Johannes Carl Andersen

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Johannes Carl Andersen
(September 1928)

Johannes Carl Andersen (born March 14, 1873 in Klakring , Jutland , Denmark ; † June 19, 1962 Mount Albert , Auckland , New Zealand ) was a New Zealand civil servant, poet , ethnologist , librarian , editor and historian .

Life

Johannes Carl Andersen was born on March 14, 1873 in Klakring in the province of Jutland as the second child of the married couple Jørgen Andersen , who were a professional watchmaker, and his wife Johanne Marie Hansen . In 1874 the family emigrated to New Zealand and reached the port of Lyttelton on the Gutenberg in October . After an attempt to settle down in the Oxford District in North Canterbury , the family finally settled in Christchurch , where Andersen attended the Papanui School , was one of the best students and then got a temporary job in the then Department of Lands and Survey in March 1887 . He was to work there for over 28 years, beginning as a draftsman and later as an employee.

On May 9, 1990, in Christchurch , he married the teacher Catherine Ann McHaffie , whom he had met while dancing.

Activity as a poet

Anderson was active alongside his work as a poet and his verses were published regularly in New Zealand newspapers and the Sydney Bulletin in the late 1890s and early 1900s . In 1903 he published his works in a book entitled Songs unsunged . Anderson preferred artificial forms of verse, for example in the form of villanelles or rondelles . In 1928 he published his work The laws of verse on Cambridge University Press , in which he dealt scientifically with poetry. He also tried his hand at translating by translating the Danish epic Hrólfs saga kraka by the Danish poet Adam Oehlenschläger into English .

For the creation of his own epic, Anderson found what he was looking for in the Māori mythology . In 1907 he published his work Maori life in Ao-tea . In lectures and publications he advised artists and poets to abandon the inspiration of Greek culture and to turn to the culture of the Māori and to seek their own New Zealand identity.

Activity as an ethnologist

Andersen also began to study the flora and fauna of New Zealand and published his work Bird-song and New Zealand song birds in 1926 , in which he a. a. the song of the birds in musical notation. He used his knowledge from his work at the Department of Lands and Survey to collect place names given by the Māori and European immigrants and to research the historical background. Place names of Banks Peninsula (1927) was one of his works on this.

In 1915, Anderson and his family moved to Wellington when he was appointed assistant to the General Assembly Library . In Wellington he came into contact with the Wellington Philosophical Society , through which he was able to generate further contacts with scientists. One of the results of his good relationships was a. taking over the editorial duties of the New Zealand Institute's Transactions from 1920 to 1929, New Zealand's premier scientific journal. Furthermore, Anderson was involved in four ethnological expeditions from 1919 to 1923, which led him to the regions of Gisborne and Rotorua , upstream of the Whanganui River and into the district of the East Cape . Accompanied by Elsdon Best , James McDonald and on the last two trips with Te Rangi Hīroa (Peter Buck), he explored the traditional music of the Māori .

In 1925 Elsdon Best Anderson offered the co-editor of the Journal of the Polynesian Society , which Anderson continued after Elsdon Best's death in 1931 and successfully defended against changes in the direction of the journal and against financial difficulties in the late 1930s.

librarian

New Zealand Teachers' Summer School, New Plymouth , 1930 (Anderson at left)

The New Zealand public knew Andersen less through his work as a poet and ethnologist, but rather through his work as a librarian at the renowned Alexander Turnbull Library , whose office he took up in 1919 and held for 18 years. It was his merit there to convert the former collection of a private library of the Wellington merchant Alexander Horsburgh Turnbull into a research facility. Andersen made the library known through his publications and was able to expand and further expand the library's holdings through donations and inheritance in times when the government was thrifty.

retirement

When Andersen left the Alexander Turnbull Library as a retiree in 1937 , he did not retire but continued to write articles and books, give lectures and participate in radio broadcasts. In 1946 he moved to Auckland with his wife and settled in the Mount Albert district. Associated with this, he also gave up the editing of the Journal of the Polynesian Society .

Awards

death

Anderson died on June 19, 1962 at the age of 89 in Mount Albert , a suburb of Auckland .

plant

Andersen wrote almost 30 books and so-called booklets during his life, left behind numerous unpublished writings and became

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Gibbons : Andersen, Johannes Carl . In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . 1996.
personal data
SURNAME Andersen, Johannes Carl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION New Zealand civil servant, poet , ethnologist , librarian , editor and historian
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Klakring , Jutland , Denmark
DATE OF DEATH June 19, 1962
Place of death Mount Albert , Auckland , New Zealand