C. Hartley Grattan Remembered

Abstract

C. Hartley Grattan and his Australia and Southwest Pacific Collection arrived at the University of Texas in Austin in 1964. I arrived there at the same time from Leeds to do a PhD in American literature, but aware of the impressive library in Commonwealth literary materials built up at Texas by Joseph Jones over the previous ten years. Joe Jones introduced me to Grattan in 1965. I knew nothing about the circumstances that had brought him to Texas, although it was impossible not to sense his isolation. He didn't fit into any of the academic slots that universities, like beehives, place so much importance in. It wasn't difficult to see that his Collection was an extension of his personality that he wore around him like a second skin.