The University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Humanities
Research Center
Moraes, Dom, 1938-2004
Dom Moraes Collection
ca. 1956-1965
4 boxes, 1 galley folder (1.68 linear feet)
The Dom Moraes Collection contains
handwritten and typed drafts of poetry, journal articles, screenplays, translations,
and published and unpublished books. The materials are written in English and date
from circa 1956 to 1965. Some items are fragile or torn: care should be taken
when handling these papers.
English
Biographical Sketch
Dominic Francis Moraes was born July 19, 1938, in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, to
Frank Moraes, an attorney and journalist, and Beryl Moraes, a doctor. The family
moved often during Moraes’ childhood, and he traveled extensively with his father,
the editor of
The Times of India, especially to
Australia and Southeast Asia. Moraes began writing poetry at age twelve and attended
a Jesuit high school. At age eighteen he entered Oxford University where he met the
influential poets W. H. Auden and Stephen Spender, who encouraged his work. Moraes’
first published poem appeared in Spender’s literary magazine Encounter, and his first book of poetry, A
Beginning, was published in 1957. This book received the Hawthornden
Prize, making Moraes, at nineteen, the youngest and first non-English writer to win
the award.
Subsequent books of poetry included
Poems (1960),
John Nobody (1965), and Beldam Etcetera (1966). Moraes also worked in prose, writing two
autobiographies, Gone Away (1960), and My Son’s Father (1968). In the early 1960s, he turned to
journalism in order to make a living and wrote articles about London and British
culture for The Times of India and Illustrated Weekly of India. He also worked as a war
correspondent, covering conflicts in Algeria, Israel, and Vietnam. While in Israel,
he reported on the trial of Adolf Eichmann and translated work by the Hebrew poet T.
Carmi (pseudonym of Carmi Charny).
In addition to his journalism, Moraes worked as a scriptwriter for several television
programs and films and continued to publish non-fiction work, such as a biography of
Indira Gandhi,
Mrs. Gandhi (1980), and a third
autobiography, Never at Home (1992). In the late
1970s, he returned to live in India and began to focus again on poetry. In 1987, he
published a collection of poems written from 1957 to 1987, and in 2001 published
Cinnamon Shade: New and Selected Poems, which
earned the Sahitya Akedemi Award, India’s highest literary prize. During this period
he also collaborated with his companion, Sarayu Srivatsa, who considered Moraes her
mentor.
Moraes was diagnosed with cancer in the early 2000s but refused treatment. He died of
a heart attack on June 2, 2004.
Sources:
“Dom(inic F.) Moraes,”
Contemporary Authors Online,
http://galenet.galegroup.com (accessed 26 November 2007).
“Dominic Frank Moraes,”
Dictionary of Literary
Biography, http://galenet.galegroup.com (accessed 26 November 2007).
Hoskote, Ranjit.
The Stranger Who Found Belonging At
Last,
The Hindu Magazine 13 June 2004,
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2004/06/13/ (accessed 26 November 2007).
Obituary: Dom Moraes,
The Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/
(accessed 26 November 2007).
Index Terms
Subjects
India--Descriptions and travel.
Poetry--20th century.
Journalism--India--20th century.
Scope and Contents
The Dom Moraes Collection contains handwritten and typed drafts of poetry, journal
articles, screenplays, translations, and published and unpublished books. The
materials are written in English and date from circa 1956 to 1965.
The collection is arranged into two series: I. Works, and II. Correspondence. The
Works series comprises almost the entirety of the collection and documents Moraes’
early writing and career. Included are manuscripts for Moraes’ poetry books
A Beginning (1957) and John
Nobody (1965), and numerous articles written for Indian newspapers. Also
present are drafts of several unpublished works, translations, and television
scripts. Numerous notebooks contain handwritten poems, some dating before Moraes’
enrollment at Oxford. Materials are in alphabetical order either by published title
or under one of the following three headings: Articles, Poetry, or Screenplays.
Series II. Correspondence consists of six letters concerning travel arrangements in
1957. Additional letters relating specifically to his journalism are located in the
Articles folder in the Works series.
Acquisition:
Purchases, 1964 (R1985, R1986, R2081, R2093, R2145); 1966 (R2899)
Access:
Open for research. Some items are fragile or torn, and care should be taken when
handling these papers.
Processed by:
Nicole Davis, Jaime Pereira, Katherine Risseeuw, 2007
Several books received as part of the Moraes Collection were transferred to the
Ransom Center’s Book Collection, including
A
Beginning, a Swedish and a Norwegian translation of Gone Away, and books by Karl Shapiro and Gregory Corso inscribed to
Moraes.
Moraes materials are also located in the Center’s Vertical Files and in the following
Ransom Center collections: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; Terence Armstrong; Edmund Blunden;
Alec Craig; Thomas Cranfill; John Lehman;
Nimbus; and
Peter Owen.
Other Dom Moraes manuscript material is located in the Olin Library, Department of
Special Collections, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
Container List
Series I. Works, circa 1956-1965, undated
1.1-2
Articles, handwritten and typed drafts with correspondence, circa
1963-1964
1.3-4
A Beginning (1957)
1.3*
Handwritten notebooks, typed drafts, proofs and dust jacket
dummies, undated (*galley proofs removed to galley files)
1.4
Bound proofs and published editions with author’s marks,
circa 1957
1.5
Brass Serpent by T. Carmi (1964),
typed drafts and bound proof translation, 1964
1.6
Dusk of the Day by S. Y.
Agnon, typed draft translation, undated
1.7
Horsemen Fell (unpublished), typescript with corrections and
author’s note, circa 1963
1.8
Israel book (unpublished), typed draft fragments,
1961
John Nobody (1965)
2.1
Handwritten and typed drafts, circa 1961-1964
2.2
Bound proof, 1965
2.3-4
North Wind (unpublished), typescript draft, undated
*
Penguin Modern Poetry 2: Kingsley Amis,
Dom Moraes, Peter Porter (1962), galley proofs, circa 1962
(*removed to galley files)
Poetry
2.5
Handwritten and typed drafts and fragments,
undated
Notebooks
3.1
Circa 1956-1960
3.2
1960
3.3
1961-1962
3.4-5
1962
4.1
1962-1963
4.2-3
Undated
4.4
Screenplays, handwritten and typed outlines, notes, and draft
fragments, 1961-1962, undated
Series II. Correspondence, 1956-1957
4.5
Incoming and outgoing, 1956-1957