Clem Christesen (1911–2003) was born in Townsville, Queensland. A poet, writer and editor, he founded Meanjin in 1940, and moved to Melbourne as editor at the invitation of the University of Melbourne in 1945. His publications included The Hand of Memory: Selected Stories and Verse (1970), The Troubled Eyes of Women (stories, 1990) and the poetry collection Ebb-tide (1997).
Archives and Special Collections hold an array of material relating to Meanjin, including the original archive from Christesen’s thirty-four year editorship. This includes a wealth of correspondence with national and international authors, poets, essayists, critics and cultural figures, which provides insight into both Meanjin and Christesen’s underlying philosophies, ambitions, biases and principles. Doctoral candidate Brendan Casey (English and Theatre Studies, University of Melbourne) has delved into the archive, and discovered the following notable examples.