Mason: The Life of R. A. K. Mason

Author(s): Rachel Barrowman

New Zealand Literature | Literary biography

The full story of the gifted but troubled R A K Mason is told for the first time in this accessible biography. The puzzling reasons after his extraordinary beginning that Mason almost completely stopped writing poetry are investigated. The legendary story of how Mason dumped 200 copies of his first book, 'The Beggar', into Auckland harbor in disappointment, disgust, or despair because no one would buy it is explored as a symbol of a time (the 1920s and 1930s) when a true, vital, native literature struggled to be written or heard in a provincial and puritanical country. Also explored are how Mason's political beliefs prompted him to turn his creative energies to left-wing theater movements in the 1930s, the impact that family pressures had on his life, and his late-in-life diagnosis with manic depression.


Product Information

Winner of Montana New Zealand Book Awards: Biography Category 2004.

General Fields

  • : 9780864734631
  • : 82249
  • : Victoria University Press
  • : 0.848
  • : August 2003
  • : 230mm X 155mm
  • : New Zealand
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Rachel Barrowman
  • : paperback
  • : very good
  • : 455
  • : b/w photos