Folios

Above:Thea Astley’s 1988 SteeleRudd award for It’sRaining in Mango and her1992 Order of Australiamedal(although there is a biography inpreparation). The collection of criticalessays on her work, plus an interviewand several essays by Astley, whichPaul Genoni and I edited (TheaAstley’s Fictional Worlds) 1 was the firstbook on Astley’s work to be published,as recently as 2006. This anomalyshould surely be remedied, and theThea Astley papers held in the FryerLibrary offer a rich resource fromwhich to begin such a study.Ever the professional writer, duringher lifetime Astley deposited 17boxes of material, consisting ofhandwritten and typescript draftsof 11 of her books, from the first(Girl with a Monkey) to The MultipleEffects of Rainshadow (1996). Thesemanuscripts have accompanyingnotes by the author. Many of them alsoinclude correspondence with editorsand publishers, and backgroundresearch material. In some cases thereare overseas editions of the novels.There are draft manuscripts of shortstories and articles or talks, and a fewunpublished manuscripts. Notebookscontain handwritten drafts of proseand poems, some of which date fromthe 1940s when she was a member ofthe Barjai group in Brisbane.The Fryer Library recently acquiredan additional six boxes of materialfrom Thea Astley’s estate. Theyinclude successive drafts of severalmore of her works, and a significantamount of biographical material in theform of correspondence. I recently hadthe pleasure of looking through thisnew material.Of literary manuscripts, there aredrafts of An Item from the Late News(published in 1982 but not representedin the earlier acquisition) and theoriginal handwritten draft of Drylands,plus edited drafts of this novel: thereis rich material here for a study of theevolution of this, her last novel. Thereare also drafts of various sketches,talks and short stories (her CollectedStories were published in 1997).1 Susan Sheridan and Paul Genoni, eds, TheaAstley’s Fictional Worlds, Newcastle-upon-Tyne:Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006. Paperback edition2008.The correspondence is largelyliterary, consisting of letters and cardsfrom other writers, and from editorsand agents. These include BeatriceDavis’s first letter, inviting Thea tovisit her at Angus and Robertson’sto talk about the manuscript of Girlwith a Monkey: ‘This piece is rathertoo slight, but I believe you couldbecome a very good novelist indeed.’There are letters and postcards fromPatrick White over the years 1960to 1963, when they were friends inSydney. A small collection of herbooks includes two of his novels andSelected Writings of Gérard de Nervalinscribed to her by Patrick White. Hisletters include severe criticism of oneof her manuscripts entitled ‘The LittleLie’ (1961), despite the fact that Angusand Robertson wanted to publish it. Aquestion for literary sleuths – was thisnovel in fact never published, or didit transmute into her third novel, TheWell Dressed Explorer?The correspondence files also offersome insights into Thea Astley’s familyof origin – letters from her father andmother, and from her brother Philip,who became a Jesuit priest. There isalso material by and about Philip, whodied in 1997. There are some 20 lettersfrom her husband, Jack Gregson, mostof them written from Europe wherehe went travelling alone in 1975, anda few cards and letters from Theato members of her family. There is afolder of material about Thea’s paternalgrandfather, Charles Astley, who taughtart at Toowoomba and Warwick in theearly years of the twentieth century.A folder of publishing contracts alsocontains speaking invitations withassociated correspondence. Thereare folders of newspaper cuttings andreviews, not in any particular order, butincluding some of the American oneswhich would be difficult to accessotherwise; perhaps they indicate thereviews Astley was willing to keep.One box contains all the awardsAstley won, literary and civil, as wellas her Bachelor of Arts certificate fromThe University of Queensland. Finally,an unusual holding – two Hermestypewriters (which Thea used to referto as ‘typers’), one a present from her3Fryer Folios