Simply by Sailing in a New Direction

Sturm Terry

ISBN 10: 1869408527 / ISBN 13: 9781869408527

Published by Auckland University Press, NZ, 2017

About this Item

Simply by sailing in a new direction / You could enlarge the world. - 'Landfall in Unknown Seas' hang on to your hands anything can happen - 'Two Pedestrians with One Thought' Allen Curnow (1911-2001) is widely recognised as one of the most distinguished poets writing in English in the second half of the twentieth century. From Valley of Decision (1933) to The Bells of Saint Babel's (2001) he defined and redefined how poetry might discover the possibilities of a world seen afresh. Through relationships with writers from Dylan Thomas to C. K. Stead he influenced the changing shape of modern poetry. And in criticism and anthologies like the Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse he helped identify the distinctive imaginative preoccupations that made New Zealand's writing and culture different from elsewhere. By the time of his death at the age of ninety, he had completed a body of work unique in this country and increasingly recognised internationally. This major biography introduces readers to Allen Curnow's life and work: from a childhood in a Christchurch vicarage, through theological training, journalism and university life, marriages and children, and on to an international career as a writer of poetry, plays, satire and criticism. The book lucidly identifies the shifting textures of Curnow's writing and unravels the intersections between life and words. The result of over a decade's research and writing, Simply by Sailing in a New Direction offers deep insight into the development of New Zealand literature and culture.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781869408527

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Simply by Sailing in a New Direction
• Publisher: Auckland University Press, NZ
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1869408527
• ISBN 13: 9781869408527
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Allen Curnow (1911–2001) was at the time of his death regarded as one of the greatest of all poets writing in English. For seventy years, from Valley of Decision (1933) to The Bells of Saint Babel’s (2001), Curnow’s poetry was always on the move – from his early approaches to New Zealand identity and myth to later work concerned with the philosophical encounter between word and world. Curnow also played a major role in New Zealand life as editor, critic, commentator and anthologist, as well as a much-loved writer of light verse under the penname of Whim Wham. In his later years he acquired an impressive international reputation, winning the Commonwealth Prize for Poetry and the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. Throughout his lifetime, Allen Curnow revised, selected and collected his poetry in various ways. For the first time, this collection brings together all of the poems that Curnow collected in his lifetime grouped in their original volumes. The notes reproduce Curnow’s comments on individual poems and include relevant editorial guidance. This is the definitive collection of work by New Zealand’s most distinguished poet.

About the Author

Linda Cassells has a doctorate in Linguistics from the University of Bath and over 25 years’ experience in book publishing. Terry Sturm CBE was a professor of literature at the University of Auckland for many years, editor of The Oxford History of New Zealand Literature in English (1990, 1998), author of An Unsettled Spirit: The Life and Frontier Fiction of Edith Lyttleton (AUP, 2003), and editor of a selection of Curnow’s verse written under his pseudonym Whim Wham, Whim Wham's New Zealand: The Best of Whim Wham 1937-1988 (Random House, 2005).