Denis Glover was colourful poet

Press, 11 August 1980, Page 2

Denis Glover was colourful poet

Denis Glover, a .colourful' and widely respected New Zealand poet, died on Saturday. He was 68. Mr Glover was also well known as a typographer, and publisher and for his j war-time exploits.' His best known ■ volumes of poetry include “Arawatai Bill," “Sings Harry,” “Cold Tongue”, “The Wind and the Sand,” and “Wellington Harbour.” He was born m Dunedin and was educated at Auckland Grammar School and Christ’s College before entering Canterbury University College in 1932. • Mr Glover graduated bachelor of arts and later gained an honorary doctorate in literature from Victoria University, Wellington.. While at Canterbury University College he won a . New Zealand University blue in boxing and . published a controversial student newspaper, “Oriflamme.” In the early 1930 s he also worked as a reporter on “The Press.” In 1936. Mr Glover anc another Christchurch journalist, Mr John Drew

founded the Caxton Press, initially with printing equipment in a disused stable. At that time and until 1938, Mr Glover was a staff member in the English department at Canterbury University College. By the outbreak of World War II Mr Glover had pub-

lished two books of verse, “Cold Tongue,” and “The Wind and the Sand.” He enlisted as a seaman in the Navy. . . ' / He was commissioned and lent to the Royal Navy. Mr Glover sailed in many convoys across the Atlantic and in the Arctic to Murmansk, in Russia. He was i awarded the Medal of the I Soviet Union War Veterans. | Mr Glover’s war service, I also included commando operations and commanding a landing craft during the Normandy invasion of 1944, where he won the Distin'guished Service Cross. After the war, he returned to the Caxton Press and in 1953 joined the Pegasus Press as a typographical adviser. , Two years later, Mr Glover moved to Wellington and wrote many of his best known poems there, about the city, its weather, harbour, politicians, and public service. . Mr Glover was admitted •to hospital in Wellington last week after a fall. I He is survived by his wife - and by a son.