AUTHORS' WEEK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22405, 29 April 1936, Page 16

AUTHORS' WEEK

DOMINION WRITERS INFLUENCE OF LITERATURE LECTURES AT ART GALLERY New Zealand Authors' Week was advanced a further stage yesterday when a series of lectures was delivered in the Art Gallery. ''Plant Literature in Now Zealand" was the subject of Mrs. F. Carr Rollett's lecture in the afternoon, the Rov. A. B. Chappell presiding over an appreciative audience. The variety and beauty of tho Dominion's flora could be expected to find expression through its writers, Mrs. Itollott said, and to a considerable extent it had done so, but "the real New Zealand" was more graphically pictured by them in earlier days than now. Young writers should become better acquainted with the sequestered, unspoiled places, where inspiration abounded. By apt quotation and recital of appropriate Maori legend this plea of tho lecturer was impressed. Next, turning to the history of New Zealand's plant literature, Mrs.- Rollett described its rise and progress, from tho time of Cook's first voyage to tho present day. Tho literature associated with all this ardent investigation had been, Mrs. Rollett showed, a vital contribution to the best thought and feeling of New Zealanders. At the evening session addresses were delivered by Mrs. Isabel M. Cluett and Miss Elsie K. Morton and a song recital of New Zealand itoms, arranged by Mr. John Tait, was presented. Mr. J. S. Stewart, chairman of the Library Committee of tho City Council, presided. Mrs. Cluett, who, as Isabel Maud Peacocko, is well known as the author of children's stories, spoke on "Children's Literature in New Zealand." She said that writing for juveniles was a most difficult matter. An author must look at life as a child would and yet never let a child reader think the writer was being condescending. Sir James Barrie and A. A. MilnQ have the gift of writing for children and at the same time casting a spell over adults as well. There was a satisfaction in writing a child's book as its life was longer than that of a novel for adults. Children's tastes in literature did not change much from ona generation to another. . . Miss Morton took for her subject "Scenery in New Zealand Literatuxe. She referred to the fact that many works of Jsew Zealand authors had rendered great service to tho Dominion in that they had brought the scenic wonders of the country to the notice of the world. The Dominion's scenery and climate, she said, had a decided influence on writers and provided a wide scope for their work, and it might be that this country would in the years to come produce poets who would become immortal. . Further lectures in connection with Authors' Week will be given to-day. At 3 p.m. Mr. D. W. Faigan will deliver an address on "The New Zealand Short Story" and at 3.30 Mr. J. W. Shaw will talk on "New Zealand Drama." In the evening Mr. A. It. D. Fairburn will speak on "New Zealand Poets" and Mr. R. A. Singer on "Auckland Authors." There' also will be a song recital arranged by Mr. Trevor Sparling. KATHERINE MANSFIELD APPRECIATION OF WORK " She has wrought a.new texture out of words —a mark of greatness in literature," said Professor W. A. Sewell in an address on Katherine Mansfield on Monday night, in connection with Authors' Week. The purity of Miss Mansfield's style, said the professor, had a quality which no other writer had hitherto achieved. It was not something which came to her easily; she worked hard for it. Ino freshness of her similes and her acute perception of detail were among the secrets of her art. The simplicity and insight which jvore Katherine Mansfield's enabled her to write of children in a way that won her instant popularity abroad. "Gosh! Those kids are real! " was perhaps the best comment ever made on her stories.