Writers' Walk, Dunedin, New Zealand

I've already made a post about the writers' plaques in Christchurch, but the 22 in Dunedin are much easier to locate because they're all together in the same area – in The Octagon in the heart of the city. I've arranged them in alphabetical order by surname:

'JAMES K. BAXTER

1926 – 1972

–––––––––––

King Robert, on your anvil stone

Above the lumbering Octagon,

to you I raise a brother's horn.

LETTER TO ROBERT BURNS (1967)

THE GIFTED, BAWDY & RELIGIOUS POET,

DUNEDIN-BORN JAMES K. BAXTER WAS

ROBERT BURNS FELLOW

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO IN 1967'.

'JOHN BARR

1809 – 1889

–––––––––––

Hurrah for Otago! We're now on our way,

Where there's plenty of work, and plenty to pay;

Hurrah for Otago! Our friends are before,

But the land of the heather we'll never see more.

"HURRAH FOR OTAGO" (1880)

DUNEDIN'S FIRST POET, JOHN BARR, LEFT SCOTLAND FOR

DUNEDIN IN 1852. HIS VERSE CELEBRATES THE FREEDOM

AND HARD WORK OF LIFE IN THE NEW COLONY.'

'THOMAS BRACKEN

1843 – 1898

–––––––––––

Behold the noble city towering high

Above the silver mirror framed in green!

JAMES MACANDREW (1890)

THOMAS BRACKEN, N.Z.'S MOST POPULAR 19TH CENTURY POET & AUTHOR OF "GOD DEFEND NEW ZEALAND",

PRAISED DUNEDIN EXTRAVANGANTLY IN HIS VERSE.'

CHARLES BRASCH

1909 – 1973

–––––––––––

"I grew to know most of the country about Dunedin,

all its variousness. It impressed itself on me so

strongly that it seemed to accompany me always,

becoming an interior landscape of my mind or

imagination, unchanging, archetypal..."

INDIRECTIONS (1980)

DUNEDIN-BORN POET, EDITOR AND PHILANTHROPIST

CHARLES BRASCH FOUNDED LANDFALL LITERARY

MAGAZINE IN THIS CITY IN 1947.'

'RUTH DALLAS

BORN 1919 [DIED 2008]

––––––––––––––––––––––

Some of them found time

To be photographed,

With bearded husband

And twelve or thirteen children

PIONEER WOMEN (1982)

INTERNATIONALLY PUBLISHED POET

AND CHILDREN'S AUTHOR

RUTH DALLAS WAS ROBERT BURNS FELLOW

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO IN 1968'

'LAURIS EDMOND

BORN 1924 [DIED 2000]

––––––––––––––––––––––

'we rather enjoyed the cold climate, our austere

circumstances, and that sense of living in a superior outpost

that Dunedin seemed to confer on its citizens.'

BONFIRES IN THE RAIN (1991)

POET LAURIS EDMOND SPENT 1946,

THE FIRST YEAR OF HER MARRIAGE,

IN DUNEDIN.'

'JANET FRAME

BORN 1924 [DIED 2004]

––––––––––––––––––––––

Having been to church the people are good, quiet,

with sober drops at the end of their cold, Dunedin noses

with polite old-fashioned sentences like Pass the Cruet,

and, later, attentive glorying in each other's roses.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON AT TWO O'CLOCK (1967)

IINTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED NOVELIST JANET FRAME

WROTE POETRY DURING HER TERM AS 1965

ROBERT BURNS FELLOW

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO.'

'A. P. GASKELL

1913 – 2006

–––––––––––

"The football match at Carisbrook was over ... inside

the dressing room there was a strong human smell of

sweaty togs, muddy boots and warm bodies as the

men came prancing back naked from the showers

and stood on the seats drying themselves."

"THE BIG GAME" AND OTHER STORIES )1947

ALEXANDER GASKELL PICKARD – WRITER, SPORTSMAN, TEACHER, WATERCOLOURIST – GRADUATED FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO AND ITS RUGBY TEAM IN 1936.'

'DENIS GLOVER

1912 – 1960

–––––––––––

Over the harbour waters

A slow-gonged clock

Floats the hours and the quarters

DUNEDIN REVISITED (1951)

IN THIS POEM DUNEDIN-BORN DENIS GLOVER – POET,

PRINTER & HUMOURIST – DESCRIBES THE CHIMES OF

DUNEDIN TOWN HALL CLOCK."

'JOAN DE HAMEL

BORN 1924 [DIED 2011]

–––––––––––

What more could anyone want

than their own land down on the shoreline

and the whole Pacific Ocean as a boundary fence.

HIDEAWAY (1992)

JOAN DE HAMEL'S FIRST BOOK, "X MARKS THE SPOT",

WAS A LANDMARK IN NEW ZEALAND CHILDREN'S LITERATURE. SHE CAME TO DUNEDIN IN 1963

AND HAS LIVED ON THE OTAGO PENINULA EVER SINCE."

'ROGER HALL

BORN 1939

–––––––––––

In Dunedin it rains in the summer only when a national sporting event

held in the city is being televised live.

A DUNEDIN VIEW (1989)

ROGER HALL, NEW ZEALAND'S MOST SUCCESSFUL PLAYWRIGHT, LIVED IN DUNEDIN FROM 1977 TO 1995. HE WAS A MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR TO THE CITY'S CULTURAL LIFE AND A LOYAL DEFENDER OF THE LOCAL WEATHER.'

'JOHN HAMILTON

1827 – 1893

–––––––––––

Poor Robbie Burns, we are all very much your debtor,

And while you lived we should have used you better;

For though you lived and died in poverty;

You left to us a priceless legacy

WRITTEN AND READ BY

THE BURNS CLUB FOUNDER JOHN HAMILTON AT THE

FIRST ANNIVERSARY MEETING 1892'

'ROBIN HYDE

1906 – 1939

–––––––––––

It was a Sunday afternoon, and there seemed little in Dunedin

but the echo of morning chimes, like lazy bees in a stone

foxglove, and little trams bouncing along to the suburbs.

NOR THE YEARS CONDEMN (1938)

THE JOURNALISM, POETRY & NOVELS OF ROBIN HYDE

WERE LARGELY FORGOTTEN UNTIL THE 1950s.

SHE IS NOW REGARDED AS A MAJOR N.Z. WRITER.'

'WITI IHIMAERA

BORN 1944

–––––––––––

We are in another country/Scotitanga/Where brass bands play,

people fling to Scottish music in Moray Place, ladies of the

Salvation Army palm ribboned tambourines, and spines shiver

and snap in the cold.

DEEP SOUTH/IMPRESSIONS OF ANOTHER COUNTRY (1975)

WITI IHIMAERA, THE FIRST MAORI NOVELIST

TO BE PUBLISHED, WAS 1975

ROBERT BURNS FELLOW

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO'

'CHRISTINE JOHNSTON

BORN 1950

–––––––––––

... a city built in stone on half a century of gold from the

hinterland, a wealthy little city where the rich inhabited the

hills and looked out to sea and the poor inhabited the flat

and looked at each other.

BLESSED ART THOU AMONG WOMEN (1991)

CHRISTINE JOHNSTON'S FIRST NOVEL

IS SET IN HER HOME TOWN, DUNEDIN.'

'JOHN A. LEE

1891 – 1982

–––––––––––

... although Dunedin was one of the most prosperous and God-

fearing cities in the new and rich country of New Zealand,

there was poverty in the land and ... we were poor even amid

poverty.

CHILDREN OF THE POOR (1934)

JOHN A. LEE'S HARSH CHILDHOOD IN DUNEDIN

INSPIRED HIS LATER CONTRIBUTIONS TO N.Z. LITERATURE,

POLITICS & SOCIAL REFORM.'

'CILLA MCQUEEN

BORN 1949

–––––––––––

"At this hour, Dunedin is asleep

The cat is asleep in the valley of bedclothes

The chrysalis on the kowai tree

is silvery with frost"

BERLIN DIARY (1990)

ENGLISH-BORN POET CILLA MCQUEEN SPENT HER

FORMATIVE YEARS IN DUNEDIN.

IMAGES OF THIS CITY – ITS LIFE & ITS LANDSCAPES –

ARE WOVEN THROUGH HER AWARD-WINNING WORK.'

'DENNIS MCELDOWNEY

BORN 1924 [DIED 2003]

––––––––––––––––––––––

Dunedin is a place where it is front page headline news if

someone has a fire in their wardrobe.

FULL OF THE WARM SOUTH (1983)

AUTHOR & EDITOR DENNIS MCELDOWNEY SPENT FOUR YEARS IN DUNEDIN DURING THE 1960s.'

'ALFRED HAMISH REED

1875 – 1975

–––––––––––

Otago was believed to be bleak and cold ... this amusing

mistaken notion is still held by people in the northern

sub-tropical parts of New Zealand.

THE STORY OF NEW ZEALAND (1945)

WRITER & BENEFACTOR SIR ALFRED REED AND HIS NEPHEW WYCLIF FOUNDED THE N.Z.–AUSTRALIAN PUBLISHING HOUSE OF A.H. & A.W. REED IN DUNEDIN.'

'FRANK SARGESON

1905 – 1982

–––––––––––

... they behaved in a manner similar to what I was shortly

afterwards to encounter in Dunedin – that is to say they had

the time, with as well plenty to spare without grudge or

impatience.

NEVER ENOUGH! (1977)

SHORT-STORY WRITER FRANK SARGESON,

PIONEER OF THE LITERARY USE OF COLLOQUIAL N.Z. SPEECH, VISITED DUNEDIN IN 1951.'

'HONE TUWHARE

BORN 1922 [DIED 2008]

––––––––––––––––––––––

"It didn't make a grand entrance and I nearly

missed it – tip-toeing up on me as it did

when I was half asleep and suddenly, they're there

before my eyes – white pointillist flakes

on a Hotere canvas – swirling about untethered."

SNOWFALL (1982)

NORTHLAND-BORN POET HONE TUWHARE CAME TO DUNEDIN IN 1969 TO TAKE UP THE ROBERT BURNS FELLOWSHIP, AND STAYED 23 YEARS.'

'BRIAN TURNER

BORN 1944

–––––––––––

"... and soon, across the bay, a white sail

leaned on the burnished sea

and the morning billowed

becoming bluer."

PORTOBELLO BAY (1992)

THE WORK OF POET BRIAN TURNER REFLECTS THE

LANDSCAPES AND MOODS OF HIS NATIVE OTAGO.'

ADDENDA:

'DAN DAVIN

1913 – 1990

–––––––––––

"...the blue of the hills and the Scotch mist were more

beautiful than I had remembered them. I shall regret

not having come here sooner and stayed longer."

PERSONAL DIARY ENTRY ON RETURN TO DUNEDIN (1948)

UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO RHODES SCHOLAR, NOVELIST, CRITIC AND

PUBLISHER AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS. REMEMBERED

FOR THE LEGENDARY HOSPITALITY TO VISITING NZ WRITERS.

WRITERS WALK CITY OF DUNEDIN'

Many thanks to Tony Eyre of Dunedin for providing the above image and who adds ‘the 23rd plaque was installed in 2015 as part of the Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival and not long after Dunedin was designated a UNESCO City of Literature.’

ROBERT LORD

1945 – 1992

––––––––––––

PLAYWRIGHT AND CO-FOUNDER OF PLAYMARKET

'The house is taking shape - have planted a kaka beak in the barrel ... also have a cabbage tree I might put there.'

FROM A LETTER TO BEBE LORD, ROBERT'S MOTHER,

WRITTEN IN HIS DUNEDIN COTTAGE ON 8 FEBRUARY 1991.

THE ROBERT LORD COTTAGE IS NOW A RESIDENCE FOR WRITERS TO COME TO DUNEDIN TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE CITY'S LITERARY LIFE.

Many thanks again to Tony Eyre for sending the above image, which he notes was 'recently installed during the 2017 Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival. Incidentally, the Dunedin Writers’ Walk was first launched 24 years ago in 1993 and the Robert Lord plaque happens to be the 24th to be installed.'

The links below may also be of interest:

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The Writers' Plaques, Christchurch, New Zealand

The Wellington Writers Walk, North Island, New Zealand

Janet Frame in Oamaru, New Zealand

A very relaxing drive of 244 kilometres, just three hours down State Highway 1 – the same road all the way – takes us to Oamaru (approximately pronounced 'OM-a-roo') , which was Janet Frame's home from 1931 to 1943. She was six years old when the family moved here from Wyndham, 285 kilometres south-west of Oamaru.

This post generally follows the route mapped out in the leaflet Janet Frame's Oamaru: The Early Life of Our Nobel Prize Nominated Writer.

 

Janet's father George was a railway worker who had been moved here, incidentally also the place where he was born. Their first home here was at 56 Eden Street. Obscured from view to our left of the gate is a placard with Frame's photo and a quotation from The Lagoon and Other Stories (1951), in which Frame writes with happiness of her humble home, her mother's good cooking, her father digging the garden at the weekend, animals, and visitors who sometimes swore.

 

We arrived here about twenty minutes before opening time, but within a few minutes the new and very helpful curator, Lynley Caldwell, arrived on a bicycle.

 

Visitors may take photos and wander through the house at will equipped with a few pages of notes which describe the house as not so much restored as, er, 're-framed'.

 

On entering, the room on the right, now used for writers' winter workshops, was Frame's parents' bedroom. There was a summer house outside close to the room, and children had to be quiet if her father was working nights.

 

Above is the bedroom on the left, which for several months was occupied by Janet's brother Geordie, until the death of the widowed grandfather Alexander Frame, who had the back room. Geordie then moved to the back and this room was used for guests.

 

The 'middle left bedroom' was for the four young girls: Myrtle, Janet, Isobel and June in order of birth. One memory Janet had of this room was reading Grimm's Fairy Tales to her younger sisters in bed.

 

An example of the Waitaki Girls' High School uniform dating from the time Janet attended. One of Janet's aunts made her gym frock, although Janet was embarrassed by the incorrect number of pleats.

 

The Gibson House girdle.

 

The bathroom and toilet.

 

The dining room, from which, the notes relate, Janet remembers her mother announcing events of importance – such as the 1931 Napier earthquake – in a tone filled with a sense of occasion.

 

The original lino came to light in the 're-framing' process.

 

The small kitchen, where reading and homework were done.

 

The scullery, rebuilt from Janet and June's memories.

 

The back room, with the desk given by Janet Frame.

 

Framed old wallpaper representing roses.

 

Of particular interest to me in this room is the dissertation by Kathy Young on the table on the left: 'Lottie Clarice Godfrey Frame 1892–1955: A Kitchen Table Poet', which was written in part for a postgraduate diploma for the Department of English, University of Otago in 2007. The subtitle sounds a little demeaning, and Lottie's poetry is not without naivety, but this is a side of Janet's mother that Michael Young makes very little of in his biography Wrestling with the Angel: A Life of Janet Frame (2000). Lottie published a number of poems in Wyndham Farmer: from the little I had chance to read of the dissertation, it appears that she was particularly influenced by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and John Greenleaf Whittier. I had hoped to find the dissertation online, but it doesn't seem to be there. Lottie obviously took her poetry seriously no matter what shortcomings it may have, and it seems logical to imagine that her enthusiasm for poetry translated itself into initial inspiration to Janet, who of course later rebelled against traditional poetic conventions in favour of a more experimental approach.

 

A very interesting visit, and maybe one day I shall get to read the dissertation. Meanwhile, we leave the house and follow the zigzag path up the hill behind.

 

Towards the top of the hill a wonderful panorama of Oamaru comes into view. This is one of the walks that Frame regularly made, and she called the view the 'kingdom by the sea'.

 

Frame went to Oamaru North primary school, although none of the original buildings remain. This is Waitaki Girls' High School, where she went from 1935 to 1942.

 

Films were shown at the Opera House theatre, and Frame tells of the great excitement in the town when an acting opportunity came when an Autralian company were holding auditions here.

 

Now North Otago Museum, the Athenaeum once housed the public library on the upper floor.  In 1934 Frame won the school dux medal and a year's subscription to the library.

 

The old town, which made Frame shiver 'with the sense of yesterdays'.

 

 

 

 

Her father being a railway worker, on at least one occasion Frame referred to herself and her siblings as 'railway children'.

 

Frame loved going to Oamaru public gardens, and in 1963 – returning to New Zealand famous – she was interviewed by a journalist from the Oamaru Times here.

 

Frame mentioned several features that she liked about the gardens, the Japanese red bridge being one of them. She also mentioned the Peter Pan statue, although I shall be looking into that in a little more detail in a later post because of its similarity to the one in Kensington Gardens.

 

Janet Frame died in 2004 and is buried in the local cemetery.

 

The plot also contains the graves of Janet's parents Lottie (née Godfrey) and George, and her two sisters Myrtle Joan and Isabel May, who both died of heart failure while swimming.

 

The memorial to June and Wilson Gordon, Janet's sister and brother-in-law. Their daughter Pamela Gordon is Janet Frame's literary executor, and runs the very informative An Angel @ My Blog.

 

On the first page of his biography, Michael King says that Janet Frame was named after an aunt who died whilst an infant. Janet Allan Frame's grave lies just a few metres from Janet's, although the details are weathering badly.

 

Below are related links to other blog posts of mine:

 

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Janet Frame: An Angel at My Table (1982–85)

Michael King: Wrestling with the Angel: A Life of Janet Frame (2000)