The Feilding Star Oroua and Kiwitea Counties’ Gazette MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1927 AUTHORS' WEEK.
To-dnv an event begins which is
unique in the literary history of
Now Zealand and Australia. At a
conference held some months ago
in, Melbourne under the auspices of
the associated booksellers of the Commonwealth and our Dominion it was decided to sol apart the week from September 12 to 1b to the featuring of books written by the authors of Ihe two countries. ..V most comprehensive propaganda pro-
gramme was arranged for and com
mil lees were set up in the six
States and New Zealand to carry on
the details as far as was possible
Of course, the newspapers wort 1 called upon to do their share in tin
good work, and that was mostly it the nature of publicity—so much ol
which is so readily done in reall.v
good causes. Our bookshops this woof
are expected to display prominently
all the hooks they have in stock by
New Zealand and Australian writers, fact, fiction, travel and verse. A
prophet sometimes has honour in hi
own country, bill our winters should 'lie honoured with purchases by tin 1 public all (he time. There are folks in Feilding who make a point of adding to their library all the books
written by New Zealanders and not
a few written by Australians. 'The trouble is that the man in the
street, who is a voracious devourer
of the' contents of the daily papers,
has very little knowledge of books that are written by men and women of the land ho lives in. When he chooses his lief inn. it is a novel bv
an English or an American writer. Ifc does no! give preference to a story by a New Zealander. ‘Who are they and when 1 can 1 .get them, he
well might retort. For while our hoys and, girls at school are asked to name the epochal years in the history of Britain, they are never ask-
ed to name the men and women of
New Zealand who have written aml published hooks. What modern bov
or girl—oven their parents— knows
that: Alfred Domett, one of New
Zealand's first statesmen and I’re
nners, is more famous as a poet than ■is a politician and was the friend of Alfred Tennyson? Sir Julius Vogel.
another of,our Premiers, afterwards
became a novelist : and his son
Harry, who still nourishes, has a fairly large output of novels. Vet another ex-l'remier, Sir Robert Stout.
has printed books, hut not fiction. One of the best novels of the .Maori wars, “Tho Web of the Spider.” was by a Christchurch clergyman's son
who afferwards became famous in London—ll. B. .Marriott Watson. B.
L. Far. jeon, referred to as the New Zealand Dickens, wrote several of
his novels while he worked as a
printer in Dunedin. His novels were so successful that, at the urge of Charles Dickens, lie removed to Lon
don, whore a son and a daughter are •e-day prominent as writers of suc-
cessful lid ion and more successful
dramas. Another of our statesmen
who migrated, the Hon, W. p,
Beeves, has won fame in London with his pen. devoting it to history
and poetry. Fergus Hume, a Dunedin native, who sprang into literary fame will) “The Mystery of a Hansom ('ah.” has published many Ihril-
lors. London having called him long ago. This. is merely a preliminary and off-hand list of names that occur a I the thought of an Authors' Week. There is much more to he said on the subject .and in another article the names will'he brought, up to dale.
Permanent link to this item
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Bibliographic details
Feilding Star, Volume 5, Issue 1202, 12 September 1927, Page 4
Word Count
606The Feilding Star Oroua and Kiwitea Counties’ Gazette MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1927 AUTHORS' WEEK. Feilding Star, Volume 5, Issue 1202, 12 September 1927, Page 4
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