Summary |
MS 4876 comprises correspondence, manuscripts of books, reviews, lectures, radio scripts, files on overseas trips, and research material. There are extensive files on the journals which Jeffares edited, A review of English literature, 1957-1968, and Ariel: a review of international English literature, 1969-1973. The papers relate in particular to Jeffares' work on the writings of W.B. Yeats, William Congreve, George Moore, Walt Whitman, Jonathan Swift and Henry Handel Richardson.
Correspondents include Randolph Stow, Geoffrey Dutton, David Daiches, Sir Angus Wilson, Lionel Trilling, Pamela Hansford Johnson, Allen Tate, D.J. Enright, J.I.M. Stewart, J.J. Auchmuty, Quentin Bell, Edmund Blunden, Cleanth Brooks and Brendan Kennelly. There are also papers on the Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (64 boxes).
The papers of the Acc12.081 instalment represent a selection of the Jeffares Archive, offered for sale through Maggs Brothers of London in 2012, separated from the bulk of the Archive for their Australian connection. Predominantly comprised of correspondence written during and after his tenure at the University of Adelaide in 1951-1956, the instalment also consists of versions of an unpublished manuscript "Mayhem in Medindie", written on the sea journey back to England. The papers are notable for the long sequences of correspondence with a number of Australians including Geoffrey Dutton, Randolph (Mick) Stow, Ian Spurling, James Auchmuty and Cynthia Nolan (2 boxes).
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Biography/History |
Academic and author, specialising in the classics and English literature. Alexander Norman (Derry) Jeffares was born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College Dublin and Oriel College Oxford, where his 1945 Ph.D. dissertation on the poet W.B. Yeats was considered groundbreaking. Known also as an artist, poet and collector of cars, Jeffares had a long association with the University of Adelaide, occupying the Jury Chair of English between 1951 and 1956. He subsequently held posts at the University of Leeds and Stirling University. He was also a noted correspondent. Jeffares died in Crail, Scotland in 2005.
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