30 Reasons to Love NZ Books and Writing 1 - 12
A selection of stories about the history of Kiwi writing, writers and
books – one for each day of NZ Book Month.
Ponga and Puhihuia
'Surely the best of all the Maori stories', is how Margaret Orbell, then
editor of the magazine Te Ao Hou, described the tale of the impetuous
17th-century lovers Ponga and Puhihuia. The story describes an illicit romance
taking place in a world of desperate canoe voyages, flamboyant dances, cunning
deception and hand-to-hand combat. More...
Buller's birds
Today many New Zealanders would undoubtedly find Sir Walter Buller's comment
that 'the flesh of the pukeko [is equal] to that of the best English game'
distasteful. But although he was a controversial figure, Buller's monumental History
of the birds of New Zealand
(1872-3) remains 'admired, coveted, and still consulted'. More...
The armed Chartist's book shop
Booklovers in colonial Wellington
made a beeline for the 'Old Identity Book Shop' on Molesworth Street, run by the eccentric
Robert Holt Carpenter. He claimed his shop was patronised by 'the cleverest men
and prettiest women in the Southern Hemisphere', including the Governor, judges
and 'all the leading statesmen'. More...
Julius Vogel looks into the future
In 1889 former Premier Julius Vogel wrote a futuristic novel entitled Anno
domini 2000; or, woman's destiny, in which women held the highest posts in
government and poverty had vanished. He also predicted that in all homes heavy
manual work would be replaced by 'remarkable contrivances for affording power
and saving labour.' More...
Edmonds
cookery book
The Edmonds cookery book has
sold over 3 million copies since it was first published in 1907, making it the
best-selling New Zealand
book by far. For several generations of Kiwis, the book with its distinctive
rising sun cover and 'Sure to rise' slogan was 'as much a part of New Zealand
kitchens as a stove and knife'. More...
The School Journal
In May 1907 New Zealand
schoolchildren were able to read a school book published in their own country
for the first time. Many of New
Zealand's foremost authors and illustrators,
from Alastair Campbell to E. Mervyn Taylor, have had their work published in
the School Journal over the past 100 years. More...
Reminiscences of a wanderer
R.C. Bruce spent many years in the 19th century sailing on British, colonial
and American merchant ships, interspersed with spells on the Otago and Queensland goldfields.
His 1914 memoir, Reminiscences of a wanderer (written under the name
'Able Seaman'), is a ripping yarn of a nomadic labouring life at sea and on
land. More...
Katherine Mansfield
This internationally acclaimed author revolutionised 20th century English
short-story writing. Her short stories broke new ground, abandoning the
traditional plot and allowing the reader to roam through a series of different
narratives, perspectives and tenses. Sadly, she died from tuberculosis in France at the
age of 34. More...
Tutira: story of a sheep station
An internationally acclaimed classic of ecological writing, William Herbert
Guthrie-Smith's Tutira: the story of a New
Zealand sheep station (1921) was New Zealand's
first major environmentalist publication. In it he describes what he saw as 'an
occult sympathy betwixt the elementals of the soil and those who touch its
surface with their feet'. More...
The Railways Magazine
The New Zealand Railways Magazine was published each month from May
1926 to June 1940. Historian James Cowan was the magazine’s most prolific
contributor, writing more than 120 articles. Robin Hyde produced a lively
travel series, while other contributors included Pat Lawlor, Alan Mulgan and
Denis Glover. More...
Robin Hyde
Robin Hyde (Iris Wilkinson) packed a lot in to her short and often tragic
life. Best known today for her novels Passport to hell, Nor the years
condemn and The godwits fly, she was also a fine poet and a
crusading journalist who wrote for newspapers and magazines ranging from NZ
Truth to the feminist Woman To-day. More...
John A. Lee
A charismatic ex-soldier, orator and propagandist, John A. Lee was a dynamic
figure in the Labour Party from the 1920s until 1940. But Lee had a parallel
career as a writer and later bookseller. His best-known novel, the largely
autobiographical Children of the poor (1934), was described as a
'sensational book on vice, poverty, misery'. More...
Source
New Zealand History Online - nzhistory.net.nz
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