The following works are referred to frequently in the notes:

‘John Cotter Memoirs’, ms., John Cotter collection

Leonie Kramer (ed.), James McAuley: Poetry, Essays and Personal Commentary (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1988)

James McAuley, ‘Culture and Counter-culture’, Quadrant,September (1976), 12—21

James McAuley, Collected Poems (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1994)

James McAuley, Notebooks, Norma McAuley collection

The Poems of Ern Malley (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1988)

Peter Coleman interview with Amy Witting, Oral History Section, NL TRC2864

Hazel de Berg interview with McAuley, Oral History Section, NL TRC856

Tony Morphett interview with McAuley, 1966, ABC Transcripts, Mitchell Library

Catherine Santamaria interview with McAuley, Oral History Section NL TRC576

ML indicates a manuscript held at the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, NL one held at the National Library, Canberra.

Notes to Prologue

1     ‘Instructions to Literary Editor’, Stewart Papers, NL Ms8973/15/1.

2     ‘Commentary’, Quadrant, 21, xii (1975), 68.

3     Quoted in Michael Heyward, The Ern Malley Affair (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1993), p. 34.

4     Letter to Michael Ackland, 25 June 1995, author’s collection.

5     Letter to Milton Moon, 20 February 1995, Stewart Papers, NL MS 8973/16/32a.

Notes to Chapter 1 — In the realm of Porlock

1     A.D.Hope, Collected Poems: 1930–1970 (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1972), p. 105.

2     Letter to McAuley, 30 January 1970, Norma McAuley collection.

10   Letter to Michael Heyward, 15 November 1988, Heyward Papers, LaTrobe Library, MSPA 96/159/6.

12   Michael Heyward, The Ern Malley Affair (St Lucia: Queensland University Press, 1993), p. 28.

13   Letter to Michael Heyward, 30 November 1988. Similarly, in an interview with Richard Haese he asserted that he ‘came from an atheist socialist household and I never had a Christian upbringing at all’. Respectively Heyward Papers, LaTrobe Library, PA MS96/159/6 and 12.

20   Unpublished ms., Stewart Papers, NL Ms8973/13/4.

21   Unpublished ms., Stewart Papers, respectively NL Ms873/13/1 and 4.

22   Although Cassandra Pybus claims he scored a perfect pass in The Devil and James McAuley (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1999), p. 32, Stewart gives the lesser figure in a letter to Michael Heyward, 30 November 1988, Heyward Papers, La Trobe Library, MSPA 96/159/6.

23   Letter to Keith Richmond, 27 September 1993, author’s collection.

24   He attained English A, Latin B, French L (a pass at a lower level), Mathematics I B, Modern History B, and failed presumably Mathematics II. The following year when he repeated his results were English B, Latin L, French (oral) B, Mathematics I B, Mathematics II B, Modern History B.

25   This account of Stewart’s final school years is based on an ms. by J.L.Tierney submitted to McAuley while editor of Quadrant, Norma McAuley collection.

26   Stewart, claiming that Tierney had ‘misremembered details’, maintained that he wrote ‘a thirty page answer’ on irony to highlight the absurdity of the examination, and ‘was given a fifty per cent pass — since they could hardly fail me outright’. There is, however, occasional evidence in his other corrections to Heyward’s manuscript of The Ern Malley Affair of calculated recasting of the past. Letter of 15 November 1992, Heyward Papers, LaTrobe Library, MSPA 96/159/6.

27   He is referring here to Richard Jefferies’ ‘curious but rather magnificent book’, The Story of My Heart, in ‘Symbolism:An Essay in Poetics’ MA dissertation (Sydney University, 1940), section 1, p. 45.

28   His Leaving Certificate results in 1933 were English H1, Latin A, French B, German B, Mathematics I B, Chemistry A; in 1934 English H1, Latin H2, French A, German A, Mathematics I B, Mathematics II B, Chemistry H2.

29   ‘The Empty Room’, Fortian, ii (1934), 22.

30   The quotations come from respectively ‘Model. The Artist Speaks’ and ‘Ambition’, Fortian, ii (1934), 19 and 21, but their personal application should be clear from my earlier discussion.

Notes to Chapter 2 — Around the Quad

4     Amy Witting, I for Isobel (Melbourne: Penguin Books, 1989), p. 95.

6     Eugene Kamenka, ‘The Andersonians: Philosophy and Criticism in Australia’, Quadrant, 31, vii (1987), 60.

7     Donald Horne, The Education of Young Donald (Melbourne: Penguin Books, 1975), p. 206.

8     These and ensuing reminiscences of this period, unless otherwise indicated, are from interviews conducted by Santamaria, De Berg and Morphett and from Surprises of the Sun.

9     Letter to Michael Heyward, 30 October 1988, Heyward Papers, LaTrobe Library, MSPA 96/159/6.

10   His Kyoto correspondence reveals a pronounced deference before degree holders from major English and American universities, while friends testify that he became strangely reticent on subjects on which he had formerly held forth once his interlocutors became recognised experts in their fields.

11   From letters to Marion Riley of 10 and 22 January 1970, Marion Riley collection.

12   R.K. Tipping, ‘Interview with Harold Stewart’, Westerly, 32 (1987), p. 26 and letter to Michael Heyward, 30 October 1988, Heyward Papers, LaTrobe Library, MSPA 96/159/6.

14   Letter to Cliff Brown, n.d. [1955], Stewart Papers, NL Ms8973/1/2.

20   See for instance his papers ‘Classicism versus Romanticism’ (1932) and ‘Romanticism and Classicism’ (1934), reprinted in Janet Anderson, Graham Cullum and Kimon Lycos (eds), Art & Reality: John Anderson on Literature and Aesthetics (Sydney: Hale & Iremonger, 1982), pp. 51–60.

21   J.A. Passmore, ‘Psychology and Psycho-analysis’, Hermes, ii (1936), 25.

22   From an address on ‘Metaphysical Poetry’ of 19 June, reported in the Union Recorder, 2 July 1936, p. 126.

24   ‘On a Young Lady’ from The First Boke of Fowle Ayres, n.p. Witting, in her annotated copy, attributes the verse to Oliver Somerville and remarks: ‘an utter libel on Dorothy Steed’, Witting Papers, ML MS5303.

25   Garry Lyle, ‘Arty Cafe’, from No I (July 1943), n.p. Booklet issued privately by A.D. Hope, Garry Lyle and Harry Hooton.

26   ‘Hooton slaps the mat’, Honi Soit, 5 August 1943, p. 12.

27   Horne, The Education of Young Donald, p.229.

28   Letter to Donald Horne, 11 November [1939], Horne Papers, ML MS3525 MLK 2132, L9.

29   ‘Lampoon’, The First Boke of Fowle Ayres, n.p., Witting Papers, ML MS5303.

30   John Read interview, Oral History Section, NL TRC2778.

31   Ms. poem, Witting Papers, ML MS5303.

32   Early ms. poem quoted in Peter Coleman, Memoirs of a Slow Learner (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1994), p. 135.

34   ‘The Dobell Pictures’, Honi Soit, 16 October 1941, p. 2.

35   ‘A Tame Fauve’, Honi Soit, 20 June 1941, p.2.

36   ‘Braque Goes to Town’, Honi Soit, 14 August 1941, p. 2.

41   See respectively Witting interview with Coleman, p. 14 and ‘Private Screening’, No 1, n.p.

42   See Cassandra Pybus, The Devil and James McAuley, (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1999), p. 15, and Witting letter to Michael Heyward, 4 July 1989, Heyward Papers, LaTrobe Library, MSPA 96/159/9.

43   Witting, I for Isobel, p.97.

44   Respectively ‘The Tree of Knowledge’, Hermes, iii (1935), pp. 24–5 and ‘Departure’, Candide (1937), p. 26.

52   John Read interview, Oral History Section, NL TRC2778.

53   Interview with the author and letter to Michael Heyward, 4 July 1989, Heyward Papers, LaTrobe Library, MSPA 96/159/9.

54   Another version of apparently the same report speaks of white butterflies flying from his eyes. McAuley maintained adamantly that he could not recall his dreams.

55   Letter of June 1955, Norma McAuley collection.

56   Fragment of a letter without date or addressee, Marion Riley collection.

57   Letter to C. Brown, n.d. [1955], Stewart Papers, NL Ms8973/1/2.

58   Letter to D. Auchterlonie from Mt Victoria, n.d., D. Green Papers, NL MS5678, folder 46.

59   Notebook entry dated 13/5/49, Norma McAuley collection.

60   ‘Letters to a Young Poet’, trans. Horst Salomon, Angry Penguins, December 1944, p. 34.

61   Letter to D. Auchterlonie, 22 November 1938, D. Green Papers, NL MS5678, folder 46.

Notes to Chapter 3 — Fowle Ayres and false starts

1     Letter to Dorothy Auchterlonie, n.d., D. Green Papers, NL MS5678, folder 46.

2     Respectively letter to Milton Moon, 13 November 1983, Stewart Papers, NL Ms8973/16/32a and Donald Horne, The Education of Young Donald (Melbourne: Penguin Books, 1975), p. 271.

6     Letter to J. McAuley, 10 August 1944, Norma McAuley collection.

7    Letter to G.Smith, 9 December 1994, StewartPapers, NL Ms8973/16/6.

8   ‘Harris Harassed’, Honi Soit, 21 May1942, p.4.

9   ‘M.U.M. Resurrected’, Honi Soit, 17 September 1942, p. 2.

10   Letter to Donald Horne, n.d., Horne Papers, ML MS3525 MLK 2132, L9.

11   ‘A Personal Reconciliation of Science and Art’, Union Recorder, 20 October 1938, p. 251.

12   This and ensuing letters to Dorothy Auchterlonie are from folder 46, D. Green Papers, NL MS5678. On the provenance of this correspondence see D. Green, ‘Letters from a Young Poet’, Quadrant, 21, iii (1977), 18–21.

14   Donald Horne, ‘A Time of Sadness’, The Observer, 20 September 1958, p. 487.

15   Unless otherwise indicated, McAuley’s subsequent comments in this chapter are from his interview with Santamaria or Surprises of the Sun.

16   Somerville letter to Harry Hooton, 24 August 1942, Hooton Papers, ML MS569.

17   29 September 1937, p. 37.

18   See respectively Dorothy Green’s interview with Michael Heyward (‘He was very critical of the English Department... but the Department wasn’t as hopeless as Jim thought’ [Heyward Papers, LaTrobe Library, MSPA 96/159/8]) and Somerville’s letter to Harry Hooton, 24 August 1942, Hooton Papers ML MS569.

19   Amy Witting interview with Coleman, p. 19.

20   ‘Of Anarchism & Anarchy’, Stewart Papers, NL Ms8973/6/1.

21   Letter of November 1943, Horne Papers, ML MS3525 MLK 2132, L9.

22   On its reception see Sasha Soldatow’s ‘Introduction’ to Harry Hooton, Collected Poems (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1990), pp. 9–10.

23   ‘Humanism and Art’, The Australian Highway, 1 April 1944, quoted in Hooton, Collected Poems, pp. 4–5.

24   Respectively from ‘Culture and Counter-culture’, pp. 15–16 and ‘Joyce And The Rest or Something To Say’, No. 1, n.p.

25   Letter to Marie Pitt, 7 April 1939, Marie Pitt Papers, NL MS1657/4.

26   Respectively ‘Unca Donald on Hooton’, Honi Soit, 23 September 1943, p. 2 and Angry Penguins, Autumn 1944, p.3.

27   A Map of Australian Verse (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1975), p. 131 and ‘Culture and Counter-culture’, p. 16.

28   McAuley letter to Donald Horne, n.d., Horne Papers, ML MS3525 MLK 2132, L9.

29   ‘“Southerly” Busted’, Honi Soit, 22 May 1941, p. 3.

30   Letter of Somerville to Harry Hooton, I August 1942, Hooton Papers, ML MS569. It identifies McAuley as the inventor of the pseudonym, and Stewart as using it in 1942.

31   ‘Dionysus ad. lib.’, Arna (1942), 31–2.

32   ‘Hooton slaps the mat’, Honi Soit, 5 August1943, p.12.

33   n.d., Horne Papers, ML MS3525 MLK2132, L9.

34   28 February 1942, Hooton Papers, ML MS569.

35   Somerville, ‘Randwick Military Camp 1943’, Number Three, n.p.and letter to Harry Hooton, 28 February 1942, Hooton Papers, ML MS569.

36   From ‘Call Up — 1943’ in No. 1, n.p.

37   ‘Propaganda “Forges” Unity’, Honi Soit, 3 September 1942, p. 4.

38   ‘Invasion Threat’, Dramas from the Sky (Adelaide: Haskell Press, 1942), p. 19.

39   I am conflating here the contents of letters to H.M. Green from 6 March and 17 April, H.M. Green Papers, NL MS3925, folder 19.

40   Letter to G. Smith, 3 July 1991, Stewart Papers, NL Ms8973/16/6.

41   3 August 1944, Norma McAuley collection.

44   Respectively letters to H.M. Green, 6 March 1943, H.M. Green Papers, NL MS3925, folder 19 and to J. McAuley, 3 August 1944, Norma McAuley collection.

45   Letter to J. McAuley, 16 August 1944, Norma McAuley collection.

46   Sir James Plimsoll, quoted in Alfred Conlon: A Memorial by some of His Friends (Sydney: Benevolent Society of New South Wales, 1963), p. 16.

47   Letter to Michael Heyward, 12 November 1989, Heyward Papers, LaTrobe Library, MS PA96/159/6.

48   Letter of Hugh Gilchrist to Donald Horne, 13 August 1943, Horne Papers, ML MS3525 MLK 2132, L9.

49   Letter to Donald Horne, November 1943, Horne Papers, ML MS3525 MLK 2132, L9.

50   Letter to Donald Horne, 29 July 1943, Horne Papers, ML MS3525, MLK 2132, L9.

51   Ibid.

52   ‘Woman and Tree’, Angry Penguins, February 1941, p.40.

53   Quoted by Stewart in ‘M.U.M. Resurrected’, Honi Soit, 17 September 1942, p. 2.

54   Letter to Donald Horne, ‘Friday’, Horne Papers, ML MS3525 MLK 2132, L9.

55   Letter to Donald Horne, November 1943, Horne Papers, ML MS3525 MLK 2132, L9.

56   Angry Penguins, September1943, n.p.

57   Letter to Oliver Somerville, 8 August 1942. Hooton Papers, ML MS569.

58   ‘Confessions of a Zombi’, Meanjin, 3 (1944), 48.

59   The Vegetative Eye (Melbourne: Reed & Harris, 1943), p. 118.

60   Respectively from ‘Dionysus ad. lib.’, pp. 33 and 35 and McAuley letter to Donald Horne, n.d., Horne Papers, ML MS3525 MLK 2132, L9.

61   3 August 1944, Norma McAuley collection.

62   Paul Kane, Australian Poetry: Romanticism and Negativity (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 143.

63   Interview with Amy Witting. I have drawn on this, her notes to The Darkening Ecliptic (Witting Papers, ML MS5303) and her interview with Peter Coleman.

64   Michael Heyward, The Ern Malley Affair (University of Queensland Press, 1993), p. 37.

65   Ibid., p. 36.

66   C.M.H. Clark, The Quest for Grace (Ringwood: Viking, 1990), p. 129.

67   From ‘Poetry and Society’, Union Recorder, 7 June 1945, reprinted in Janet Anderson, Graham Cullum and Kimon Lycos (eds), Art & Reality: John Anderson on Literature and Aesthetics (Sydney: Hale & Iremonger, 1982), pp. 77–81.

68   Letter to J. McAuley of 16 August 1944, Norma McAuley collection.

69   Witting interview with Coleman, p. 72.

70   Letter to Auchterlonie, n.d., D. Green Papers, NL MS5678, folder 46.