Thea Astley - Inventing Her Own Weather
Page 34
13Obituary of Charles Astley, The Queenslander, 27 June 1929, p. 62; Glenn Cook, Charles Astley: The History of an Art Instructor on the Darling Downs, PhD draft (typescript of work-in-progress).
14Artnet website, details of auctions, accessed 11 July 2013.
15Thea Astley to author, Cambewarra, 28 May 1995.
16C. (Cecil) B. Astley, ‘Comin’ into Work’, The Bulletin, 36(1856), 9 September 1915, p. 44.
17Sir Theodore Bray to author, Brisbane, 21 September 1995.
18Hugh Lunn to author, Brisbane, 20 September 1995.
19Thea Astley in Candida Baker (ed.), Yacker: Australian Writers Talk about Their Work, Picador, Woollahra, New South Wales, 1986, p. 39.
20Thea Astley in Graeme Kinross-Smith, ‘Thea Astley’, Kunapipi, 4(1), 1982, p. 23.
21Astley in Baker (ed.), Yacker, p. 33.
22Thea Astley in Peter Craven, ‘Written in Her Genes’, Sunday Herald, 8 April 1990, p. 3.
23Thea Astley in Amanda Smith, ‘Thea Astley’, Publishers Weekly, 30 March 1990, p. 42.
24Michael McGirr, Things You Get for Free, Grove Press, 2003, p. 10; Michael McGirr, letter to author, 23 March 2008.
25Phil Astley, Gregory Terrace Newsletter, 1938, St Joseph’s Gregory Terrace Archives.
26David Malouf, ‘Confessions of an Only Child’, Neighbours in a Thicket, UQP, St Lucia, 1974, p. 5.
27Thea Astley, A Boat Load of Home Folk, Penguin, Melbourne, 1983, p. 124.
28Michelle Barbour to author, New Brighton, 2007; Michelle Barbour, email to author, 10 February 2014.
29Astley, Drylands, p. 106.
30David Marr, Patrick White: A Life, Random House, Melbourne, 1991, p. 357.
31Thea Astley, Words with James Griffin, ABC TV, 17 August 2003, ABC Television Archives.
32Brian Matthews, ‘Life in the Eye of the Hurricane: The Novels of Thea Astley’, The Southern Review, vi, 1973, p. 171.
33Sister Mary Martin to author, Melbourne, 17 July 1995.
34ibid.
35Thea Astley in Susan Duncan, ‘The Thrill of It All’, Australian Women’s Weekly, February 1990, p. 49.
36Sister Mary Martin to author, Melbourne, 17 July 1995.
37Father Phil Astley to author, Melbourne, 1 July 1995.
38Thea Astley to author, Cambewarra, 28 May 1995.
39Thea Astley, The Well Dressed Explorer, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1977, p. 21.
40Thea Astley in Robert L. Ross, ‘An Interview with Thea Astley’, World Literature Written in English, 1986, p. 264.
41Clifford Tolchard, ‘Novelist and Teacher’, Walkabout, June 1969, p. 14.
42Thea Astley in Ray Willbanks (ed.), Australian Voices: Australian Writers and Their Work, University of Texas Press, Texas, 1991, p. 37.
43Astley in Ross, World Literature Written in English, p. 264.
44Astley in Willbanks (ed.), Australian Voices, p. 37.
2 Suspected of reading
1Thea Astley, Beachmasters, Viking/Penguin, Melbourne, 1985, p. 60.
2Pat Ryan, letter to Sister P. Sullivan, 1991.
3Thea Astley, ‘Going Home’, Brisbane Herald, 16 January 1986.
4Thea Astley in Graeme Kinross-Smith, ‘Thea Astley’, Kunapipi, 4(1), 1982, p. 24.
5Betty Burrows, letter to author, 20 November 1996.
6Thea Astley, Thea Astley papers, UQFL97, Fryer Library, University of Queensland.
7Sister Lourda to author, Brisbane, 14 September 1995.
8Thea Astley, ‘Unrest’, Jottings (All Hallows’ magazine), 1940, p. 38, All Hallows’ Archives.
9Thea Astley in Amanda Smith, ‘Thea Astley’, Publishers Weekly, 30 March 1990, p. 43.
10Thea Astley in Ray Willbanks (ed.), Australian Voices: Australian Writers and Their Work, University of Texas Press, Texas, 1991, p. 35.
11Michael McGirr to author, Melbourne, 14 March 2008.
12Thea Astley in Jennifer Ellison (ed.), Rooms of Their Own, Penguin, Ringwood, Victoria, 1986, p. 64.
13Thea Astley, ‘To You – The Poet’, Jottings (All Hallows’ magazine), Brisbane, 1942, p. 58, All Hallows’ Archives.
14T. P. Boland, James Duhig, UQP, St Lucia, 1986, p. 297.
15Thea Astley, ‘The Monstrous Accent on Youth’, Meanjin Quarterly, xxvii, March 1968, p. 109.
16There is just one school photograph of Astley from this period.
17Jottings (All Hallows’ magazine), 1942, All Hallows’ Archives.
18Thea Astley, The Slow Natives, Penguin, Melbourne, 1990, p. 77.
19Thea Astley, Girl with a Monkey, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1958, p. 12.
20Moira Knudson to author, Cairns, 19 February 2008.
21Astley, Girl with a Monkey, p. 129.
22Thea Astley in Rosemary Sorensen, ‘Perfectly Calm until She Writes’, Australian Book Review, 144, 1992, p. 10.
23ibid.
24Robert L. Ross, ‘Thea Astley’s Long Struggle with the Language of Fiction’, World Literature Today, (67)3, p. 507 – an extensive discussion of the Mass and its meaning to Astley.
25ibid., p. 506.
26Thea Astley, The Search for Meaning with Caroline Jones, ABC radio, 17 April 1994 (repeated 8 January 1995), 64732, ABC Radio Archives.
27Thea Astley, ‘The Curate Breaker’, Hunting the Wild Pineapple and Other Related Stories, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1979, pp. 37–38.
28Helen Garner to author, Melbourne, 6 June 2011.
29Patricia Sheehan to author, Melbourne, 3 December 1996.
30Astley, Brisbane Herald, 1986.
31Moira and her sister Sheila re-met Astley almost fifty years later when Astley moved to north Queensland.
32Examination results, ‘Leaving and Matriculation’, All Hallows’ magazine, 1942, All Hallows’ Archives.
33Astley, The Slow Natives, p. 141.
34Thea Astley, Books and Writing with Robert Dessaix, ABC radio, 8 March 1990, 48609, ABC Radio Archives.
35Thea Astley in Robert L. Ross, ‘The Shape of Language in Astley’s Work’, World Literature Written in English, (28)2, p. 265.
36Thea Astley, A Boat Load of Home Folk, Penguin, Melbourne, 1983, p. 98; Thea Astley, It’s Raining in Mango: Pictures from the Family Album, Penguin, Melbourne, 1987, p. 130.
37Astley, The Search for Meaning with Caroline Jones, ABC Radio Archives.
38Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) published The Future of Man in 1950.
39Thea Astley, The Coming Out Show with Jill Lennon, ABC radio, 3 July 1976, ABC Radio Archives.
40Astley, The Slow Natives, p. 76.
41Thea Astley, The Well Dressed Explorer, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1977, p. 11.
42Astley, A Boat Load of Home Folk, p. 218.
43Astley, The Well Dressed Explorer, p. 74.
44Thea Astley in Robert Drewe, ‘Profile of a Prize Novelist’, The Age, 28 May 1966, p. 22.
45Astley, It’s Raining in Mango, p. 15.
46Thea Astley in Doug Aiton, ‘The Getting of Wisdom’, Sunday Age, 4 October 1992.
47Astley in Drewe, The Age, p. 22.
48Thea Astley, Reaching Tin River, William Heinemann, Melbourne, 1990, p. 87.
49Astley, It’s Raining in Mango, pp. 75–76.
3 Barjai: A meeting place
1Barbara Blackman, Glass after Glass: Autobiographical Reflections, Penguin, Melbourne, 1997, p. 112.
2Thea Astley, ‘Going Home’, Brisbane Herald, 16 January 1986.
3Thea Astley, Spoken Word with Peter Couchman, ABC radio, 24 February 1994, 57078, ABC Radio Archives.
4Semper Floreat, xi(1), 23 March 1942, p. 1.
5David Malouf, ‘Johnno’ in James Tulip (ed.), Johnno, Short Stories, Poems, Essays and Interview, UQP, St Lu
cia, 1990, p. 27.
6I am grateful for these details of the teacher training college given in letters from Mr Jim Shute, who was a junior in Brisbane at the same time Astley was a senior (matriculated).
7Astley, Brisbane Herald, 1986.
8Thea Astley to author, Cambewarra, 28 May 1995.
9Thea Astley, A Boat Load of Home Folk, Penguin, Melbourne, 1983, pp. 91–92.
10David Malouf, ‘The Year of the Foxes’, Bicycle and Other Poems, UQP, St Lucia, 1970, p. 1.
11Judith Wright, ‘Brisbane in War-time’, Overland, 100, 1985, p. 65.
12Joan Colebrook, A House of Trees, Corgi, United Kingdom, 1989, p. 181.
13Thea Astley, Books and Writing with Robert Dessaix, ABC radio, 8 March 1990, 48609, ABC Radio Archives.
14Astley, Brisbane Herald, 1986.
15Semper Floreat, xi(1), 23 March 1942, p. 1.
16Semper Floreat, xii(2), 18 March 1943, p. 1.
17Amy Witting in Jane Sullivan, ‘The Hard Slog and the Little Knack’, Books Extra, The Age, 9 March 1996, p. 7.
18ibid.
19Semper Floreat, xi(1), p. 3.
20Semper Floreat, xii(19), 28 July 1943, p. 1.
21Thea Astley, letter to Paul Grano, 15 July 1944, Martin Haley papers, UQFL48, Fryer Library, University of Queensland.
22‘Review of Meanjin Papers’, Semper Floreat, xii(16), 8 July 1943.
23Blackman, Glass After Glass, p. 108.
24ibid., pp. 108–109.
25Thea Astley to author, Cambewarra, 28 May 1995.
4 We’ve Freud and Nietzsche at our finger-tips
1Thea Astley, ‘Culture, 1945’, Galmahra, 1945, p. 25.
2Barrie Reid, editorial, Barjai, 8, p. 1.
3Paul Grano & M. Fogarty & C. Rinstead, ‘A Letter to Members from the Committee’, Martin Haley papers, UQFL48, Fryer Library, University of Queensland.
4Barrie Reid, ‘These Leaden Weights’, Barjai, 13, 1944, p. 3.
5Sister Lourda to author, Brisbane, 14 September 1995.
6Judith Wright, ‘Brisbane in War-time’, Overland, 100, 1985, p. 66.
7Barrie Reid, editorial, Barjai, 10, p. 1.
8Barrie Reid, editorial, Barjai, 19, 1945, p. 3.
9Barrie Reid, editorial, Barjai, 13, 1944, p. 1.
10C. H. Sisson, Edgar Allan Poe: Poems and Essays on Poetry, Fyfield Books, Manchester, 1995, p. 93.
11Edgar Allan Poe, Selected Writings, Penguin, Middlesex, England, 1967, pp. 481–482.
12Barrie Reid, editorial, Barjai, 16, 1944, p. 1.
13Thea Astley in Amanda Smith, ‘Thea Astley’, Publishers Weekly, 30 March 1990, p. 43.
14Thea Astley, ‘From Troy’, Barjai, 13, 1944, p. 12.
15Thea Astley, ‘Saturday Night’, Barjai, 14, 1944, p. 3.
16Thea Astley in Jennifer Ellison (ed.), Rooms of Their Own, Penguin, Ringwood, Victoria, 1986, p. 58.
17Thea Astley, ‘Poetic Fire’, Barjai, 13, 1944, p. 6.
18ibid.
19Thea Astley, ‘Culture, 1945’, Galmahra, 1945.
20Vivian Smith, ‘Australian Modernism: The Case of Kenneth Slessor’, in Margaret Harris & Elizabeth Webby (eds.), Reconnoitres: Essays in Australian Literature in Honour of G. A. Wilkes, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1992, pp. 131, 141.
21Thea Astley, ‘Two Poems’ (I), Barjai, 18, 1945, p. 13.
22Thea Astley in Robert Drewe, ‘Profile of a Prize Novelist’, The Age, 28 May 1966, p. 22.
23Thea Astley in Graeme Kinross-Smith, ‘Thea Astley’, Kunapipi, 4(1), 1982, p. 35.
24Barrie Reid, editorial, Barjai, 18, 1945, p. 3.
25Julian Croft, ‘Australian Responses to Modernism’, in Laurie Hergehan & Bruce Bennett (eds.), The Penguin New Literary History of Australia, Penguin, Ringwood, Victoria, 1988, pp. 411, 427.
26Barrie Reid in Michele Elizabeth Anderson, Honours thesis (Art History), ‘Barjai, Miya Studio and Young Brisbane Artists of the 1940s: Towards a Radical Practice’, University of Queensland, 1987, p. 34.
27Thea Astley, The Search for Meaning with Caroline Jones, ABC radio, 17 April 1994 (repeated 8 January 1995), 64732, ABC Radio Archives.
28Reid in Anderson, Honours thesis, University of Queensland, 1987, p. 32.
29Thomas Hardy, ‘Christmas: 1924’, Barjai, 21, 1946, p. 43.
30Vida Horn & Thea Astley, ‘Barjai Days’, Overland, 142, 1996, p. 36.
31Thea Astley, ‘Juvenilia’, Barjai, 20, 1946, p. 17.
32Clem Christesen, letter to Dr Frederick Robinson, 28 September 1944, Frederick Robinson papers, UQFL5, Fryer Library, University of Queensland.
33Barrie Reid, Barjai, 22, 1946, p. 40.
5 Dream Country
1Thea Astley in Graeme Kinross-Smith, ‘Thea Astley’, Kunapipi, 4(1), 1982, p. 22.
2Thea Astley, Spoken Word with Peter Couchman, ABC radio, 24 February 1994, 57078, ABC Radio Archives.
3Thea Astley, Arts Talk with Ramona Koval, ABC radio, 9 June 2000, 84762, ABC Radio Archives.
4Thea Astley, Books and Writing with Robert Dessaix, ABC radio, 8 March 1990, 48609, ABC Radio Archives.
5Thea Astley, Reaching Tin River, William Heinemann, Melbourne, 1990, p. 32.
6Thea Astley in Robert Drewe, ‘Profile of a Prize Novelist’, The Age, 28 May 1966, p. 22.
7Thea Astley in Ray Willbanks (ed.), Australian Voices: Australian Writers and Their Work, University of Texas Press, Texas, 1991, p. 30.
8Thea Astley, The Search for Meaning with Caroline Jones, ABC radio, 17 April 1994 (repeated 8 January 1995), 64732, ABC Radio Archives.
9Astley, Books and Writing with Robert Dessaix, ABC Radio Archives.
10Thea Astley, A Kindness Cup, Penguin, Melbourne, 1989, pp. 5–6.
11Thea Astley, letter to Martin Haley, 11 March 1947, Martin Haley papers, UQFL48, Fryer Library, University of Queensland.
12Thea Astley, ‘Poetic Fire’, Barjai, 13, 1944, p. 6.
13Thea Astley, letter to Martin Haley, August 1948, Martin Haley papers.
14 ibid.
15Thea Astley, ‘To My Brother’, Thea Astley papers, UQFL97, Fryer Library, University of Queensland.
16Notes from eulogy for Father Phil Astley, Requiem Mass, Immaculate Conception Church, Hawthorn, 19 June 1997.
17Thea Astley, untitled poem, c. 1940s, Thea Astley papers.
18Thea Astley, letter to Martin Haley, August 1948, Martin Haley papers.
19Thea Astley, A Descant for Gossips, UQP, St Lucia, 1983, p. 25.
20 Astley in Willbanks, Australian Voices, p. 30.
21Thea Astley, ‘Love in Our Time’, c. 1940s, Thea Astley papers.
22Thea Astley, The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow, Viking/Penguin, Melbourne, 1996, p. 164.
23Thea Astley, ‘Revelation’, 1944, Thea Astley papers.
24Thea Astley, notebooks, Thea Astley papers.
25Thea Astley, ‘Writing in North Queensland’, LINQ, 9(1), 1981, pp. 7–8.
26Astley, A Descant for Gossips, p. 123.
27Astley in Willbanks, Australian Voices, p. 32.
28Thea Astley, letter to Martin Haley, n.d., Martin Haley papers.
29Astley refers to this novel in her correspondence but no manuscript with this title survives in her papers, suggesting that it has been destroyed.
30Thea Astley, letter to Martin Haley, 7 July 1947, Martin Haley papers.
6 Jack
1John Milton, ‘Arcades’, Poems of Mr John Milton, Both English and Latin, 1645.
2Thea Astley, letter to Hal Porter, 1958, Ann and Roger Jennings papers, MLMS7171, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.
3Thea Astley, Books and Writing with Robert Dessaix, ABC radio, 8 March 1990, 48609, ABC Radio Archi
ves.
4Margaret Smith to author, Somersby, 25 February 2008.
5Tom Keneally to author, Sydney, 12 June 2008.
6Thea Astley in Robert Drewe, ‘Profile of a Prize Novelist’, The Age, 28 May 1966, p. 22.
7John Bernard to author, Sydney, 5 February 2008.
8Thea Astley, farewell speech for Sydney Conservatorium’s Big Band, typescript, 1974, Thea Astley papers, UQFL97, Fryer Library, University of Queensland.
9Thea Astley, untitled poem, May 1949, Thea Astley papers.
10Ed Gregson to author, New Brighton, 30 November 2006.
11Marcia Price to author, phone interview, 2008.
12ibid.
13Mary Sainty to author, Sydney, 8 February 2007.
14ibid.
15ibid.
16Barbara Abouchar to author, Sydney, 7 February 2008.
17Ed Gregson to author, New Brighton, 30 November 2006.
18Thea Astley, ‘Sulpicia III’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 October 1957, p. 12.
19Mary Sainty to author, Sydney, 8 February 2007.
20Thea Astley, Girl with a Monkey, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1958, pp. 26, 49.
21Thea Astley, Spectrum, ABC radio, 25 June 1966, ABC Radio Archives.
22Thea Astley in Graeme Kinross-Smith, ‘Thea Astley’, Kunapipi, 4(1), 1982, p. 22.
7 The Gorgon of Epping North
1Thea Astley, letter to Beatrice Davis, n.d., Angus & Robertson Archives, MLMSS3269, State Library of New South Wales.
2Sidney Baker, letter to ‘Phillip Cressy’ (Thea Astley), 30 July 1956, Thea Astley papers, UQFL97, Fryer Library, University of Queensland.
3Susan Sheridan, Who Was That Woman? The Australian Women’s Weekly in the Postwar Years, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2002, p. 43.
4Thea Astley in Candida Baker, ‘Cooler, Calmer and More Collected’, The Age, 31 March 1990, p. 6.
5Thea Astley, The Coming Out Show with Jill Lennon, ABC radio, 3 July 1976, ABC Radio Archives.
6Betty Judd to author, Coffs Harbour, 25 November 2006.
7ibid.
8ibid.
9Yvonne Wyndham to author, Sydney, 8 January 2006.
10Betty Judd to author, Coffs Harbour, 25 November 2006.
11Thea Astley, letter to Beatrice Davis, n.d., A&R Archives.
12Thea Astley in Ray Willbanks (ed.), Australian Voices: Australian Writers and Their Work, University of Texas Press, Texas, 1991, p. 37.