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| 2017.0069 [CORRESPONDENCE WITH ACADEMICS] |
| Date Range of Records: |
1975-2007 |
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The Greer Archive has been made available due to its historical and research importance. Statements which form part of the collection are not made on behalf of the University and do not represent the University’s views. It contains material that some researchers might find confronting. This includes: Explicit language and images that reflect either the attitudes of the era in which the material was originally published or the views of the creators of the material but may not be considered appropriate today. Names, images and voices of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in published and unpublished printed material, audio recordings and photographs. Graphic descriptions of medical conditions and treatment.
This series documents Germaine Greer’s interactions with other academics at universities in the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada, the United States and New Zealand. Some files – such as the one Greer labelled Paglia, Camille – have been created to hold a single letter that Greer received in response to a university-related event. Others contain postcards, drafts, letters, catalogues, offprints and invitations, evidence of friendships and shared scholarly passion, especially for early modern English literature.
The records were created between 1976 and 2013 and housed in six units. The series has been catalogued in the order it was received ie the order in which these files were kept at Greer's property as part of her working papers. The files are generally in alphabetical order, arranged by the surname of the correspondent. Greer used the same system of arrangement for the 120-unit General Correspondence series (2014.0042), the Correspondence with Libraries series (2017.0004, alphabetical via name of institution) and the Correspondence with Publishers (2014.0052, split into regions then arranged alphabetically by publisher name). Letters from academics are contained in every correspondence series in archive. Researchers are advised to search each series using either the names of academics or their field of academic inquiry or their institution.
The records in this series reflect Greer’s education in early modern English literature, especially the works of William Shakespeare, and her subsequent interest in women’s writing from this period, an interest that led to the establishment of a boutique publishing house, Stump Cross Books. As well as the Kissing the Rod anthology, Greer has written Slip-Shod Sibyls: Recognition, Rejection and the Woman Poet (1995); Shakespeare (Past Masters series, reissued as Shakespeare: A Very Short Introduction 2002), John Wilmot: Earl of Rochester (2000) and Shakespeare's Wife (2007). These books, Greer’s academic essays and scholarly introductions to collections as well as her teaching and supervision created a rich web of connections with fellow scholars, connections that are documented in this series and across the archive.
The earliest papers relate to Germaine Greer's review of Juliet Dusinberre's book Shakespeare and The Nature of Women, a commission that reflected Greer’s expertise as a Shakespeare scholar (2017.0069.00013). The review was commissioned by Professor G.K. Hunter and published in The Modern Language Review in March 1976. Hunter, a renowned scholar of Shakespeare, was the founding professor of Warwick University’s Department of English and Comparative Studies. In 1967, Hunter recruited Greer – one of a group of brilliant rising English literature specialists – to join Warwick. Greer’s doctoral thesis, The Ethic of Love and Marriage in Shakespeare’s Early Comedies, was awarded in 1968 at the University of Cambridge.
The file containing correspondence between Greer and Peter Cochran (2017.0069.00008) reflects an even earlier scholarly interest; in 1962 Greer graduated from the University of Sydney with first class honours and a thesis on Byron’s satiric verse.
Much of the material in this series connects with the work of Stump Cross Books. Greer set it up in the late 1980s to publish rare works by women in scholarly editions. She funded the entire enterprise. Volumes produced under the Stump Cross imprint are: The Uncollected Verse of Aphra Behn (1989); The Collected Works of Katherine Philips, the Matchless Orinda, published as Volume I - The Poems (1990), Volume II - The Letters (1992), and Volume III - The Translations (1993); and The Surviving Works of Anne Wharton (1997).
Records in this series contain evidence of how often Greer gave Stump Cross Books as gifts, much to the delight of surprised recipients. “I appreciated, too, your distributing copies of Aphra Behn and Katherine Philips,’ John O’Neill wrote to Greer in 1992, referring to an MLA (Modern Language Convention) convention in New York. Greer also received gifts from academics, mostly offprints of peer-reviewed essays in her field. The series is evidence of the benefits of collegial exchange and the hidden generosity that can fuel scholarship.
This series also contains files on research assistants Greer employed for work on Stump Cross projects but the most substantial collection of material relating to Greer as a publisher is found in the Women and Literature series (2014.0047). Search on the subject heading 'research assistants' to find this material. |
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| 6 units (1.02m) |
| Collection Category: |
Culture and the Arts, individuals |
| Access Conditions: |
Access: Restricted |
| Finding Aids: |
Yes listed ONLINE |
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