AustLit

Olga Roncoroni’s essay in Henry Handel Richardson: Some Personal Impressions is the only first-hand account of how she and Henry Handel Richardson became ‘entangled.’ However, it does little to explain why Richardson sacrificed so much of her own life, including the writing of The Way Home between 1919-24, for her new and younger friend. Gaps in Roncoroni’s memoir and the destruction of private papers have enabled speculation about Richardson’s motivations in assisting Roncoroni and the nature of Roncoroni’s character. This essay considers previously unexamined materials from the Medico-Psychological Clinic, the London School of Dalcroze Eurhythmics, and Queenswood School to paint a broader picture of Roncoroni and her activities during this period and the years immediately following. In addition to Richardson’s correspondence and Roncoroni’s memoir, this analysis exposes the extent of Roncoroni’s mental health issues, Richardson’s burden of care, and the circumstances that allowed Richardson to resume her writing life while continuing to support Roncoroni. Consequently, the prevailing characterisations of Richardson as self-serving and dominant and Roncoroni as entirely dependent on and preoccupied with Richardson is reconsidered. In this way, Dorothy Green’s largely overlooked or misconstrued understanding of the two women and their relationship is also reaffirmed and developed. The conclusions of this study pave the way for a re-evaluation of subsequent aspects of Richardson’s biography, including her relationships and disturbances to her writing patterns.' (Publication abstract)

'George Charles Ivan Smith (1915-1995) was, over his lifetime, a successful writer, broadcaster, war correspondent, movie producer, United Nations official, and academic. He was also a sensitive and determined man with a deep and abiding empathy with Richard Mahony and his creator, the Australian-born author, Henry Handel Richardson (pseudonym of Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson, 1870-1946). Anecdotes and facts about his involvement in Richardson's literary and personal life may be found in various documents, including Richardson's published correspondence with Mary Kernot, Smith's own BBC broadcasts, Olga Roncoroni's essay in 'Henry Handel Richardson: Some Personal Impressions', and Graeme Powell's article, "Building an Archive: The H. H. Richardson Papers in the National Library of Australia." These disconnected and largely sketchy references do little to tell the story of Smith's unwavering enthusiasm in promoting Richardson and her work in the final years of her life, nor do they explain his determination to preserve many of her manuscripts and other special collection items immediately following her death.' (Publication abstract)

'In 1997 the State Library of Victoria acquired the Victorian diaries of Joseph Jenkins, comprising part of each of 1869, 1870 and 1871-94. After Joseph Jenkins' death in 1898, in Wales, the diaries were stored in the attic of his daughter Elinor's farmhouse and, it seems, were forgotten until seventy years later when they were discovered by his great granddaughter, Frances Evans. His grandson, William Evans, thereafter published an 'Abridged and Annotated' version of the Australian diaries as Diary of a Welsh Swagman 1869-1894. This was an important publication It not only introduced Jenkins to a reading public, but in addition has become a well-regarded historical account of early Victoria.' (Author's introduction)