Mason: The Life of R.A.K.Mason
(Paperback)
Publishing Details
Mason: The Life of R.A.K.Mason
By (Author) Rachel Barrowman
Te Herenga Waka University Press
Victoria University Press
8th January 2003
New Zealand
Classifications
General
Non Fiction
Literary studies: poetry and poets
Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000
B
Winner of Montana New Zealand Book Awards: Biography Category 2004
Physical Properties
Paperback
455
Description
The full story of the gifted but troubled R. A. K. Mason is told for the first time in this accessible biography. The puzzling reasons after his extraordinary beginning that Mason almost completely stopped writing poetry are investigated. The legendary story of how Mason dumped 200 copies of his first book, The Beggar, into Auckland harbor in disappointment, disgust, or despair because no one would buy it is explored as a symbol of a timethe 1920s and 1930swhen a true, vital, native literature struggled to be written or heard in a provincial and puritanical country. Also explored are how Masons political beliefs prompted him to turn his creative energies to left-wing theater movements in the 1930s, the impact that family pressures had on his life, and his late-in-life diagnosis with manic depression.
Author Bio
Rachel Barrowman is the author of A Popular Vision: The Arts and the Left in New Zealand 19301950 and Victoria University of Wellington 18991999.
