Guide to the Papers of Dransfield
The Manuscript Branch of the National Library of Australia has recently updated and published online its Guide to the Papers of Michael Dransfield (MS 4741).
This talented, contradictory, innovative, spiritual, and rather wild poet wrote prolifically and published widely. He was part of a rank of new talent in the Australian literary scene, popularly labelled the ‘Generation of ’68’.
The Library acquired most of Dransfield’s collection directly from the poet himself. He approached the Library in October 1972 to offer his papers for sale. He concluded his first letter to the Library as follows:
So, simply, I have thousands of pages of manuscripts written over the last ten years, correspondence with most of the poets + writers in Australia, and I am flat broke. Could you enquire please whether the Library is at all interested in buying some or all of my pile of manuscripts.
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After some correspondence the Library examined the papers. In a note to the principal librarian, Pauline Fanning, a staff member pressed the Library to purchase the collection, commenting:
If he lives (& this I begin to doubt) I think that he will get better – anyway he’s clearly a poet of value & a real one among so many who write verse …
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And indeed just a few weeks before his death at the age of 24 in 1973, the Library did buy some of Dransfield’s papers. The manuscripts consisted mostly of poems and, as Dransfield noted, correspondence with numerous literary figures, including Richard Hopkinson, Thomas Shapcott, Mirka Mora, Robert Adamson, Charles Buckmaster, Rolf Hennequel, Alexander Craig, John Tranter, Peter Kocan and Rodney Hall. Many of these figures are represented by collections of their own at the Library.
Additions to the Papers of Michael Dransfield have been incorporated over the years (from Rodney Hall, Livio Dobrez and Thomas Shapcott). In March 2006 the Library added new papers to the collection: Paula Keogh generously donated a series of letters Dransfield wrote to her in late 1972. The letters date from some of the final months of his life, when Dransfield was living at Caloola Farm near Tharwa in the ACT.
While there has been fairly constant interest in Dransfield since his death, Patricia Dobrez’s 1999 biography of Michael Dransfield – which drew heavily on this manuscript collection – reignited discussion and debate about Dransfield’s work, life, and milieu. The Manuscripts Branch anticipates that Dransfield’s papers will continue to be drawn on by future researchers interested in the poet and themes relating to him.
Researchers interested in the Papers of Michael Dransfield may access the guide to this collection at http://nla.gov.au/nla.ms-ms4741. Please see www.nla.gov.au/ms/howtoms.html for information about using Manuscript Collections.
Beth Lonergan
Manuscripts Branch