MS 3656 comprises manuscripts, typescripts and galley proofs of Wheen's translations, letters and a small number of books and pamphlets. Additional material received in 2005 includes copies of Wheen's military records and medical reports, 1915-1920; correspondence of Ian Campbell with Brian O. Murdoch (the second translator of Erica Maria Remarque's works) and others, 1997-2001; and a copy of a paper by Ian Campbell on Australian connections with Remarque (2005) (10 boxes).
The Acc12.113 consignment features a large group of descriptive letters written by Wheen to his family whilst a soldier in World War I, together with a number of photographs taken in Egypt in 1916. There are also letters written by Wheen to others including Ray Kershaw, T.S. Elliot, Herbert Read and Frank Morely; correspondence and other material related to 'All Quiet on the Western Front', letters to Wheen from various correspondents; student papers from New College, Oxford; essays and manuscripts; four diaries; and family photographs. There is a large group of letters from Aldwyth Wheen to her daughter, Gretchen Wheen (1950s-1970s); a sketchbook, drawings and etchings by Wheen; a letter and original woodcuts by Alec Buckels; and a letter and original sketches by M. Johannsen (14 boxes, 2 folio boxes, 1 map folio).
The Acc12.138 consignment comprises a small amount of family correspondence, including letters to Wheen's mother, Kathleen, and to his brother, Harold (aka 'Wheen'), together with an incomplete manuscript of a short essay by Wheen entitled 'Sensation, perception, imagination, conception', dated 1915. There are also some notes on the Wheen family history (1 folder).
Soldier, translator and librarian. Arthur Wesley Wheen was born in Sydney in 1897. He enrolled at Sydney University, but in 1915 enlisted in the Australian Expeditionary Force and left to fight in Europe, where he was awarded the Military Medal for bravery. On demobilisation he was chosen as Rhodes scholar for New South Wales and went up to New College, Oxford in 1920. He joined the staff of the library of the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1924. His only original literary work Two masters, a brief novella based on his life at the front was published in 1929.
Over the next ten years he translated a number of works from German, several of them novels dealing with the First World War. He is especially remembered for his translation of Eric Maria Remarque’s All quiet on the western front which was an outstanding success. For a while Wheen had close connections with a circle which included Herbert Read and T.S. Eliot. In 1939 he was appointed keeper of the Library and stayed in this position, achieving some distinction, until he retired in 1962. He died in March 1971.
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