ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 45 | June 2000
Rodney Hall: Man of Letters
A.T. (Alec T.) Bolton,
19261996
Portraits of Rodney Hall, Bermagui South, 1990
photograph
Alec Bolton Portrait Collection
National Library of Australia
Rodney Hall, one of Australias best-known writers, has transferred to the Library an extensive collection of personal papers accumulated over a period of 40 years.
Born in England, Hall grew up in Brisbane, spent some years in Sydney and Canberra, and in the 1970s settled on a headland near Bermagui, on the South Coast of New South Wales. In his early years he was a stage and radio actor, wrote hundreds of scripts for radio programs for schools, and was an accomplished musician, playing the recorder, clarinet and trombone. His first book of poetry, a 16-page pamphlet, appeared in 1962, and he was soon recognised as one of the leading younger poets. Six further books of poems were published in the next 20 years. He became poetry editor of the Australian in 1967.
Halls first novel was published in 1975 and in the 1980s and 1990s he wrote a series of novels that received considerable critical claim. Just Relations won the Miles Franklin Award in 1982, as did The Grisly Wife in 1994. In addition to his poetry and novels, Hall has edited anthologies, written biographical and critical studies of Andrew Sibley and John Manifold, and collaborated with the photographer David Moore and the composers Richard Mills, Andrew Ford and Ian Farr.
He has taught music at a number of universities, directed the Australian Summer School of Early Music, and promoted the recording of medieval music. In 1991 he was appointed Chairman of the Australia Council, a position he held for three years. The Library first acquired papers from Rodney Hall nearly 30 years ago and it subsequently purchased the drafts of most of his novels.
The collection that has now come to the Library includes notebooks and drafts of many of his other publications. In addition, there are papers relating to his early work in broadcasting, his involvement in the Aboriginal rights movement in Queensland in the 1960s, his work as a composer and musician, his attendance at overseas literary conferences and festivals, and his work for the Australia Council. Finally, there is an extensive literary and personal correspondence, including many letters from noted writers such as Tom Shapcott, Murray Bail, Roger McDonald and Gwen Harwood.
Graeme Powell
Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: gateways@nla.gov.au