AustLit
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A Paper Inheritance : The Passionate Literary Lives of Leslie Rees and Coralie Clarke Rees
single work
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'When Dymphna Stella Rees – named after family friends Dymphna Cusack and Stella Miles Franklin – finds bundles of love letters buried in her parents' archive, she is intrigued by the discovery.
'Leslie Rees and Coralie Clarke Rees were a power couple of the Australian literary scene in the mid-twentieth century. They took their shared dream of being writers from Perth to London and launched themselves in Fleet Street, interviewing some of the century’s literary greats, including James Joyce, AA Milne, and George Bernard Shaw.
'After settling in Sydney in the 1930s, they embraced the city’s vibrant arts scene and established prolific careers. Leslie became an award-winning children’s book author and the ABC’s national drama editor, while Coralie was one of the country’s first female broadcasters. They influenced the development of an authentically Australian arts culture and included among their friends Mary Gilmore, Ruth Park, D’Arcy Niland, Mary Durack and Vance and Nettie Palmer. Their partnership and legacy is only fully examined here for the first time.
'Drawn from personal notebooks, letters and original transcripts, A Paper Inheritance is the engrossing story of what drove this literary couple to prominence and is a celebration of their love and their passion for words.' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Dedication :
For my Dear Ones who have gone before - they have shown me the way and
for my children and grandchildren - this is part of their story, too.
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Epigraph :
When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.
- Christina Rossetti
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Epigraph:
What a reminder to future generations of the significant heartbeats of the past!
- Leslie Rees in a letter to Coralie Clarke Rees
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Fully Documented Lives : A Daughter’s Fond and Intelligent Book on Her Literary Parents
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , July no. 433 2021; (p. 56-57)
— Review of A Paper Inheritance : The Passionate Literary Lives of Leslie Rees and Coralie Clarke Rees 2021 single work biography'Coralie Clarke Rees and Leslie Rees are not remembered among the glamour couples of twentieth-century Australian literary life. Unlike George Johnston and Charmian Clift, Vance and Nettie Palmer, or their friends Darcy Niland and Ruth Park, neither of them wrote novels and they both spread their work across a range of genres. Critics, journalists, travel writers, children’s writers, playwrights, they devoted themselves to supporting the broad artistic culture of Australia rather than claiming its attention. Their lives were spent in juggling their literary interests with the need to make a living at a time when Australian society was even less supportive of writers than it is now. They made compromises to suburban life and the need to care for their two daughters, without ever abandoning their determination to live by the pen.' (Introduction)
-
Fully Documented Lives : A Daughter’s Fond and Intelligent Book on Her Literary Parents
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , July no. 433 2021; (p. 56-57)
— Review of A Paper Inheritance : The Passionate Literary Lives of Leslie Rees and Coralie Clarke Rees 2021 single work biography'Coralie Clarke Rees and Leslie Rees are not remembered among the glamour couples of twentieth-century Australian literary life. Unlike George Johnston and Charmian Clift, Vance and Nettie Palmer, or their friends Darcy Niland and Ruth Park, neither of them wrote novels and they both spread their work across a range of genres. Critics, journalists, travel writers, children’s writers, playwrights, they devoted themselves to supporting the broad artistic culture of Australia rather than claiming its attention. Their lives were spent in juggling their literary interests with the need to make a living at a time when Australian society was even less supportive of writers than it is now. They made compromises to suburban life and the need to care for their two daughters, without ever abandoning their determination to live by the pen.' (Introduction)
