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Archival Mess

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Paper, Materiality and the Archived Page

Part of the book series: New Directions in Book History ((NDBH))

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Abstract

This chapter focuses on the archived papers of Australian writer Eve Langley (1904–1974). Langley is generally better known today for her gender non-conforming dress, her history of institutionalization and her obsessive identification with the writer Oscar Wilde than for her achievements as a poet and novelist. Her initial literary success was followed by a growing imbalance between what she produced and what she published. Her literary papers are voluminous and their celebrated disorder has contributed to the pathologizing of their creator. I explore how embracing the messy materiality of Langley’s papers can provide alternative understandings of the shape of a literary career, ones that recognize continuing innovation and creativity over chaos and decline.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For a brief biography, see Thwaite (2000).

  2. 2.

    The 1940 S.H. Prior Memorial Prize for an unpublished manuscript which was administered by the Bulletin magazine was awarded jointly to The Pea Pickers and to Kylie Tennant for her novel, The Battlers (1941).

  3. 3.

    Eve Langley to Beatrice Davis, 13 January 1960. Item 461. Angus & Robertson Correspondence and Readers’ Reports, ML MSS3269/383, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney.

  4. 4.

    Reader’s report on multiple manuscripts by Eve Langley written by N[an] McD[onald]. [c. 1965]. Item 573. Angus & Robertson Correspondence and Readers’ Reports, ML MSS3269/383, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney.

  5. 5.

    See Angus & Robertson Ltd—Business Records, 1881–1973, ML MSS 3269, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.

  6. 6.

    Meredith Lawn (Archivist, Original Materials Branch, State Library of New South Wales), email to the author, 11 September 2013. In 1975, Stewart completed her experimental documentary film on Langley entitled She’s My Sister (Director: Meg Stewart; Cinematographer: David Sanderson; Distributor: Sydney Filmmakers Co-operative). Stewart later made an ABC radio documentary entitled ‘The shadows are different’. See Meg Stewart Further Papers, MLMSS 5147 Add-on 2077 / Box 19 and MLOH 249/3–4. She’s My Sister is available through the National Film and Sound Archive (Canberra).

  7. 7.

    Eve Langley to Nan McDonald, 6 February 1954. Item 273. Angus & Robertson Correspondence and Readers’ Reports, ML MSS3269/383, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney.

  8. 8.

    Reader’s report for White Topee by N[an] McD[onald]. [c.1952]. Item 137. Angus & Robertson Correspondence and Readers’ Reports, ML MSS3269/383, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney.

  9. 9.

    Handwritten second reader’s report for Wild Australia [by Nan McDonald], 30 September 1953. Item 191. Angus & Robertson Correspondence and Readers’ Reports, ML MSS3269/383, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney.

  10. 10.

    As Liam Buckley highlights with respect to the practice of archival appraisal ‘the real wisdom of archiving is not a question of knowing what to keep but of what to send to the incinerator’ (2005, p. 262).

  11. 11.

    See, for example, Hobbs (2001).

  12. 12.

    The archivist who catalogued the Langley papers reportedly left a file note referring to the collection as ‘very messy and disorganised’. Meredith Lawn (Archivist, Original Materials Branch, State Library of NSW) suggested that, as a consequence, the collection would not have been ‘left it in its original order (or lack of order) but arranged it into series according to our usual archival practices for arrangement and description’. Meredith Lawn, email to the author, 11 September 2013.

  13. 13.

    Eve and June Langley pictorial material, ca.1860–ca.1979. This material is catalogued under: PXA 1612, PXD 1268, PXE 1333, MIN 492, and ON 492. There are approximately 684 photographs.

  14. 14.

    The catalogue contains the following note: ‘Most photographs are apparently taken by Eve Langley, but were received from June Langley together with June’s papers in February 1981 (MLMSS 3898)’.

  15. 15.

    The square aspect ratio was popular in the 1960s and 1970s. In square format images, the eye tends to travel around the image in a circular fashion rather than ‘follow the longer edge of the rectangle from side to side (or up and down in the portrait format)’ (Gibson 2011).

  16. 16.

    June Langley writes to Beatrice Davis that in her work at the Auckland Library Langley was ‘putting into practise an art learned in her first work at Walker and May’s [the printers] in Melbourne’. June Langley to Beatrice Davis, 14 March 1952. Item 183–85, Angus & Robertson Correspondence and Reader’s Reports, ML MSS3269/383, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney.

  17. 17.

    Nan McDonald to Eve Langley, 29 July 1955. Eve Langley Papers 1920s–1974, ML MSS4188 (6), Item 12, Correspondence 20 April 1954 to 8 November 1972. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney.

  18. 18.

    ‘The Letters of Steve and Blue from 1925 to 1931 Gippsland. Mt Buffalo. Wandin Yallock’. Angus & Robertson Papers, Box 146: Eve Langley typescript literary works, MLMSS 3269, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney.

  19. 19.

    Eve Langley to Father Colgan (?), undated [c.1941]. Eve Langley letters, 1937–1942. Uncatalogued MS. Presented by D. Beirne, Archivist of Catholic Diocese of Hamilton, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney.

  20. 20.

    ‘The Letters of Steve and Blue from 1925 to 1931 Gippsland. Mt Buffalo. Wandin Yallock’. Angus & Robertson Papers, Box 146: Eve Langley typescript literary works, MLMSS 3269, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney.

  21. 21.

    June Langley to Beatrice Davis, 14 March 1952. Item 183–85. Angus & Robertson Correspondence and Readers’ Reports, ML MSS3269/383, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney.

  22. 22.

    Eve Langley to Mary Dobbie, 9 July 1955. Letters from Eve Langley to Mary Dobbie, MLMSS 7487. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney. Copies of originals held in MS Papers 8070–1, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.

  23. 23.

    Eve Langley to Ruth Park, 11 October 1941. Ruth Park Papers 1938–1976, MLMSS3128/Item 1/21, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney.

  24. 24.

    Eve Langley to Mary Dobbie, 10 October [1941]. Copies of letters from Eve Langley to Mary Dobbie. MLMSS7487. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney. Originals held in MS Papers 8070–1, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.

  25. 25.

    Eve Langley to Ruth Park, 11 October 1941. Ruth Park Papers 1938–1976, MLMSS 3128/Item1/21. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney.

  26. 26.

    June Langley to Beatrice Davis, 7 November 1950. Item 133. Angus & Robertson Correspondence and Readers’ Reports, ML MSS3269/383, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney. This letter and its reply from Davis cover the matter of what is to become of the manuscripts and who should rightly act as custodian.

  27. 27.

    Eve Langley to Nan McDonald, 24 May 1954. Item 311. Angus & Robertson Correspondence and Reader’s Reports, ML MSS3269/383, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney. Judging by the correspondence between Langley and Angus & Robertson, the publishers continued the practice of storing her manuscripts for safekeeping in what is variously referred to as their ‘strong room’ or ‘archive’ through until the 1970s.

  28. 28.

    Harry F. Chaplin—Album of papers concerning Eve Langley, 1938–ca.1955, MLMSS 7154, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney. The correspondence indicates that Langley sent Chaplin a series of her manuscripts and typescripts across the period 1954–1956.

  29. 29.

    These appear in the bound volume that comprises MLMSS 7154, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney.

  30. 30.

    Harry Chaplin to Eve Langley, 22 June 1954, Harry F. Chaplin—Album of papers concerning Eve Langley, 1938–ca.1955, MLMSS 7154, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney. As Langley was working as a book repairer at Auckland Public Library across the period 1950–1955, it is possible that she was either binding the manuscripts herself or having them bound in the library workshop.

  31. 31.

    This episode led to Langley’s fabled declaration, ‘I AM OSCAR WILDE. AND YOU’RE KILLING ME.’ Oscar Wilde [Eve Langley] to Nan McDonald, 12 April 1954. Item 269. Angus & Robertson Correspondence and Readers’ Reports, ML MSS3269/383, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney. Original emphasis.

  32. 32.

    Eve Langley to Nan McDonald, 24 May 1955. Item 311. Angus & Robertson Correspondence and Readers’ Reports, ML MSS3269/383, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney.

  33. 33.

    I am grateful to Amanda Lawson for suggesting this way of thinking about the photos.

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  1. University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Maryanne Dever

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  1. Maryanne Dever
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Dever, M. (2019). Archival Mess. In: Paper, Materiality and the Archived Page. New Directions in Book History. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-49886-1_3

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