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Ernest Briggs Papers

An inventory of his papers at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: MRC
Date: 9 Apr 2010

Biographical History

Ernest Briggs (1905-1967) was a poet, radio broadcaster and music critic from Sydney, Australia.

Born in Sydney, Briggs was a fifth-generation Australian. His mother died in 1908 and Briggs was raised by his father, who passed on a love of music and history, and spent a good deal of time roaming the Australian countryside. After leaving Kogarah Public School he got into radio, and in 1931 he moved to Queensland to join station 4BK-Brisbane, where he served as general announcer, continuity manager, program director, feature writer and publicity officer. He also served as a lay Methodist minister for many years.

During the 1940s and 1950s, Briggs published multiple volumes of poetry inspired by W.B. Yeats and the "Celtic Twilight" movement. His first volume of poetry, The Merciless Beauty,was published in 1943. Stationed as a clerk in New Guinea Force headquarters during 1942, Briggs drew upon his experiences there to craft a second work of powerful emotionalism, The Death of the Hare (1949). This was followed by The Secret Listener (1949) and The Timeless Flowers (1952). Briggs' sequences on Yeats in The High Ascent and Other Poems (1953) earned him admittance to the Poetry Society of America, and his contributions to international culture and understanding won him the Literature Diploma of the Leonardo da Vinci Academy, Rome, in 1961 and 1962. Others of his works were inspired by Australia's history and natural environment.

In addition to his poetry and radio work, Briggs wrote art and music reviews for the Brisbane Courier-Mail and Sunday Mail, and the music journal Canon. Some of Briggs' poems were set as choral arrangements. Briggs' corpus extends to over forty works in manuscript or limited private editions.

Briggs corresponded with a number of singers and musicians during his life, and had a long-standing friendship with Elizabeth Hazelton Haight, a professor of Classics at Vassar and the second female president of the American Philological Association.

[Adapted in part from "Briggs, Ernest", Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University]

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Ernest Briggs Papers consists of biographical material, correspondence, memorabilia, printed materials, recordings, and writings.

Biographical material contains Briggs' notes on his career and publications, and letters of reference from radiot station 4BK in Brisbane.

Correspondence is a mix of incoming and outgoing, most of which relates to Briggs' poetry and music criticism for the Courier-Mail. Correspondents include singers, poets, scholars, colleagues, and friends. A significant portion of the letters are from Briggs to Elizabeth Hazelton Haight, a scholar and author who taught in the Classics Department at Vassar College, and with whom Briggs evidently had a long, close friendship. Almost all the letters are annotated by Briggs as to sender, context, topic, and/or importance.

Memorabilia contains photographs, mostly of Briggs; a few items relating to the Poetry Society of America; programs and greeting cards; several handmade scrapbooks; a small folder made by Briggs at age 5; and a few miscellaneous items. The scrapbooks contain a mix of clippings, correspondence, photographs and art by Briggs, and so on. Most are hand-bound by Briggs with original cover art and decorations.

Printed material, from the 1930s through 1960s, include clippings by and about Briggs; poetry journals and periodicals containing pieces by him; a few of his poems set to music; and two small poetry collections by him.

Recordings contains phonodiscs with recordings of Briggs' poems read by himself or others, as well as an early commercial wildlife recording (bird songs).

Writings comprises the largest part of the collection, and is subdivided into lyrics, poetry, prose, and translations. Poetry includes "work sheets," handwritten drafts and notes, typed pages, and a few hand-bound typescripts of longer poems or poetry collections. Prose includes a speech to the Folklore Society, articles on Verdi and Francesco Castellano, and a children's radio program "Sammy the sparrow," among other items. A small amount of writings by others is filed at the end of the series, including the handbound typescript of a collection by Elizabeth Hazelton Haight entitled "The quiet heart."

Arrangement of the Collection

Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by correspondent. Memorabilia is arranged alphabetically by type of material. Printed material is subdivided by type and arranged alphabetically. Writings are subdivided by form and arranged alphabetically.

Many of the items bear numbers in red colored pencil in the top right corner; these were consecutively assigned by Briggs as he donated them and have no organizational significance, thematically or contextually.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Access to audiovisual material requires advance notice to produce a use copy.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Related Material

Additional Briggs material is held by The University of Queensland.

Subject Headings

Persons

Briggs, Ernest, 1905-1967 -- The death of the hare.
Briggs, Ernest, 1905-1967 -- The secret listener.
Briggs, Ernest, 1905-1967.
Haight, Elizabeth Hazelton, 1872-1964.
Heinze, Bernard, Sir, 1894-1982.
MacEwan, Sydney, 1908-1991.
O’Duffy, Michael.
West, Mae.

Corporate Bodies

Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Australia)
Prabuddha Bhārata (Bombay, India)

Subjects

Lay ministry -- Methodist Church.
Music -- History and criticism.
Poets, Australian.
Radio broadcasters.
Radio stations -- Australia.
Singers.

Places

Australia -- Poetry.
Brisbane, Australia.
Queensland, Australia.

Genres and Forms

Clippings (information artifacts)
Correspondence.
Drafts (documents)
Manuscripts for publication.
Oral interpretation of poetry.
Periodicals.
Phonograph records.
Photographs.
Programs (documents)
Radio scripts.
Scrapbooks.
Sheet music.
Sound recordings.

Occupations

Music critics.
Poets.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Ernest Briggs Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of Ernest Briggs, 1964-1967

Table of Contents

Biographical material

Correspondence

Memorabilia

Printed material

Recordings

Writings

Inventory