Denis Glover

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Denis James Matthews Glover DSC (born December 9, 1912 in Dunedin , Otago , South Island , New Zealand ; † August 9, 1980 in Breaker Bay , Wellington ) was a New Zealand poet , journalist and publisher , who is considered one of the most witty, versatile and influential personalities of New Zealand literature .

Life

Origin, school attendance and studies

Glover was the third of four children of from Ireland coming dentist Henry Lawrence Glover and his wife Lyla Jean Matthews and inherited from his Irish ancestors the joke, devil and frequent blood lust while to become a writer on the part of the mother's reading and the ambition inherited. In 1919 he began his school attendance at Arthur Street School in Dunedin before he and his mother moved to New Plymouth after their parents divorced in 1925 , where he first attended the Central School and then, from 1926, the Boys' High School . He then attended the Auckland Grammar School and, most recently, between 1929 and 1930, Christ's College in Christchurch .

In 1931 Glover began studying Greek , Latin , Philosophy and English at Canterbury University College . During his studies he was a versatile athlete such as captain of the boxing club that won a welterweight medal, player on the rugby team of the Old Collegians , sailor, mountaineer. Outside of his sporting activities, he was a member of the Christchurch Classical Association , founded the Caxton Club in 1932 , which was dedicated to the study of printing and typography, and published an issue of the student magazine Oriflamme in 1933 . However, the magazine was banned by the university administration after only one issue after an article advocating a trial marriage.

Marriage, Lecturer, and Founder of Caxton Press

On January 8, 1936, in Christchurch, Glover married Mary Granville, who was born in England and was the daughter of a retired Army officer. After completing his studies with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) and a Master of Arts (MA) he was an assistant lecturer for English at Canterbury University College and press reporter for university news between 1936 and 1938 . He also worked as an editor for a motorsport magazine and for Canterbury University College Review and Canta .

In 1937 he founded the printing company Caxton Press with John Drew . The acceptance of commercial print jobs enabled the young company to earn a decent income and Glover to implement his real interest, the work as a publisher. In 1937 the artist and typographer Leo Vernon Bensemann joined the company and with his help Glover printed and published the works of numerous writers who later made a name for themselves in New Zealand literature: Ursula Bethell , RAK Mason , Allen Curnow , Charles Brasch , Frank Sargeson and ARD Fairburn . In addition, his own poems such as "The Magpies", New Zealand's most frequently published poem in anthologies , also appeared. Caxton Press subsequently became the most important publisher for creative writing in New Zealand and its publications were characterized by Glover's high value for typography and printing.

World War II and post-war period

During the Second World War made Glover military service with the Royal Navy and took, among others, four suicide mission to Murmansk with Soviet part naval convoys. On D-Day , the Allied landing in Normandy on June 6, 1944, he commanded a landing craft for infantry soldiers as a lieutenant and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) for his services . During this time he had discussed the establishment of the literary magazine Landfall with Charles Brasch and through the respected managing director of the publishing house Hogarth Press , John Lehmann , he also got to know authors such as Cecil Day Lewis , Stephen Spender and other writers.

In 1944 Glover reluctantly returned to New Zealand, where he found it difficult to resume conjugal life and work as a publisher, so he began to drink heavily. He became Lieutenant Commander of the Royal New Zealand Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNZN) and served on the Board of Directors of Canterbury University College from 1945 to 1948. At Caxton Press he published the new works of young authors such as Basil Dowling , James K. Baxter , Janet Frame , Ngaio Marsh and others, as well as his own poems such as the two outstanding volumes of poetry Sings Harry (1951) and Arawata Bill (1953).

Professional and personal problems in the 1950s and 1960s

Glover's drunkenness, financial mismanagement and his irregular attendance created serious problems at Caxton Press, so that Dennis Donovan, the majority shareholder, fired him in 1951. He then found work with his friend Albion Wright at Pegasus Press , but was soon laid off there too. In addition to professional problems, there were also private problems: Despite the birth of their son Rupert Glover in 1950, he and Mary Glover separated and from 1950 he lived with Khura Skelton, with whom he moved to Wellington in 1954 . Most of them lived unmarried in Paekakariki , where their hospitality with drinking parties and loud arguments became legendary.

In 1954 he began working as a copywriter for the advertising agency Carlton-Carruthers du Chateau and King , but shortly afterwards he worked as a production manager and typographer for Wingfield Press from 1954 to 1962 and also helped develop the Mermaid Press in the late 1950s . He was also a member of the Advisory Board of the New Zealand Literature Foundation between 1955 and 1958 and President of the Friends of the Turnbull Library from 1963 to 1965 .

1959 appeared in the weekly New Zealand Listener for the first time his lively autobiographical text Hot water sailor , which was published in 1962 as a complete text. In 1964 he became a tutor for typography at the Institute for Technical Correspondence and taught there until 1973. In the following years he published poetry collections such as Enter without knocking (1964) and Sharp edge up (1968).

Return to success in the 1970s and death in 1980

After Khura Skelton's death in 1969 and his divorce from Mary Glover in 1970, he had some relationships with other women before he met the voice and drama teacher Evelyn Cameron in 1971, whom he married on September 21, 1971 after an engagement of only six weeks in Wellington. Shortly afterwards he founded the publishing house Cats-paw Press in 1971 . She tried to dissuade him from his alcohol addiction and she accompanied him on a trip to the Soviet Union in 1975 , where he was awarded a medal for war veterans. Also in 1975 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in literature from Victoria University of Wellington and he was elected Honorary President of the New Zealand PEN Center .

Despite his continued alcohol problems, Glover published fourteen books in the last decade of his life, including the poetry collections Come high water (1977), Or hawk or basilisk (1978) and For whom the cock crows (1978), but also poems about the port of Wellington , the three-poem sequence Towards Banks Peninsula (1979) and the 1981 posthumous Landlubber ho! , a sequel to Hot water sailor . He was also the editor of the collected poems of his close friend ARD Fairburn , who died in 1957, and also helped with the publications of his correspondence. Most recently, he began collecting poems for Denis Glover: selected poems , an anthology that was also published posthumously in 1981.

On August 9, 1980, Glover died of complications from pneumonia after falling down a staircase two days earlier in his new home in Breaker Bay, a suburb of Wellington. In his honor, the Glover Hills , a group of hills in Antarctica, bear his name.

Literary influence

Excerpt from Glover's poem Wellington Harbor is a Laundry on a concrete block in Wellington Harbor

Denis Glover is arguably the most quoted poet in New Zealand. His best poems show a timeless simplicity and directness to endure, though Glover claims the opposite: “Verse, verse, what are they anyway? / The wind will blow them all away ”('Verses, verses, what are they? / The wind will blow them all away').

He himself constantly devalued his own poetry, so that some lighter and more humorous poems can certainly be found in his works. Nonetheless, he is considered the best New Zealand poet of the mountains and the sea, the author of some strikingly original love poems, an excellent poet and satirist. His literary style is completely individual: idiomatic, tenacious, sardonic, flexible and renouncing, characterized by glittering imagery and a skilful use of assonance and rhyme.

His works were characterized by closeness to the people and the lyrical, restless souls 'Harry', 'Arawata Bill' and 'Mick Stimpson' with their brooding and harsh independence became key figures in New Zealand literature and were ultimately versions of Glover himself.

Publications

  • Sharp edge up , 1968
  • Myself when young , 1970
  • Enter without knocking , 1971
  • Diary to a woman , 1971
  • Dancing to my tune , 1974
  • Come high water , 1977
  • For whom the cock crows , 1978
  • Or hawk or basilisk Or hawk or basilisk , 1978
  • Men of God , 1978
  • To friends in Russia , 1979
  • Towards Banks Peninsula , 1979
  • Denis Glover, selected poems , B. Manhire editor, 1995

Background literature

  • JEP Thomson: Denis Glover Wellington, 1977
  • G. Ogilvie: Denis Glover: his life , Auckland, 1999

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Glover, Denis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Glover, Denis James Matthews (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION New Zealand poet
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Dunedin , Otago , South Island , New Zealand
DATE OF DEATH August 9, 1980
Place of death Breaker Bay , Wellington