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(WA) from 1938 to 1980 and Its Role in the Cultural Life of Perth

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(WA) from 1938 to 1980 and Its Role in the Cultural Life of Perth The Fellowship of Australian Writers (WA) from 1938 to 1980 and its role in the cultural life of Perth. Patricia Kotai-Ewers Bachelor of Arts, Master of Philosophy (UWA) This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Murdoch University November 2013 ABSTRACT The Fellowship of Australian Writers (WA) from 1938 to 1980 and its role in the cultural life of Perth. By the mid-1930s, a group of distinctly Western Australian writers was emerging, dedicated to their own writing careers and the promotion of Australian literature. In 1938, they founded the Western Australian Section of the Fellowship of Australian Writers. This first detailed study of the activities of the Fellowship in Western Australia explores its contribution to the development of Australian literature in this State between 1938 and 1980. In particular, this analysis identifies the degree to which the Fellowship supported and encouraged individual writers, promoted and celebrated Australian writers and their works, through publications, readings, talks and other activities, and assesses the success of its advocacy for writers’ professional interests. Information came from the organisation’s archives for this period; the personal papers, biographies, autobiographies and writings of writers involved; general histories of Australian literature and cultural life; and interviews with current members of the Fellowship in Western Australia. These sources showed the early writers utilising the networks they developed within a small, isolated society to build a creative community, which welcomed artists and musicians as well as writers. The Fellowship lobbied for a wide raft of conditions that concerned writers, including free children’s libraries, better rates of payment and the establishment of the Australian Society of Authors. It organised Children’s Book Weeks, and began the Children’s Book Council in Perth. It formed branches in five country towns, arranged Writers’ Weeks in early Perth Festivals, and conducted writers’ tours to country schools. By 1980, the Fellowship had prepared five anthologies of Western Australian writing and initiated two national literary competitions. As the story of the Fellowship in these years is also the story of Perth’s cultural life, in a time of extensive change, this account of Western Australia’s writers is set within the framework of the State’s growing artistic world. Patricia Kotai-Ewers, BA MPhil, W.Aust. i Acknowledgements My thanks to the writers who have been so willing to remember the beginnings of their organisation, especially to Pattie Watts, Barbara York Main, Glen Phillips, Nicholas Hasluck, Brian Dibble and Patsy Millett; to those who have read parts of the thesis, including Joan Pope, Pattie Watts, Beryl Chalk, Betty Durston, and to all those who have assisted me in this process, especially Dr Julia Hobson at Murdoch University, staff at the State Library of Western Australia, Steven Howell and Mary Jones among others, Maria Carvalho, and Miriam Congdon at the University of Western Australia Archives, Sandra Burt at the Australian Archives of the State Library of Victoria, and to my family. A special thanks to fellow writer and researcher Amanda Curtin who made available her research project on the Battye Library Resources on Western Australian writers and Writers’ Organisations. Also to fellow researcher Barbara Kearns, who is currently working on a study of Mollie Skinner’s life and work. Last and most especially, thanks to my supervisors, Lenore Layman and Brian de Garis who have maintained faith in this study reaching its conclusion. Throughout this work I have been aware of a tension between the benefit of my lifelong connection with the Fellowship through my father, and the need to maintain sufficient distance from the material given my current involvement in the organisation. ii I declare that this thesis is my own account of my research and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of the university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment has been made in the text. Patricia Kotai-Ewers 2013 iii Contents SECTION ONE The Foundation 1930 to 1938 pp. 3‒71 Chapter One Setting the scene 5 I shall be so pleased to talk to someone who knows something about writing1 Chapter Two The Cultural Life of Perth in the 1930s 35 the intellectual movement that there was in Perth2 SECTION TWO The Beginnings 1938 to 1959 pp. 73‒187 Chapter Three Drawing together a band of dedicated writers 75 … all professionals who put the practice of our profession first & foremost3 Chapter Four Growing the community amidst political turmoil 113 … a very perilous whirling centre 4 Chapter Five Establishing a physical home 151 … the delightful, if difficult, task of taking over Tom Collins House5 SECTION THREE Expansion and Contraction 1960 to 1980 pp. 189‒291 Chapter Six The 1960s and 1970s A Time of Expansion 191 … plenty of cultural activity at all levels6 Chapter Seven Changes Within the FAWWA 227 … the Fellowship is taking up so much time and energy7 Chapter Eight Negotiating the ‘Arts Labyrinth’8 261 The intellectual climate now is very different9 CONCLUSION 293 Appendix One FAWWA committees, 1938 to 1980 301 Appendix Two Biographies of major writers and FAWWA members 311 Bibliography 337 1 M. Skinner to N. Bartlett, 15 September 1937. Bartlett papers NLA 6884/1. 2 P. Hasluck to H. Drake-Brockman, 30 June 1941. Drake-Brockman papers NLA 1634/9. 3 H. Drake-Brockman proposing the toast to Australian Literature at the 1958 FAWWA ‘Corroboree’, 7 January 1958. Drake-Brockman papers NLA 1634/3/20. 4 M. Skinner to H. Drake-Brockman, 3 September 1938. Drake-Brockman papers NLA 1634/3/24. 5 P. Buddee to FAW(NSW), 20 August 1949. FAWWA papers BL 214/1438A/26. 6 M. Harris. ‘Lone Critic in Perth’ in Nation, 25 March 1961, p. 16. 7 F. James to D. Irwin, 2 May 1963. James papers ML 5877/4. Florence James was reporting Mary Durack’s feelings to a mutual friend. 8 N. Hasluck. ‘The Arts Labyrinth’ in Offcuts: from a legal literary life. Nedlands, W.A.: University of Western Australia Press, 1993, pp. 195‒214. 9 D. Horne cited in Speaking their Minds: Intellectuals and the Public Culture in Australia, R. Dessaix, ed. Sydney: ABC Books, 1998, p. 215. 1 2 SECTION ONE The Foundation 1930 to 1938 Chapters One and Two Being from WA was always seen as a terrible disadvantage, but in retrospect I think it was a gift. It hardens us, like drought-resistant coastal plants, and you have the great opportunity to make yourself up as you go along. Tim Winton. Cited in Author Profiles, Published by writingWA, 2011. 3 4 Chapter One Setting the scene … I shall be so pleased to talk to someone who knows something about writing10 Mollie Skinner’s words written in 1937 to fellow journalist, Norman Bartlett, express clearly the sense of isolation and the need for informed conversation felt by one writer living in Western Australia in the 1930s. A year later a group of dedicated Perth writers established the West Australian Section of the Fellowship of Australian Writers (FAWWA) thus providing support for writers hitherto working independently with few literary contacts in the metropolitan area. This thesis presents the first detailed study of the activities of the FAWWA From 1938 to 1980. It explores the role the organisation played within the expanding cultural life in Perth. During these years, both the Fellowship and the literature it served matured dramatically. The FAWWA’s membership grew to include writers from Esperance to Broome, with both country and metropolitan branches. Its early presidents pursued a ‘strenuous advocacy’ of Australian literature.11 Following their lead, the organisation worked to improve the professional concerns of Australia’s writers. Above all, the Fellowship created a literary community which welcomed both published and aspiring writers. The following chapters explore how the FAWWA undertook these activities, the liaisons it developed with other cultural bodies active at the time, and the ongoing interactions between it and the FAW in the other states. During its first forty years, the FAWWA worked on a broad spectrum of activities aimed at 10 M. Skinner to N. Bartlett, 15 September 1937. Bartlett papers NLA 6884/1. 11 J. Hay. ‘Literature and Society’ in A New History of Western Australia, C. T. Stannage, ed. Nedlands, W.A.: University of Western Australia Press, 1981, p. 626. 5 promoting Western Australian writers, and encouraging an awareness of Australian literature within the State. In considering these activities, this thesis seeks to reveal the extent to which the FAWWA contributed to the development of Australian literature in Western Australia during this period. Such a broad question needs to be further clarified before it will provide an adequate framework within which the material can be studied. In seeking to identify the role played by the FAWWA, this thesis examines three levels of organisational activity which can be seen as advancing the story of a body of literature. The first level of activity focuses on direct assistance to individual writers and manifests in various ways. It includes the development of a creative literary community, which encourages and advises its members and positions them within the broader cultural world, offering access to professional advice, training, and financial or in-kind support. The second level focuses on promoting writers and their works to the broader community, whether through facilitating publication of their writings, or by publicly celebrating and presenting individual authors and their writings, by organising readings, displays and lectures. The third, and less visible process, involves advocacy for writers’ professional interests, including the protection of freedom of speech, copyright issues and conditions of work.12 In 2013, these aims are pursued with the help of substantial amounts of government funding.
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