Curnow, Allen Monro

Curnow, Allen Monro
▪ 2002

      New Zealand poet and writer (b. June 17, 1911, Timaru, N.Z.—d. Sept. 23, 2001, Auckland, N.Z.), gained an international reputation for his verse. He was also known as the editor of two anthologies of New Zealand poetry. Curnow's father was an Anglican clergyman and an amateur poet. Curnow also studied for the ministry from 1931 to 1933 but then turned to journalism, working for the Christchurch Press from 1935 to 1948. The first of 20 volumes of poems appeared in 1933, and in 1938 he received a B.A. degree from the University of Canterbury, Christchurch. In 1948 he worked as a journalist in London. In 1951 Curnow joined the faculty of the English department at the University of Auckland, where he remained until his retirement in 1976. Much of his early poetry consisted of social and political satire; this was followed by a period in which he focused on the history of New Zealand and on national identity. Later he wrote of the Auckland landscape as well as on universal and metaphysical themes. Among major collections were Trees, Effigies, Moving Objects: A Sequence of Poems (1972), You Will Know When You Get There: Poems 1979–81 (1982), and Early Days Yet: New and Collected Poems 1941–1997 (1997). He was the editor of A Book of New Zealand Verse 1923–45 (1945), considered to be the first serious study of poetry in New Zealand. He also edited The Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse (1960), an anthology that generated intense controversy, partly because of his selection of those to be included. Curnow received many honours, including six New Zealand Book Awards, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (1988), and the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry (1989). He was made a Companion of the Order of the British Empire (1986) and was a member of the Order of New Zealand (1990).

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • literature — /lit euhr euh cheuhr, choor , li treuh /, n. 1. writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays. 2.… …   Universalium

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