The Thorn Birds Manuscript and Associated Material

The earliest known surviving manuscript for The Thorn birds, (published 1977) and associated material, comprising two maroon document boxes inscribed 'Colleen McCullough' in gold embossed lettering and a plain white document box, the first containing an incomplete manuscript including Chapters one to four - pages 1-155, (chapter 5 missing) - and Chapters six to Nineteen - pages 175-659, (page 479 missing) - with annotations throughout, in pencil, together with a typed note from Colleen McCullough's literary agent at the time, Frieda Fishbein, dated August 27, 1975, stating: 'Colleen appears to have made an error in numbering here. The manuscript moves from 659 to 661, with no page 660. The transition is right. There is no break in the narrative.', the second document box containing Chapters three, four, five, six, Seven/Eight, eight, nine, ten, eleven and twelve - pages 80-435), with various notations in pencil and pen, together with a letter from Robert D. Hale, at that time the president of the American Booksellers Association, to Mr Roger W. Straus III, of the publisher, Harper & row, New York city, and the third document box containing number and unnumbered pages, variously annotated in pencil and ink, including headings and pages from Chapters twenty, Twenty-three and Twenty-five, together with various numbered and unnumbered photocopied pages, all works copyright Estate of Colleen McCullough