Barbara Jefferis interviewed by Daniel Connell [sound recording]
- Bib ID:
- 2464158
- Format:
- Audio
- Author:
- Jefferis, Barbara, 1917-2004, interviewee
- Access Conditions:
- Access open for research, personal copies and public use.
- Description:
-
- 2001
- 2 digital audio tapes (ca. 130 min.)
- Summary:
-
Jefferis speaks of the Australian Society of Authors promoting improved contracts for authors, forming a Copyright Council and monitoring the Public Lending Right (PLR), its formation in 1963 and tried to get its priorities adopted by the current government but the Liberal Party simply ignored the problems faced by authors, prior to the Society Australian writers had no claim on use of their books by library borrowers - why buy fiction when you can borrow it from the local library?, she personally dealt with US and British publishers who treated their writers much better, how she had been writing since childhood later on moving to Sydney she worked on the newspaper Daily News gaining wide newspaper experience, in the 1940s she started writing for radio serials and documentaries for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, she won first prize in Sydney Morning Herald's annual novel competition sometime in the mid-1950s but even so she still could not get an Australian publisher so she looked overseas.
Jefferis speaks of joining the Society at this time around 1963 when there was only about 300 members, the fight to get PLR established after a survey revealed that a writer averaged 5-10 dollars a week, how non-professional writers and academics made it difficult for professional writers to get good pay, under the McMahon government writers threatened to withdraw their novels from public libraries, John Kiddell had proposed a borrower pays scheme based the German system but Australia supported free library service so the Commonwealth would have to pay, the lack of support given by librarians to Australian writers and how Alan Horton, National President of the Library Association of Australia conducted a campaign among local councils to reject PLR as a costly burden on libraries citing the problems in England, how the Whitlam government set up a committee to organise PLR so it was ready to implement in 1974 but the legislation was delayed owing to the Whitlam dismissal, how they lobbied the Liberals to protect PLR, her views of Colin Simpson and his hard work.
- Notes:
-
- Recorded on May 21, 2001 at Woolwich, N.S.W.
- Digital master available National Library of Australia
- Index/Finding Aid Note:
- Timed summary (4 p.) and corrected transcript (typescript, 29 leaves)
- Subject:
- Occupation:
- Novelists
- Other authors/contributors:
- Connell, Daniel, 1947-, interviewer
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
Contact us for information about copying. For access conditions return to the record display above.
- Reason for copyright status:
- Until 2071 [Created/Published Date + 70 Years]
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Sound Recording
- Published status:
- Unpublished
- Creation date:
- 2001
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.
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