Papers of Robert Gray
MSS 016

Collection Description

The collection includes correspondence, manuscript and typescript drafts of poetry and prose, notes, notebooks, newspaper cuttings, photographs and audio cassettes. The papers document Gray's poetry and prose writings from the early 1960s, through to publication of his most recent poetry collection in 1998. Also unpublished manuscript on Dale Hickey the artist.

Administrative / Biographical history

Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gray_(poet)

Robert William Geoffrey Gray was born 23 February 1945 in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales. He was educated locally before becoming a cadet journalist on a country newspaper. He moved to Sydney soon afterwards, and worked as a mail sorter and bookseller, and wrote for a magazine and an advertising agency. He later reviewed poetry for the ABC and the Sydney morning herald.

Gray was Writer-in-residence at Geelong College in 1982, followed by the University of New England in 1983, Meiji University, Japan in 1985, and the University of Western Australia in 1990.

Gray is highly regarded by his fellow poets. The Oxford companion to Australian literature quotes Les Murray, who has said that Gray has "the best eye in Australian poetry". Gray's poems are of varied length and form, and his work is noted for its accessibility. His poems frequently explore the details of particular landscapes and the human figures that inhabit them, as well as reminiscences from the poet's childhood.

Gray's publications include:
Introspect, retrospect (1970)
Creekwater journal (1974)
Grass script (1979)
The younger Australian poets (edited with Geoffrey Lehmann, 1983)
The skylight (1984)
Selected poems 1963-1983 (1985)
Piano (1988)
Alun Leach-Jones (edited with Graeme Sturgeon and Christopher Gentle, 1988)
Selected poems (1990)
Australian poetry in the twentieth century (edited with Geoffrey Lehmann, 1991)
Sydney's poems : a selection of the occasion of the city's one hundred and fiftieth anniversary 1842-1992 (edited with Vivian Smith, 1992)
Selected poems of Shaw Neilson (edited 1993)
Certain things (1993)
New and selected poems (1995)
Lineations (1996)
Drawn from life : the journals of John Olsen (edited 1997)
New selected poems (1998)
Lineations: selected poems (1998)
A spill of light, a thrust of shadow (edited 1999)
Grass script : selected earlier poems (2001)
Afterimages (2002).

Gray's writing has been supported through numerous fellowships from the Literature Board of the Australia Council for the Arts and he is recipient of numerous nominations and awards, including:
Australia Council Grants, Awards and Fellowships, Literature Board Grants, Skills and Arts Development, Individuals, 2004 Note: six-month residency at the BR Whiting Library, Rome, 1 February - 31 July 2005
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, 2003: shortlisted for Afterimages
The Age Book of the Year Award, Dinny O'Hearn Poetry Prize, 2002: winner for Afterimages
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, The C J Dennis Prize for Poetry, 2002: winner for Afterimages
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, C.J. Dennis Prize for Poetry, 1994: winner for Certain things
Patrick White Award, 1990: winner
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Poetry, 1986: winner for Selected poems 1963-1983
Festival Awards for Literature (SA), John Bray Award for Poetry, 1986: winner for Selected poems 1963-1983
Grace Leven Poetry Prize, 1985: joint winner for Selected poems 1963-1983
Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship, 1981 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Poetry, 1980: commended for Grass script

Reference:
Robert Gray's Web page http://www.duffyandsnellgrove.com.au/authors/gray.htm
Contemporary poets, 7th edition, St. James Press, Detroit, 2001, Robert Gray, p. 446-447
AustLit : The Resource for Australian Literature, January 2005.

Acquisition Details

Scope and Content

The collection includes correspondence, manuscript and typescript drafts of poetry and prose, notes, notebooks, newspaper cuttings, photographs and audio cassettes. The correspondence reflects Gray's strong friendships with distinguished literary and artistic figures both in Australia and overseas. There are extensive sequences of letters from notable writers and artists, including Tom Carment, Ted Hillyer, Kevin Hart and Michael Hulse. Other major correspondents include Alec Bolton, Roo Borson, Peter Boyle, John Carrick, Gary Catalano, Michael Duffy, Stephen Edgar, Russell Erwin, Helen Garner, Alan Gould, Philip Hammial, Dennis Haskell, Philip Hodgins, David Ireland, Kate Jennings, Paul Kane, Galway Kinnell, John Kinsella, Alun Leach-Jones, Philip Levine, David Marr, Roger McDonald, Andrew Motion, Les Murray, Geoff Page, Peter Porter, Jennifer Rankin, Elizabeth Riddell, Roland Robinson, Judith Rodriguez, Andrew Sant, Vicki Viidikas, Chris Wallace-Crabbe and Patrick White.

Gray's method of meticulously refining his work is reflected in the large number of drafts of his poems included in the collection. The collection also features prose writings regarding Thomas Hardy, Dale Hickey, Ted Hillyer, Alun Leach-Jones, John Shaw Neilson, Wilfred Owen, Peter Porter, Patrick White, Brett Whiteley and William Carlos Williams. These writings reflect Gray's intense interest in poetry, painting, Buddhism and nature.

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