The big literary news of the day is the discovery of a "treasure trove" of written material left behind by Patrick White after his death. In "The Sydney Morning Herald", David Marr (who wrote the definitive biography of the writer) reports that the find includes "photographs of the young swell at Cambridge in the 1930s; precious letters saved from the thousands he'd received in a long lifetime; the old man's beret and beanie; theatre programs from four continents; a pile of recipes in his own hand; and the carbons of half a dozen brutal letters of dismissal of old friends, old agents and politicians he'd once supported."
Apparently the material was found stuffed into drawers and cupboards around his house on the edge of Centennial Park in Sydney after his death in 1990. Contrary to the wishes expressed in White's will, his literary executor, Barbara Mobbs, did not destroy the material but kept it and has since offered it to the National Library of Australia. Workers at the library have been cataloguing it since mid-August.
