Papers of Alex Miller
MSS 318

Collection Description

The collection includes correspondence, drafts, notes, notebooks, research material and photographs. The papers provide an extensive record of Miller's works, dating from his poetry and prose writings at University in the 1960s.

Administrative / Biographical history

Alexander McPhee Miller was on 27 December 1936 in London, England. As a child Alexander McPhee Miller lived in south London, the son of an Irish mother and a Scottish father, whose background he has described as 'culturally rich'. Before migrating alone to Australia when he was seventeen years old he worked on a farm in the west of England. Then, after working as itinerant stockman on cattle stations in Central Queensland and the Gulf Country and travelling around Australia, he studied History and English at the University of Melbourne, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1965. Miller completed a Diploma of Education at the Melbourne State College in 1975, and he began teaching a writing course at Brunswick Technical School the following year. He had started writing poetry when he was twenty-two. He has also worked as an art dealer, farmer and public servant.

Miller was the inaugural writer-in-residence at the Australian Nouveau Theatre, 1981, co-founder of the Anthill Theatre and a founding member of the Melbourne Writers' Theatre, 1982. He has taught the prose writing course at Holmesglen College of TAFE, Victoria, since 1986, and was Visiting Fellow at La Trobe University 1994 -1995. Miller writes full-time and lives in the Victorian country town of Castlemaine.

Miller has been awarded:
Melbourne Prize, Melbourne Prize for Literature, 2006: finalist
Australia Council Grants, Awards and Fellowships, Literature Board Fellowship, 2004. Note: Monetary value of $80,000 Centenary Medal. Note: For service to Australian society and literature
Miles Franklin Literary Award, 2006: longlisted for Prochownik's dream
State Library of Tasmania People's Choice Award, 2005: winner for Journey to the stone country
Tasmania Pacific Region Prize, Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize, 2005: shortlisted for Journey to the stone country
One Book One Brisbane, 2004: shortlisted for Journey to the stone country
Festival Awards for Literature (SA), Dymocks Booksellers Award for Fiction, 2004: shortlisted for Journey to the stone country
The Age Book of the Year Award, Fiction Prize, 2003: shortlisted for Journey to the stone country
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, 2003: shortlisted for Journey to the stone country
Miles Franklin Literary Award, 2003: winner for Journey to the stone country
Colin Roderick Award, 2002: shortlisted for Journey to the stone country
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, 2001: winner for Conditions of faith
Miles Franklin Literary Award, 1996: shortlisted for The sitters
Commonwealth Writers Prize, Overall Best Book Award, 1993: winner for The ancestor game
NBC Banjo Awards, NBC Banjo Award for Fiction, 1993: shortlisted for The ancestor game
Miles Franklin Literary Award, 1993: winner for The ancestor game
FAW Barbara Ramsden Award for the Book of the Year, 1992: joint winner for The ancestor game
Braille Book of the Year Award, 1990: winner for The Tivington Nott.

Miller's published novels include:
Watching the climbers on the mountain (1988)
The Tivington Nott (1989)
The ancestor game (1992)
The sitters (1995)
Conditions of faith (2000)
Journey to the stone country (2002)
Prochownik's dream (2005).

He has written four plays, including:
Kitty Howard (1978)
Exiles (1981)
'Armageddon is next Wednesday' [1984]
'Getting back to what' [1984].

His short stories and essays have featured in numerous periodicals, including The Age, Australian Book Review, H/EAR, Kunapipi, Meanjin, Meridian, Overland and Quadrant, as well as several short story anthologies.

References:
AustLit : The Resource for Australian Literature, February 2007.

Acquisition Details

Scope and Content

The papers of Alex Miller include correspondence, manuscript and typescript drafts, notes, notebooks, research material, newspaper clippings, posters and photographs.

The collection provides an extensive record of Miller's works, dating from his poetry and prose writings at University in the 1960s. Early papers in the collection reflect Miller's interest in and involvement with the performing arts, particularly the Melbourne theatre scene in the 1970s to early 1980s. The collection includes correspondence, drafts and working papers for the dramas Kitty Howard (1978), Exiles (1981) 'Armageddon is next Wednesday' [1984], and 'Getting back to what' [1984]. There is also comprehensive documentation regarding the development and publication of the novels Watching the climbers on the mountain (1988), The Tivington Nott (1989), The ancestor game (1992) and The sitters (1995).

The correspondence documents Miller's writing and publishing activities from 1971 to 1995. Among the major correspondents are Susie Boisjoux, Victor Bonham-Carter, Katharine Brisbane, Judith Brown, Colin Campbell, Kathy Colman, Robert Connell, Helen Daniel, Jim Davidson, Marie Davison, Morag Fraser, John Gatford, Kris Hemensley, Elizabeth Jolley, Nicholas Jose, Nancy Keesing, Thomas Keneally, Judith Lukin-Amundsen, Caroline Lurie, Ian MacPhee, Jean-Pierre Mignon, Anne Millar, Ray Mooney, Dinny O'Hearn, Michael Ondaatje, Chien-hsing Pao, Annette Potts, Barrett Reid, Andrew Riemer, Thomas Shapcott, Sharon Shostak, Arlene Sykes, Janette Turner-Hospital and Ouyang Yu.

System of arrangement

The series arrangement of this collection has been artificially created by Special Collections staff.

Reproduction Restrictions

Existence and Location of Orginals

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