Finders keepers: the making of a collection

Dame Fiona Kidman is a literary star, a poet and a much-loved author of many award-winning novels.

She has been using Turnbull resources – and also contributing to them – for nearly fifty years. She says her books such as the historical novels The Captive Wife, The Infinite Air and This Mortal Boy would have been impossible without access to the Turnbull’s amazing collections.  Over the years she accumulated a large body of personal correspondence and recordings from literary luminaries, including Dame Ngaio Marsh, Frank Sargeson, Janet Frame, Denis Glover and others, as well as artists, educators and politicians. She describes herself as a hoarder, but this significant body of correspondence, tapes and personal manuscripts has all found its way to the Turnbull. This talk was about the making of a collection.