Papers of Vivian Smith
MSS 041

Collection Description

This collection comprises manuscript papers and related material produced or accumulated by Vivian Smith.

Administrative / Biographical history

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

Vivian Brian Smith was born on the 3 June 1933 in Hobart, Tasmania. After attending local schools, he graduated with an MA in French from the University of Tasmania. After teaching French for ten years, Smith moved to Sydney in 1967. He completed a PhD in English at the University of Sydney and taught there for many years, retiring as reader in English in 1996.

Smith published his first volume of poetry The other meaning in 1956. Since then he has published five more volumes, the most notable being Tide country (1982) which won the Grace Leven Prize and the NSW Premier's Poetry Prize. Smith's poetry maintains a close connection with Tasmania, but his descriptions of Sydney have drawn comparisons with the poetry of Kenneth Slessor. Influenced by Slessor and Judith Wright, Smith's poetry is often preoccupied with landscape and the sea, exploring themes such as loss and endurance, decay and renewal.

In addition to his poetry, Smith has edited a number of anthologies. He edited Letters of Vance and Nettie Palmer (1977) and wrote the poetry section of The Oxford history of Australian literature (1981). Smith has also written significant studies on Australian writers such as James McAuley, Vance Palmer and the American poet Robert Lowell.

Smith was awarded:
Patrick White Award, 1997: winner
Centenary Medal For service to Australian society and the humanities in the study of Australian literature
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Poetry, 1983: winner for Tide country
Grace Leven Poetry Prize, 1982: winner for Tide country.

References:
AustLit : The Resource for Australian Literature, May 2006.

Acquisition Details

Scope and Content

This collection contains manuscript material relating to the publication of The poetry of Robert Lowell (1974), Selected poems(1985), The effects of light : poetry of Tasmania (edited by Smith and Margaret Scott, 1985), Australian poetry 1986 : the finest of recent Australian poetry (edited by Smith, 1986), Australian poetry 1988 : the finest of recent Australian poetry (edited by Smith, 1988), Nettie Palmer : her private journal Fourteen years, poems, reviews and literary essays (edited by Smith, 1992), Sydney's poems : a selection on the occasion of the city's one hundred and fiftieth anniversary 1842-1992 (edited by Robert Gray and Smith, 1992). It also contains reviews, articles, correspondence from publishers, literary editors, students and writers and correspondence and poetry by contributors to Quadrant, and office material.

Correspondents include Alec Bolton, Tom Shapcott, Anne Fairbairn, Alan Gould, Gary Catalano, Norman Talbot, Mark O'Connor, Les Murray, Jeremy Nelson, Craig Powell, Bob Brissenden, Geoff Page, A D Hope, Margaret Scott, Jeff Guess, Thelma Forshaw, Andrew Sant, Robert Habost, Peter Porter, Graham Rowlands, Judith Beveridge, Bruce Dawe, Philip Hodgins, Walter Tonetto, Timoshenko Aslanides, David Brooks, Joan Priest, Michael Hulse, Judith Rodriguez, Margaret Diesendorf, Geoffrey Dutton, Rosemary Dobson, Rhyll McMaster, Robert Harris, Philip Martin, Judith Wright (photocopy), Bruce Beaver, Rod Moran, Michael Sharkey, Jan Owen and Fay Zwicky.

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