White Collection

Patrick White (1912-1990) was a key figure in Australian literature, renowned for his rich narratives and complex characters. Born into a wealthy family in London and raised in Sydney, White’s experiences shaped his unique perspective on society and human nature. His groundbreaking work challenges readers to delve into themes of identity, morality, and the human condition. Recognised globally, including winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973, White’s writing not only reflects Australian culture but also resonates with universal themes, making it essential reading for anyone interested in the power of literature to explore profound truths about life.

LGBTQIA+ Literature and writing

Key items in the collection

This collection hosts a range of formats, including:

Patrick White's manuscripts and personal papers

The collection includes handwritten drafts of Patrick White’s last novel, Memoirs of Many in One (jointly owned with the State Library of New South Wales), and his autobiography, Flaws in the Glass. You'll also find typescript drafts and page proofs for The Vivisector, A Fringe of Leaves, and Memoirs of Many in One, as well as the manuscripts of an unpublished novel and a novella.

White's plays are well-represented with drafts of The Ham Funeral, The Season at Sarsaparilla, A Cheery Soul, Night on Bald Mountain, The Night Prowler, Big Toys, and several others from 1947 to 1987. There are also manuscripts of poems, short stories, various prose works, and speeches.

A highlight of White’s archive is his ten literary notebooks, covering about fifty years. These notebooks include material for all of his novels (except The Tree of Man) and contain dialogues, character studies, and literary references. The collection also includes letters from the last decade of White’s life, as well as a few earlier letters from the 1930s. Other items include two pocket diaries, personal documents, reference files, watercolours, photographs, event programs, exhibition catalogues, and published works about White.

The archive also holds some papers from White's partner, Manoly Lascaris, including many condolence letters received after White’s death in 1990.

Patrick White's letters

Patrick White maintained an extensive correspondence throughout his life, mostly handwritten, with the original letters often kept by his friends and acquaintances. Some of these letters form long series, like those to his English friend Jean Scott Rogers, spanning 57 years. However, some correspondences ended suddenly due to disagreements or disputes. For example, there are over 200 letters from White to Geoffrey Dutton, but none after 1982.

This collection holds the largest number of Patrick White’s letters, with many significant exchanges preserved, although it’s not a complete list.

Papers of Maie Casey, wife of Lord Casey(MS 1840)
Papers of Frank Dalby Davison, novelist(MS 1945)
Letters (1972) to John Beston, student (MS 4629)
Papers of Dal Stivens, novelist and short story writer (MS 4713)
Papers of Rosemary Dobson, poet (MS 4955)
Papers of David Campbell, poet (MS 5028)
Papers of A.D. Hope, poet and academic (MS 5836)
Papers of Dorothy Hewett, poet and playwright(MS 6184)
Papers of Laurence Collinson, poet (MS 6327)
Papers of Jill Hellyer, poet and novelist (MS 6814)
Papers of Brian Kiernan, academic and literary critic (MS 7017)
Papers of Marcel Aurousseau, geographer (MS 7070)
Papers of Geoffrey Dutton, poet, novelist, biographer, editor (MS 7285)
Papers of James Gleeson, artist (MS 7440)
Papers of Manning Clark, historian (MS 7550)
Papers of the Duke de Baena, a Spanish diplomat (MS 7712)
Letters (1961-73) to Alice Halmagyi, doctor and friend of White (MS 7713)
Papers of Robin Wallace-Crabbe, painter and printmaker (MS 8053)
Records of Currency Press, publisher of plays (MS 8084)
Papers of Tom Inglis Moore, poet and academic (MS 8130)
Papers of Robert Brissenden, poet and academic (MS 8162)
Letters (1960-89) to Ronald Waters, actor, theatrical agent, and schoolfriend of White (MS 8169)
Letters (1976-90) to Elizabeth Falkenberg, admirer of White (MS 8234)
Papers of Elizabeth Harrower, novelist (MS 8237)
Papers of Ruth Dobson, diplomat (MS 8275)
Letters (1931-88) to Jean Scott Rogers, screenwriter (MS 8300)
Letters (1945-73) to Molly McKie, teacher and friend of White (MS 8301)
Letters (1944-88) to Betty Withycombe and Peggy Garland, cousins of White (MS 8434)
Letters (1975-90) to Juliet O'Hea, literary agent (MS 8482)
Letters (1980-87) to Hu Wenzhong, Chinese academic (MS 8553)
Letters (1986-90) to Coral Browne, actress (MS 8573)
Letters (1955-83) to David Moore, bookseller (MS 8601)
Papers of Geoffrey Blainey, historian (MS 9225)
Papers of Peter Sculthorpe, composer (MS 9676)
Papers of Peter Ryan, publisher (MS 9897)
Letters (1975-83) to Paul Cox, film director (MS 9985)
Letters (1960-61) to Max Harris, poet, critic, and bookseller (MS 9992)
Letters (1978-81) to James Waites, drama critic (MS 10004)
Papers of Kylie Tennant, novelist (MS 10043)
Papers of Desmond Digby, artist and designer (MS 10056)
Papers of Barbara Mobbs, literary agent (Acc 04/121)
Papers of Jim Sharman, opera and theatre director (Acc 09/028)

The Desmond Digby Papers are noteworthy because they include a long series of letters from Patrick White, covering the years 1962 to 1988. They also contain Digby's notes from many telephone conversations he had with White.

Papers of Biographer David Marr

The collection also features the papers of journalist and writer David Marr (MS 9356), primarily related to his books Patrick White: A Life (1991) and Patrick White: Letters (1994). This extensive collection spans 71 boxes and includes a vast correspondence from 1985 to 1998. The letters are mainly from friends and acquaintances of White but also include communications with publishers, literary agents, libraries, and archives.

In addition to the correspondence, the collection contains subject files, notes, photocopies of documents, newspaper articles, photographs, and drafts of both books. Notably, it includes photocopies of over 3,000 letters written by White between 1920 and 1990. About 600 of these letters were selected by Marr for his book Patrick White: Letters.

An oral history interview was recorded in 1983 between Patrick White and Veronica Brady.

Portrait of Patrick White

A portrait of portrait of White by Louis Kahan, drawn in 1962, together with two preliminary sketches. There are five photographic portraits by Axel Poignant, three of which also feature Sidney Nolan, and also portraits by Alec Bolton and Brendan Hennessy.

Papers of Patrick White, 1930-2002

The papers of Patrick White (MS 9982) contain many photographs, including portraits by Cecil Beaton, Axel Poignant, William Yang and David Moore. There are also family photographs, wartime photographs, photographs of White’s homes, and photographs of White with various writers, artists, actors and politicians. Some of the other collections of personal papers contain photographs. For instance, the papers of Peggy Garland include ten photographs of White.

Papers of Paul Brennan, 1984-1996

The papers of the publisher Paul Brennan (MS 8116) contain a large number of photographs collected when he was compiling his book Patrick White speaks (1989). Many of them are of street marches and other public demonstrations in which White took part in the later years of his life.

The newspaper cutting files contain extensive biographical articles, including references to articles in periodicals, as well as book reviews of Patrick White's writings.

Books

Patrick White wrote 12 novels, several plays, two short story collections, and an autobiography.

Bibliography

Brian Hubber and Vivian Smith, Patrick White: a bibliography, 2004

Letters

David Marr, ed., Patrick White: letters, 1994

Biographical and critical studies

Many books in several languages have been written about Patrick White and his novels, ranging from extensive theoretical studies to student guides. In addition to Australian, British, and American publications, there are studies of White published in China, France, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Here are some major English-language works that explore his life and writings:

Peter Beatson, The eye in the mandala: Patrick White, a vision of man and God, 1976
John Beston, Patrick White within the western literary tradition, 2010
Carolyn Bliss, Patrick White’s fiction: the paradox of fortunate failure, 1986
R.F. Brissenden, Patrick White, 1966
James Bulman-May, Patrick White and alchemy, 2001
Gordon Collier, The rocks and sticks of words: style, discourse and narrative structure in the fiction of Patrick White, 1992
John Colmer, Patrick White, 1984
Simon During, Patrick White, 1996
Geoffrey Dutton, Patrick White, 1961
J.R. Dyce, Patrick White as playwright, 1974
Rodney Stenning Edgecombe, Vision and style in Patrick White: a study of five novels, c. 1989
Michael Giffin, Arthur’s dream: the religious imagination in the fiction of Patrick White, 1996
Michael Giffin, Patrick White and God, 2017
Helen Verity Hewitt, Patrick White, painter manqué: paintings, painters and their influence on his writing, 2002
Brian Kiernan, Patrick White, 1980
Alan Lawson, Patrick White, 1974
A.M. McCulloch, A tragic vision: the novels of Patrick White, 1983
John, ed. McLaren, Prophet from the desert: critical essays on Patrick White, 1995
Elizabeth McMahon and Brigitta Olubas, eds. Remembering Patrick White: contemporary critical essays, 2010
David Marr, Patrick White: a life, 1991
Patricia A. Morley, The mystery of unity: theme and technique in the novels of Patrick White, 1972
David A. Myers, The peacocks and the bourgeoisie: ironic vision in Patrick White’s shorter prose fiction, 1978
David A. Tacey, Patrick White, fiction and the unconscious, 1988
Christos Tsiolkas, Patrick White, 2018
William Walsh, Patrick White’s fiction, 1977
Mark Williams, Patrick White, 1993
Peter Wolfe, Laden choirs: the fiction of Patrick White, 1983
Peter Wolfe, ed., Critical essays on Patrick White, c1990
William Yang, Patrick White: the late years, 1995

About Patrick White

Patrick Victor Martindale White (1912-1990) was born in London to a wealthy pastoral family and grew up in Sydney. He was educated at Tudor House in Moss Vale and Cheltenham College in England. After working as a jackeroo in the Monaro and Walgett regions of New South Wales, he returned to England in 1932. White graduated from King’s College, Cambridge, and lived in London, traveling widely across Europe while mingling with literary and artistic circles.

Military service and relationships

In 1940, White enlisted in the Royal Air Force, serving in the Middle East, North Africa, and Greece. During his time in Alexandria, he met Manoly Lascaris, who became his lifelong partner. In 1948, White returned to Australia permanently, and he and Lascaris bought a small farm in Castle Hill, on the outskirts of Sydney. In 1964, they moved to a house in Centennial Park, inner Sydney.

Literary career

White authored 12 novels, several plays, two short story collections, and an autobiography titled Flaws in the Glass (1981). His books were published in Britain and the United States, where his early novels received more enthusiastic reviews than in Australia. However, Happy Valley won the gold medal from the Australian Literature Society in 1941.

His novels The Aunt’s Story (1948), The Tree of Man (1955), Voss (1957), and Riders in the Chariot (1961) solidified White’s status as Australia’s most famous novelist. Both Voss and Riders in the Chariot won the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1964, critic Harry Heseltine stated that "White is the first indisputably great novelist that Australia has produced," highlighting his international significance.

White was often compared to esteemed novelists like Joseph Conrad and William Faulkner. Some of his later works, including The Vivisector (1970), The Eye of the Storm (1973), and The Twyborn Affair (1979), were also well received, although his plays saw limited success. In 1973, he became the first Australian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Background to the collection

The Patrick White Papers, acquired in 2006, became one of the most remarkable and surprising additions to the collection. Nearly thirty years earlier, White had insisted that he didn’t keep any of his papers, saying, "I can’t let you have my ‘papers’ because I don’t keep any." He repeated this claim several times. However, in 1991, it came to light that he had saved the manuscript of his novel Memoirs of Many in One, which was then sold at a Sotheby’s auction in London. It was purchased jointly by the National Library and the State Library of New South Wales.

In 2006, White’s literary agent, Barbara Mobbs, revealed that many more of White's manuscripts and papers had survived and were available for private sale.

Over the years, letters from Patrick White have been acquired through various collections of Australian writers. The largest set of these letters came from the Geoffrey Dutton Papers, donated in 1986. From 1988 to 1993, David Marr connected friends and relatives of White who had important collections of his letters. Marr’s own papers were added to the collection in 1999. In 2006, the Desmond Digby Papers were also acquired, shedding light on his long friendship with White.

The Patrick White Papers are available in the Manuscripts Collection (MS 9982). For detailed information, check out the finding aid online: Use the White finding guide. The manuscript for Memoirs of Many in One (MS 8293) is also available, either in our Manuscript Collection or at the Mitchell Library at the State Library of New South Wales, depending on where researchers need it.

The David Marr Papers are held in the Manuscripts Collection (MS 9356). You can find more details in the Marr finding aid. Please note, some of these papers have restricted access.

The Desmond Digby Papers (MS 10056) have a Digby finding aid.

In the Pictures Collection, you’ll find drawings by Louis Kahan and photographic portraits of Patrick White taken by Alec Bolton, Axel Poignant, and Brendan Hennessy. These images have been individually catalogued and digitised for easy access.

An interview with Patrick White recorded by Veronica Brady is available in the Oral History Collection (TRC 3978/2).

Books and other publications related to these collections can be found in various locations within the Australian Collection.

The books from Patrick White’s library, together with his desk, are held in the Mitchell Library in the State Library of New South Wales.

This guide was prepared using these references:

Marie-Louise Ayres, My MSS are destroyed…’ the Patrick White Collection, National Library of Australia News, vol. 17 (6), March 2007, pp. 3-6
William Fraser, Patrick White's last laugh – did the author set a snare for unwary academics? Sydney Morning Herald, Good Weekend, 16 May 1992, pp. 18-24
David Marr, Patrick White, the final chapter, The Monthly, April 2008, pp. 28-42
John Thompson, Faces of Australian writing, National Library of Australia News, vol. 3 (6), March 1993, pp. 8-11