OBITUARY

Southland Times, Issue 24422, 30 April 1941, Page 6

OBITUARY

MR S. G. AUGUST

The death occurred yesterday of Mr Samuel Gottlieb August, of Invercai - gill, at the age of 60 years. He was born in Invercargill, and was a school teacher at New River Ferry and Hamilton Burn before entering the employment of Bray Brothers, with whom he remained’ for 20 years. About six years ago he opened the Georgian bookshop in Dee street. He is survived by his mother and sister. Mr August was practically the founder of the W.E.A. in Invercargill,, and as organizer and lecturer was actively engaged in adult education. His lectures made him widely known in Southland, especially among younger men who might otherwise have been deprived of cultural opportunities. But his interests were predominantly literary. He was, indeed, a bookman in the best meaning of the word. His reading was wide, especially in poetry, which he loved; and he was deeply and constantly interested in persons and events in the world of books. Every writer who came to Invercargill sooner or later found his way to the Georgian Bookshop, and many others throughout New Zealand knew him as a wise and friendly correspondent. In a little room at the back of the shop he would 'talk and listen, tirelessly exploring the classic fields of literature, exchanging opinions on the moderns, or indulging without the faintest hint of malice in the gossip of New Zealand letters. There was an unquenchable youthfulness in his enthusiasm for books. He lived among them with a sort of pilgrim fervour, yet with a discriminating sense of values that made him a fairminded critic.

Mr August was a writer as well as a reader. For 17 years, using “Southerner” as a pen-name, he contributed weekly verse to The Southland Times. Few poets can write a poem a week and maintain a uniform quality. Mr August was always ready to speak deprecatingly of his own work; he was the most modest of poets. And

it is true that he failed sometimes to detect the flaw in a stanza or the weakness of an idea. But many of his pieces contained surprising felicities of expression, and in some of his smaller poems he achieved the simplicity of good music. The best of his work has been collected and published in “Stewart Island Verses” (1923), and “The Song of the Children of Leda” (1935). He also wrote occasional literary articles for The Southland Times, and contributed to various periodicals in New Zealand and Australia.

But it is not for his published work that Mr August will be remembered longest. There are some men who, without producing any prose or verse of real importance, exercise a creative influence in literary circles. Mr August was one of these rare spirits. His kindly interest, his tolerance and understanding, his enthusiasm for truth and beauty in literature will not be forgotten by New Zealand writers of this generation.