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Papers of William Wilde
MSS 137

Collection Title

Papers of William Wilde

Collection Identifier

MSS 137

Inclusive date(s)

1894 to 1988

Extent and Medium

11 boxes + 2 AV boxes + 4 oversize folios

Category

Literature

Subject: Organisation(s)

Collection Description

Manuscripts, correspondence, subject files, photographs, audio recording and other research materials relating to William Wilde's biography of Dame Mary Gilmore, including original Gilmore papers

Administrative / Biographical history

Academic and literary historian. W.H. (William Henry) Wilde was Associate Professor of English at the Royal Military College, Duntroon with a special interest in 19th century Australian literature and poetry. He published several studies on early poets including Adam Lindsay Gordon (1972), Henry Kendall (1976) and two volumes on Mary Gilmore, the Letters of Mary Gilmore (1980, selected and edited with Tom Inglis Moore), and Courage a grace: a biography of Dame Mary Gilmore (1988). Working closely with colleagues Barry Andrews and Joy Hooton at the Australian Defence Force Academy, Wilde jointly compiled The Oxford companion to Australian literature (1985, 1994) which became a standard reference work.

References:
W.H. Wilde, Melbourne University Press https://www.mup.com.au/authors/w-h-wilde retrieved 19 May 2020

Mary Gilmore

Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Gilmore

Australian poet and writer. Mary Gilmore was born near Goulburn, New South Wales, on 16 August 1865. After working as a teacher in rural Australia and Sydney, she joined William Lane's 'New Australia' movement in Paraguay in 1896. She married fellow colonist and Victorian shearer William Alexander Gilmore (1866-1945) in 1897, and their only child William Dysart Cameron Gilmore (1898-1945) was born at Villarica, near the Cosme utopian settlement. Before returning to Australia in 1902, Gilmore taught English in Rio Gallegos in southern Patagonia and wrote for Buenos Aires newspapers.

In 1903, A.G. Stephens featured Gilmore's poetry in the Red Page of the Bulletin, and in 1908 she became the first editor of the women's page of the Sydney Worker. Gilmore's first volume of poems, Marri'd and other verses, appeared in 1910. Other publications include The passionate heart (1918), Hound of the road (1922), The tilted cart (1925), The wild swan (1930), The rue tree (1931), Under the wilgas (1932), Old days, old ways (1934), Battlefields (1939), The disinherited (1941) and Fourteen men (1954).

In 1937, Gilmore was made a Dame of the British Empire in recognition of her contribution to Australian literature. She was the first woman to receive this award for services to literature. Gilmore was a founder of the Lyceum Club, Sydney, a founder and vice-president in 1928 of the Fellowship of Australian Writers, an early member of the New South Wales Institute of Journalists and features on the Australian 10 dollar note. Gilmore died on 3 December 1962.

Acquisition Details

The collection was acquired in two instalments in 1989 and 1990

Scope and Content

This collection comprises the research archive of William Wilde, amassed whilst writing his biography of the Australian poet Dame Mary Gilmore, Courage a grace: a biography of Dame Mary Gilmore (1988). The material includes manuscript drafts and galley proofs, subject files on members of Gilmore's literary circle and associates, family history information, copies of Gilmore's writings (including multiple issues of The Worker and Tribune), a poetry reading sound recording and box of photographs. Of special interest are a small body of original papers, including letters, relating to Gilmore, together with material documenting the Cosme utopian socialist settlement in Paraguay

Access Restrictions

Other

Access: Open Access

This collection contains a variety of copyright material. Copyright is held by the creator of each item. Specific conditions for this collection are listed below. If no conditions are stipulated then the standard terms of the Copyright Act apply for published and unpublished items. Digitised material from manuscript collections is provided to clients by UNSW Canberra in good faith for private study and research only, and may not be published or re-purposed without the express and written permission of the individual legal holder of that copyright. Refer also to the UNSW copyright, disclaimer and takedown policy.

Copying: Copying of material for private study and research is approved

Existence and Location of Orginals

Special Collections, UNSW Canberra

Related and Separated Materials

Related Material

Further material relating to the life and work of Mary Gilmore can be found at MSS 062 – Papers of Dame Mary Gilmore, including manuscripts of her earliest published collection of poems.

Disclaimer

This collection contains a variety of copyright material. Copyright is held by the creator of each item. Specific conditions for this collection are listed above. If no conditions are stipulated then the standard terms of the Copyright Act apply for published and unpublished items. Digitised material from manuscript collections is provided to clients by UNSW Canberra in good faith for private study and research only, and may not be published or re-purposed without the express and written permission of the individual legal holder of that copyright. Refer also to the UNSW copyright, disclaimer and takedown policy.

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Items in Collection

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