Papers of Debra Adamson
MSS 181

Collection Description

The bulk of this collection comprises personal material relating to the Australian poet and writer Robert Adamson.

Administrative / Biographical history

Robert Harry Adamson was born on the 17 May 1943 at Neutral Bay, Sydney, and has lived on the Hawkesbury River, on and off, for most of his life. He spent his earliest years in Neutral Bay and was educated at Neutral Bay Primary School, North Sydney Boys High and Mount Penang Training School for Boys. While in corrective institutions he educated himself and developed his interest in writing, especially poetry.

Adamson is one of Australia's leading contemporary poets, and is a successful writer, editor and publisher. He is well known for his poetry, which has been published widely in Australian and in American literary magazines and anthologies, and translated into several languages. He has organised and produced poetry readings, delivered papers, lectures and readings at literary festivals throughout Australia. He has been writer-in-residence at Australian universities, and was President of the Poetry of Australia, 1970-1980. He was instrumental in organising tours by both Robert Duncan and Robert Creeley to Australia in the 1970s.

He became a member of the Sydney literary scene in the late 1960s and was a significant influence on the rise of the 'New Australian Poetry' in the early 1970s. He joined the editorial team of Poetry magazine in 1968. The magazine underwent a change of editorial direction that included a change of title in 1971 to New poetry, which Adamson edited, 1971-1976 and 1980-1981.

He established Illumination Press with Franco Paisio in 1970, and Prism Books in 1971, which he co-edited with Cheryl Creatrix (Adamson), 1971-1982. He was co-editor and publisher with Dorothy Hewett of Big Smoke Books in 1977, and established Paper Bark Press in 1986 with Juno Gemes and Michael Wilding. He was poetry reader for Angus & Robertson, 1993-1997, and editor of Ulitarra literary magazine, 1993-1997.

During the course of his career, Adamson has received a number of grants and fellowships as well as publication subsidies for his own books, his magazine, and for the books published through his publishing ventures from the Literature Board of the Australia Council. These have helped him to pursue his career as a full-time writer.

He has been awarded the following prizes for his works:
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, 2002, shortlisted for Mulberry leaves : new and selected poems 1970-2001
NBC Turnbull Fox Phillips Poetry Prize, 1990, winner for The clean dark
New South Wales State Literary Awards, Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, 1990, winner for The clean dark
Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, C. J. Dennis Award for Poetry, 1990, winner for The clean dark
Writers' Fellowship, The National Parks and Wildlife, 1984
WA Sesquicentenary Literary Competition, Poems by Australian Writers Not Including Western Australians Award, 1979, joint winner for 'Growing up alone'
Grace Leven Poetry Prize, 1977, winner for Selected poems

Adamson publications and performances include:
The imitator (1969)
Canticles on the skin (1970)
The rumour (1971)
Swamp riddles (1974)
Zimmer's essay, with Bruce Hanford (1974), part 1, 'Zimmer's essay' (novel) and part 2, 'Some more experiences' (poetry) Theatre I-XIX (1976)
Cross the border, etching by Garry Shead (1977)
Selected poems (1977)
Where I come from (1979)
The law at heart's desire (1982)
Zoo, a play with Dorothy Hewett, commissioned by the Australian Theatre for Young People, 1984
Australian writing 1988, edited by Manfred Jurgensen and Robert Adamson (1988)
The clean dark (1989)
Selected poems, 1970-1989 (1990)
Wards of the state (1992)
The brutality of fact (1993)
Waving to Hart Crane (1994)
The language of oysters (1997)
Meaning (1998)
Black water : approaching Zukofsky (1999)
Mulberry leaves : new & selected poems 1970-2001, edited by Chris Edwards; with a foreword by David Malouf (2001)
Inside out : an autobiography (2004)
Reading the river : selected poems (2004)

References:
Inside out : an autobiography, by Adamson, published by Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2004
Robert Adamson curriculum vitae
International who's who in poetry and poet's encyclopedia, 7th ed. (1993)
The Oxford companion to Australian literature, 2nd ed. (1994)
The bibliography of Australian literature. A-E (2001)
AustLit Australian Literature Gateway database, 2003
Ozlit: Australian Literature Resources on the Net, Books & Writers Database, 2003
Book covers

Acquisition Details

Scope and Content

The papers include correspondence, literary drafts, an interview, reviews of his work and photographs. There is a manuscript draft of 'Catch the wild fishes', written jointly by Robert Adamson and Dorothy Hewett. The collection also includes material from the literary magazine New poetry, which Robert Adamson edited for some years.

System of arrangement

Special Collections staff has imposed the series arrangement for this collection to describe and preserve context and relationships.

Access Restrictions

Reproduction Restrictions

Existence and Location of Orginals

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