Queensland man of letters
The many worlds of F.W. Robinson
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/qre.2015.29Keywords:
Associate Professor Frederick Walter Robinson, Brisbane and Queensland cultural life, unpublished material, Fryer LibraryAbstract
This article offers the fullest discussion to date of the career, achievements and writing of Associate Professor Frederick Walter Robinson, one of the founders of the English program at the University of Queensland and a major figure in Brisbane and Queensland cultural life from the 1920s to the 1960s. Robinson’s career is considered in the context of the development of English as a university and school discipline, the intellectual and cultural life of Brisbane and the University of Queensland, and national cultural developments during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Through his university teaching and vigorous participation in many cultural and educational groups within and outside the university, Robinson was a highly influential figure — particularly in his pioneering work in teaching, documenting and researching Australian literature, developing the Queensland school curriculum in English and championing the importance of Aboriginal anthropology. The article makes use of unpublished material in Robinson’s extensive papers in the Fryer Library, and suggests that a true estimation of Robinson’s achievements has been hindered by the fact that so much of his work remains unpublished.
References
David Malouf, ‘Speech at dinner for seventy-fifth anniversary of the University of Queensland Department of English, 1985’, Audio-recording, Fryer Library, University of Queensland.
F.W. Robinson collection, Box 8, 5/389, Fryer Library, University of Queensland.
F.W. Robinson, ‘Particulars of academic courses and teaching experience’, F.W. Robinson file, S135, University of Queensland Archives.
F.W. Robinson file, S135, University of Queensland Archives.
Leigh Dale, The enchantment of English (Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2012), p. 174.
T.G. Tucker to F.W. Robinson, 29 August 1923, F.W. Robinson collection, Box 16.
J.J. Stable, The University of Queensland 1910–1922 (Brisbane: Queensland Government Printer, 1923), pp. 28–29.
F.W. Robinson collection, Box 11.
Robinson applied unsuccessfully in October 1952 for the position of Professor of English Language and Literature made vacant following Stable’s retirement. His application is included in his Fryer Library papers: F.W. Robinson collection, Box 1, 5/1(k).
F.W. Robinson collection, Box 16, 5/3.
‘Shop talk: English the basis for education’, F.W. Robinson collection, Box 1, 5/436, p. 5.
Robinson was president of the QAAA from 1936 to 1942 (he was, in fact, succeeded as president by another University of Queensland English academic, A.K. Thomson) and president of the English Association of Queensland from 1948 to 1952.
‘Harmonising the city: Music, multiculturalism and the Muses’ Magazine in Brisbane’, Queensland Review, 18 (2011), pp. 26–29.
‘Professor J.J. Stable’, F.W. Robinson collection, Box 2, 5/152.
F.W. Robinson collection, Box 8, 5/392a.
F.W. Robinson collection, Box 8, 5/392a, p. 4.
F.W. Robinson collection, Box 8, 5/392a, p. 5.
F.W. Robinson collection, Box 8, 5/392a, p. 1.
F.W. Robinson collection, Box 8, 5/392a, p. 4.
F.W. Robinson collection, Box 8, 5/392a, p. 39
F.W. Robinson collection, Box 8, 5/392a, p. 19.
F.W. Robinson collection, Box 8, 5/392a, p. 35.
A 1929 letter on his personal university file shows Robinson notifying the Registrar of a trip to Sydney ‘to confer with, and possibly examine alongside of, the examiners in Elocution of the Australian Music Examinations Board’ (S135, University of Queensland Archives).
Memo of 20 February 1953, F.W. Robinson collection, Box 33.
F.W. Robinson collection, Box 8, 5/392a, p. 40.
‘Drama: 29 lectures delivered to English 1 class at Queensland University, 1947’, Lecture 1 (17 March 1947), F.W. Robinson collection, Box 10, 5/439.
Franklin E. Court, Institutionalizing English literature: The culture and politics of literary study, 1750–1900 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992), p. 78.
‘The historical survey of Australian literature: An urgent need and a program’, F.W. Robinson collection, Box 10, 5/424, p. 21.
‘The historical survey of Australian literature: An urgent need and a program’, F.W. Robinson collection, Box 10, 5/424, p. 10.
In a letter of 6 December 1946 to Joyce Eyre of the University of Tasmania, Robinson dated this introduction of Australian literary studies to his initial appointment: ‘We have no separate course in Australian Literature in this University, but Australian Literature has formed an integral part of English 1 since I came to the University in 1923’, F.W. Robinson collection, Box 2, 5/86.
‘What makes Australian literature “Australian”?’, F.W. Robinson collection, Box 11, 5/445.
‘The historical survey of Australian literature, F.W. Robinson collection, Box 10, 5/424, p. 17.
Letter of 10 May 1940, F.W. Robinson collection, Box 2, 5/61.
Lecture 1, ‘Australian poetry: Seven lectures to English 1 class of Queensland University, 1947’, F.W. Robinson collection, Box 10, 5/440. Brennan is also the only Australian poet mentioned by name in David Malouf’s anniversary speech, when he discusses the content of Robinson’s lectures.
F.W. Robinson collection, Box 10, 5/428, p. 1.
F.W. Robinson collection, Box 10, 5/424, p. 21.
Letter of 23 July 1929, F.W. Robinson file, S135, University of Queensland Archives.
Memo of 30 October 1947 to Registrar, F.W. Robinson collection, Box 2, 5/102.
F.W. Robinson collection, Box 12, 5/512, p. 2.
Tom Griffiths, Hunters and collectors: The antiquarian imagination in Australia (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 82.
F.W. Robinson collection, Box 11, 5/505, 5/506.
F.W. Robinson collection, Box 8, 5/401, p. 4.
F.W. Robinson collection, Box 8, 5/401, p. 4.
‘History of English literary criticism: 25 lectures delivered to English III class at Queensland University, 1949’, F.W. Robinson collection, Box 10, 5/441, p. 70.
David Malouf, ‘Speech’.
