-37 19
3 38-40 20
3 41-44 21
3 45-49 22
4 1-4 23
4 5-7 24
4 8-10 25
4 11-15 26
4 16-20 27
4 21-23 28
5 1-2 28
5 3-9 29