Auckland University Press imprint: 301 books

Written by a former managing editor who is also a distinguished writer, this book charts the origins of the Auckland University Press up to its formal recognition in 1972. It provides a valuable document in the history of the book in New Zealand, an intriguing view of university politics and administration, and glimpses of New Zealand culture in the making.

From the earliest records of exploration and encounter to the globalized, multicultural present, this compilation features New Zealand's major writing, from Polynesian mythology to the Yates' Garden Guide, from Allen Curnow to Alice Tawhai, and from Wiremu Te Rangikaheke's letters to Katherine Mansfield's...

From the mid-19th-century rivalry between the New Zealander and the Southern Cross to the 20th-century dominance of the New Zealand Herald and the Auckland Star, the story of Auckland's newspapers is an engrossing battle of wits that reveals much about the history of the people and the press in New...

From the tale of One Tree Hill and a mysterious suicide to the wreck of the HMS Orpheus, the personalities, feuds, and dramas of 19th-century Auckland are brilliantly brought to life in this charming collection. Drawn from the author's encyclopedic knowledge of Auckland, each of the 15 tales illustrates...

Drawing on oral histories of the indigenous Maori peoples of the area, archaeological evidence, and early missionaries’ diaries and histories, this model of local history provides a comprehensive contextual history of the city of Auckland from first settlement of the area about 800 years ago up to 1840.

So many businesses rose and fell in nineteenth-century Auckland that the city was called a ‘graveyard of enterprise'. By far the most serious and general collapse came during the decade of depression and banking crises which overtook the whole colony after 1885. Auckland's commercial elite, which...

Sir John Logan Campbell is known as the Father of Auckland; he is synonymous with that city. As this first volume of his biography shows, however, he was not particularly enamoured of a pioneering life or of the settlement in which he led it. His purpose in coming to New Zealand and remaining here...

Few New Zealand biographies are so rich in social and personal detail. Written with the vivid touches of a novelist, The Father and his Gift completes the story of Sir John Logan Campbell, venerated in old age as the Father of Auckland, and presents a compelling portrait of Auckland. The final volume...

Over a quarter of a century, C. K. Stead has built up a widely accessible collection of reviews and critical essays on New Zealand literature. In the Glass Case covers a wide spectrum of New Zealand writers, who are examined from a remarkably consistent viewpoint. The title is symbolic: New Zealand...

This compilation of myths, legends, and oral histories from the far north of New Zealand is the story of the people who make up the tribes of Muriwhenua. The author provides whakapapa (genealogy and history) as well as a variety of lively and dramatic stories for each tribe. All have been discussed...

This volume examines the life and work of New Zealand author Maurice Duggan. His life was turbulent and difficult as he suffered from a "black Irish" personality, the lifelong trauma of an amputated leg, and battles with alcoholism, relationships and employment. This biography looks at the...

In this collection, Orr captures the essence of present-day Auckland and of his own rural Waikato childhood. His verse, containing a wide range of literary allusions, from Rimbaud to Pasternak to Neruda, locates the poet within a particular local and international context, and reflects such diverse settings as the Chilean coast, Waiheke Island, and Ponsonby.

"We are what we remember, the self is a trick of memory . . . history is the remembered tightrope that stretches across the abyss of all that we have forgotten" —Maualaivao Albert Wendt Built around the abyss, the tightrope, and the trick that we all have to perform to walk across it,...

From the “golden weather” of postwar economic growth, through the globalization, economic challenges, and protest of the 1960s and 1970s, to the free market revolution and new immigrants of the 1980s and 1990s and beyond, this account, the most complete and comprehensive history of New Zealand...