The Penguin Book of New Zealand Letters


Book Description

"The first historical anthology of New Zealand letters is made up of more than 150 letters that span three centuries. The voices of both famous and ordinary New Zealanders as well as famous visitors capture the richness of human life, both mundane and noteworthy. Chronologically selected from Cook's voyages to the present day, this book contains much previously unpublished material. Each letter is preceded by a short explanatory piece from the editor"--Publisher's description.




Penguin Book of New Zealanders at War


Book Description

The New Zealand Wars of the 1840s and 1860s, other nineteenth-century military encounters, the South African War, the First and Second World Wars, Korea, Malaya, Vietnam, the Gulf War, modern-day peacekeeping . . . The Penguin Book of New Zealanders at War contains the best, widest range of published and non-published written material on our people in warfare. This is a soldier's book - thus letters, diaries, journalists' reports, memoirs. The focus is on actual experience and on human responses to war. A vast array of personal experiences is covered, including POWs, the home front, medical/nursing efforts, as well as coverage of conscientious objectors.




Kerouac: Selected Letters


Book Description

It was in his letters that Jack Kerouac set down the raw material that he transmuted into his novels, exploring and refining the spontaneous prose style that became his trademark. The letters in this volume, written between 1940, when Kerouac was a freshman at college, and 1956, immediately before his breathless leap into celebrity with the publication of On the Road, offer invaluable insights into Kerouac's family life, his friendships with Neal and Carolyn Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and William S. Burroughs, his travels, love affairs, and literary apprenticeship. At once fascinating reading and a major addition to Kerouac scholarship, here is a rare portrait of the writer as a young adventurer of immense talent, energy, and ambition in the midst of writing and living an American legend.




The Penguin History of New Zealand


Book Description

New Zealand was the last country in the world to be discovered and settled by humankind. It was also the first to introduce full democracy. Between those events, and in the century that followed the franchise, the movements and the conflicts of human history have been played out more intensively and more rapidly in New Zealand than anywhere else on Earth. The Penguin History of New Zealand, a new book for a new century, tells that story in all its colour and drama. The narrative that emerges in an inclusive one about men and women, Maori and Pakeha. It shows that British motives in colonising New Zealand were essentially humane; and that Maori, far from being passive victims of a 'fatal impact', coped heroically with colonisation and survived by selectively accepting and adapting what Western technology and culture had to offer. This book, a triumphant fruit of careful research, wide reading and judicious assessment, was an unprecedented best-seller from the time of its first publication in 2003.




Spike Milligan: Man of Letters


Book Description

Spike Milligan's letters contain some of the best material he ever wrote . . . Collected here for the first time are the funniest, rudest and most revealing of them - most of which have never been seen before - from one of the greatest comics of the twentieth century to some of its most famous politicians, actors, celebrities and rock stars (as well as a host of unlikely individuals on some surprising subjects): - rounded teabags ('what did you do with the corners?') - backless hospital gowns ('beyond my comprehension') - heartfelt apologies ('pardon me for being alive') and the imbalance of male and female ducks in London's parks. Here, then, is the real Spike Miligan: obsessive, rude, generous and relentlessly witty. 'Milligan's zaniness shines through' Telegraph 'The godfather of alternative comedy' Eddie Izzard Spike Milligan was one of the greatest and most influential comedians of the twentieth century. Born in India in 1918, he served in the Royal Artillery during WWII in North Africa and Italy. At the end of the war, he forged a career as a jazz musician, sketch-show writer and performer, before joining forces with Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe to form the legendary Goon Show. Until his death in 2002, he had success as on stage and screen and as the author of over eighty books of fiction, memoir, poetry, plays, cartoons and children's stories.




Letters of Frank Sargeson


Book Description

A rich and riveting record of both literary and social value. Frank Sargeson is one of New Zealand's best-loved and most important writers. Besides the ground-breaking short stories, he wrote memoirs, novels, and plays. He encouraged at least three generations of younger writers and, for most of his adult life, the famous bach behind the hedge at 14 Esmonde Road was at the heart of New Zealand's artistic and literary world. Sargeson was also a prolific letter writer, and this selection of 500 of the most fascinating ranges over half a century, from 1927 to 1981. The letters are immensely readable, vividly capturing his life and times, his milieu and his personality. Frank loved gossip, could be bitchy and peevish, but also kind, affectionate, funny, ribald, astute. This collection, selected, edited and annotated by Sarah Shieff, is a document of extraordinary significance for all those interested in New Zealand's literary and social history.




Love Is a Four-Letter Word


Book Description

From Junot Díaz, Lynda Barry, Gary Shteyngart, and Kate Christensen to popular up-and-comers like Dan Kennedy, Wendy McClure, and Brock Clarke, Love Is a Four-Letter Word is a dead-on contemporary collection of true stories of seduction, heartbreak, and regret. Fearlessly revealing their shattered hearts and crushed egos; their indiscretions and indignities; their delusions, desperation, and disappointments, these talented writers capture the dark side of love in prose ranging from comic to poetic, poignant to cringe-inducing. Also featuring three cartoon/ graphic essays as a sixteen-page color insert, this anthology is perfect for anyone who’s ever loved and lost.




A Book in the Hand


Book Description

As we find ourselves in a technological revolution and the computer screen takes over the printed page, the history of the book has become a subject of study throughout the world. This collection of 15 essays looks at at a wide variety of topics from the history of the printed word in New Zealand.




Picking Up the Traces


Book Description

The story of the generation of New Zealand writers who came of age in the 1930s and who deliberately and decisively changed the course of literature is told in this book, shedding important new light on the key participants, including Allen Curnow, Denis Glover, and Robin Hyde. The movement is traced through small circulation magazines and small press publications from 1932 to 1941. The repudiations and loyalties by which the movement defined itself are explored, including its opposition to the literary establishment and to late Georgian verse, its naming of its precursors and allies from the 1920s, and its choice of overseas models such as the British Moderns and the new American short-story writers for the creation of a new literature. oppose the cultural myths supported by the literary establishment and the writers' responses to the world-wide social upheavals of the period -- the Depression, the international crises of 1935 to 1939, and World War II.




Selected Letters, 1957-1969


Book Description

The life of an American original in his own words, offering unparalleled insights into the mind and life of a giant of the American literary landscape.