New Zealand Archivist Vol III No 2 Winter/June 1992 ISSN 0114-7676 Interest Is Not Enough James McNeish I am a writer. I generate paper. But my credentials in terms of the subject of this conference are almost nil. I knew nothing about literary papers until recently. What little I do know is the result of discovery by accident. The state of play had seen in Boston began to sink in. I discovered that My starting point is Oxford. A few years ago I was in what I had seen (in 1989) was more than a few manu­ Oxford where I was told the papers of Dan Davin were script papers - it was holograph manuscripts in various destined not for a New Zealand library but for a British stages, drafts, worksheets, notes and notebooks, galley archive. When I checked later, I discovered that the sheets, printed matter, scrapbooks, juvenalia. I put this information was false, but at the time I didn't know this. exodus together with what I already knew about The thought of Dan's papers going to Exeter as I had Katherine Mansefield material which had ended up in been told, instead of to Hocken or Turnbull, seemed a US libraries, and added it to what I subsequently learned bit peculiar. Then shortly after I returned to New Zea­ from John Weir about other New Zealand material held land came a letter, an invitation out of the blue to at Austin, Texas. deposit my own manuscripts in an American univer­ sity at Boston, to become the nucleus, as the invitation The state of mind read, of a James McNeish Collection. It seemed very few people in New Zealand knew. I happened to be going to New York a few months All this material had been slipping away out of the after this, so I wrote and subsequently called at Boston country quietly, often surreptitiously, for thirty years, University's library and met the Director of Special largely unnoticed. How had it happened? At this point Collections there, Dr Howard Gotlieb - who had issued I wrote to about twenty leading writers and librarians in the invitation. A word about Dr Gotlieb. He is I suppose New Zealand and asked for their views and experi­ a recognisable figure at American academic research ences. The replies were interesting. Unknown to me, institutions, part scholar, part curator, part impresario. twenty-five years earlier the poet Philip Larkin had He began the library in 1963, brought in from Harvard carried out a similar mini-survey in England and the especially to found a modem, 20th century, German replies we both got were, I later discovered, substan­ archive, primarily but by no means entirely literary. His tially the same. In both cases a level of indifference was attitude to collecting? We would say aggressive. "I've revealed to contemporary material. Indeed one answer been known to send authors empty boxes and say to I received from a New Zealand writer I canvassed them 'Don't use a wastepaper basket, use these and verbally was identical to a reply Larkin received in send them to me.'" England - "If almost any New Zealand library had What interested me about Boston was not so much approached me five years ago for my collection, which the number of individual collections - about 1,500, was unusually complete at the time, I would have said probably the biggest 20th century literary manuscript 'yes' without hesitation." repository in existence - but the range, which I found Very broadly, the replies I received covered two fascinating. Not only manuscripts of figures like Shaw, areas. Was the exodus to American libraries greater DH Lawrence, HG Wells, Robert Frost, the Sitwells. The yet? The answer was a qualified yes. An academic who range extended to figures in journalism, politics, thea­ wrote to me, and a senior civil servant to whom I spoke tre, the entertainment world. From Alistair Cooke to both made the point that American institutions such as Ella Fitzgerald, from Eugene O'Neil' to Martin Luther the Smithsonian were moving into the field of Pacific King, including a great deal of what might be called collecting, which meant the pressure on New Zealand non-canonical material such as the notes madeby Alistair artists generally to give up their material was increas­ Cooke taken at the side of Robert Kennedy as he lay shot ing. Thus the risk of more material leaving the country and dying. Fred Astaire's dancing shoes. Gotlieb ex­ was bound to increase. But the extent of loss nobody plained that Fred Astaire had made it a condition of quite seemed to know, deposit, that if Boston wanted his papers, the shoes had How had the exodus happened? I don't wish to to come too. imply that American institutions are awash with New While being shown around I noticed some manu­ Zealand literary treasures. They are not. Still, enough scripts of Janet Frame. Then I discovered that Boston valuable material was sitting in US archival institutions also held material from Joy Cowley, Ngaio Marsh, and for the question to be asked. How was it our libraries Sylvia Ashton-Wamer. It was not until I returned to had been scooped in this way?In the case of Boston New Zealand that .file possible significance of what I University, the short answer was that "Boston asked first". John Lehmann writing in a British newspaper on that American collecting institutions benefit from tax this question commented that 'British libraries were concessions. The law provides that gifts of valuable asleep until Texas woke them". He meant the Humani­ documents can be counted against income tax. There ties Center at Austin Texas. are similar concessions in other countries, for example In the same way. New Zealand libraries were asleep Canada, but we in New Zealand do not have these until Boston woke them. Of course the situation here advantages. has changed since then - 1 am aware of this. Research libraries such as Turnbull and Hocken, despite budget Archivists v Authors restrictions, have today a much more positive policy When my article appeared at the end of 19901 I towards contemporary material than in the past. But was taken to task by the head of one library for 'false this is quite recent. In the 1960s and 1970s New Zealand accusations', for over-simplifying in terms too black libraries, with very few exceptions, were simply not and too white. Well, fine. I wrote a provocative article, interested in acquiring modem manuscripts, even if wanting among other things to flush debate into the offered on donation. open. I felt things were overdue for an airing. But then Joy Cowley for example, whose first novel had just this curator went on to boast of technical advances, of appeared in the States, was approached by Howard recent acquisitions, suggesting that nothing in the past Gotlieb in 1968 for her papers, and she not knowing had ever been wrong. I have to say there were very few anythingaboutcollectionssoughtadvicefromher agent, reactions like this. The common response was: "What who very sensibly suggested she keep her manuscripts can we do about it?", demonstrating not just a level of closer to home. support but more importantly a will to act. "Naively," she writes, "I offered them to my nearest Apathy and indifference are by no means confined university which happened to be Massey and was told to this country. In Germany, librarians could not be to try some larger establishment, for example Victoria. bothered to collect the papers of Heinrich Boll. Boll's I wrote to the English Department at Victoria Univer­ papers, to give one example among many, went to sity and was referred to the Alexander Turnbull Li­ Boston. In Britain, the record is worse. brary. At Turnbull I was told there were no facilities for But having said that, that is no reason for sweeping storing manuscripts - a brief and unhelpful letter." The the sins of the past under the carpet. We have to accept following year, 1969, Gotlieb tried again from Boston, there has been a problem of neglect, an unwillingness to and Joy Cowley sent him a bundle of manuscripts. solicit and acquire. Even more, we have to accept this Joy Cowley's letter, quoted above, added a post­ has been a problem of attitude and not of money. One script. "A few years ago the Turnbull Librarian wrote archivist who wrote to me at length, spoke of the Great asking for manuscripts. When I replied mine were in New Zealand Meanness, and unless I misinterpret him Boston I got back a somewhat grumpy letter touching he was writing about meanness of spirit, about attitude, on my lack of patriotic spirit. I wrote back pointing out a way of thinking and acting, or rather of not acting. I do that the Turnbull Library had turned down my offer not believe that money, inadequate funding for staff, is some years before." the whole problem in New Zealand. It is instructive to What struck me with some force was the tone which go into the back rooms of prestigious American re­ several of my correspondents adopted when they spoke search libraries and discover just how few staff they of American universities. Phrases like 'thieves in the actually employ. night' and 'of course they have so much money they can One librarian said to me recently that New Zealand buy anything they like'. These same correspondents writers were unsympathetic to the problems faced by were, I hope, surprised to discover later that American libraries. This may be true.