Simply by Sailing in a New Direction
(Hardback)
Publishing Details
Simply by Sailing in a New Direction
By (Author) Sturm Terry
Auckland University Press
Auckland University Press
18th September 2017
New Zealand
Classifications
Professional and Scholarly
Non Fiction
Biography: writers
821.914
Physical Properties
Hardback
732
Width 170mm, Height 240mm
Description
Allen Curnow (19112001) is widely recognised as one of the most distinguished poets writing in English in the second half of the twentieth century. From Valley of Decision (1933) to The Bells of Saint Babels (2001) he defined and redefined how poetry might discover the possibilities of a world seen afresh. Through relationships with writers from Dylan Thomas to C. K. Stead he influenced the changing shape of modern poetry. And in criticism and anthologies like the Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse he helped identify the distinctive imaginative preoccupations that made New Zealands writing and culture different from elsewhere. By the time of his death at the age of ninety, he had completed a body of work unique in this country and increasingly recognised internationally. This major biography introduces readers to Allen Curnows life and work: from a childhood in a Christchurch vicarage, through theological training, journalism and university life, marriages and children, and on to an international career as a writer of poetry, plays, satire and criticism. The book lucidly identifies the shifting textures of Curnows writing and unravels the intersections between life and words. The result of over a decades research and writing, Simply by Sailing in a New Direction offers deep insight into the development of New Zealand literature and culture.
Author Bio
Terry Sturm (19412009) was editor of the Oxford History of New Zealand Literature (1991, 1998), professor of English at University of Auckland and an authority on New Zealand popular fiction. He was author of An Unsettled Spirit: The Life and Frontier Fiction of Edith Lyttleton (AUP, 2003) and editor of a selection of Curnows verse written under his pseudonym Whim Wham, Whim Whams New Zealand: The Best of Whim Wham 1937-1988 (Random House, 2005). Linda Cassells has a doctorate in Linguistics from the University of Bath and over 25 years experience in book publishing.
