Dr. Brian Opie and Jim Traue, former Chief Librarian of the Alexander Turnbull Library at the 28 June 2018 Friends of the Turnbull Library Founder Lecture given by Dr. Lydia Wevers.
(Photo by Mark Beatty. From https://natlib.govt.nz/blog/posts/dr-lydia-wevers-books-and-their-readers)

I am sad to report that Dr. Brian Opie of VUW passed away this week.  Brian was a pioneer in pushing for the study of NZ print culture, coordinating the first Marsden grant to support the field back in the late 1990s.  Brian’s own major contribution to the field focused on William Golder (1810–1876), who published The New Zealand Minstrelsy by subscription in 1852.  That volume was the first book of poetry printed and published in New Zealand.  Brian also served for many years as editor of the Turnbull Library Record and was very active in the leadership of the Friends of the Turnbull Library.

In 2005 he established Te Whãinga Aronui The Council for the Humanities to advocate for better government support for humanities research.  In the end, the Royal Society of NZ extended its membership to humanities scholars, though the fit has not necessarily been ideal, as Brian explained in a 2019 interview that appeared in Educational Philosophy and Theory, 51:13, 1283–92:

[I]t was readily agreed between HUMANZ and those managing RSNZ that there needed to be two organisations because the knowledge systems they represented were complementary, not simply elidable. However, once the elision was undertaken, it was not long before the glaring anomaly, the separate humanities panel [for research assessment], was dissolved in favour of a panel combining social sciences and humanities.  Getting the ‘creative’ into that structure has been problematic for a long time, and it’s been accomplished in part by the way the sciences have laid claim to the term themselves, consistent with the reigning value of innovation…. The day when poetry and novels can be advanced as evidence in an evidence-based policy discussion (now a vacated nineteenth-century conception) will be the day when the humanities and arts reassert their foundational significance for the knowledgable evolution of human(e) societies.

Book History and Humanities will mourn the loss of Brian’s committed advocacy, always conveyed in a soft voice from a warm-hearted scholar. Messages for the family can be sent C/- Lychgate Funerals, 306 Willis St, Aro Valley, Wellington.

The Centre for the Book is delighted to be able to hold the 2022 World Book Day, belatedly, on Wednesday, 26 October at 5:30 pm in Biochemistry G13.  (Yes, we know it’s an unfamiliar room, but we’ve been told it’s nice and we have little choice because the Exam Office has booked just about every other space).

Our speaker is Prof. Harry Ricketts, talking on the topic of “The Book and Self.”  Prof. Ricketts is Emeritus Prof. of English and teaches in the Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington. He is a poet, essayist, literary biographer and editor, who has published around thirty books. He has recently completed a memoir and is currently writing an essay on Kipling and childhood trauma.  Formerly an influential editor at New Zealand Review of Books Pukapuka Aotearoa, Prof. Ricketts has thought a lot about the importance of books for ourselves, for Aotearoa, and for the world.  We hope you can join us for his talk as we celebrate the power of books.

What lurks in the DPL stacks?  You have a chance to find out this Saturday at 1 pm.  Book your Stack Trek now online: tinyurl.com/StackTrekDPL, or ring or email the Library on 474 3690 or library@dcc.govt.nz

And next Wednesday, 12 Oct, Paul Tankard and Lorraine Johnston offer another instalment of Reading Allowed, this week featuring Samuel Johnson’s Rasselas and James Joyce’s Ulysses at 5:30 on the ground floor of the main Library.

Enjoy great books, excellent company, and perhaps even learn something, or at least have a great time.

Applications for the inaugural Dorothy W. Collin Fellowship in the History of the Book are now open.

The University of Western Australia (UWA) Library administers the Fellowship, which was established with a generous gift from Dr Dorothy Windus Collin and the late Dr Robert Collin. The Fellowship, worth $2,000 in 2022, supports the study of the English or European language holdings of the UWA Library’s Special Collections. The study shall treat an aspect of book history and should focus on the book or script as historical evidence.

Fellowship conditions, eligibility criteria and a link to the application form can be found on the UWA Library website.

Friends of the Centre for the Book will be sad to learn that Dr. Keith Maslen passed away Monday night, peacefully, at Ross Home, after a few months with an inoperable cancer.

Founder of the Otakou Press as the Bibliography Room in the 1960s, Keith was a renowned historian of the printing of the Bowyers in London in the eighteenth century, as well as one of the three editors of Book and Print in NZ.  Keith has an entry in the Oxford Companion to the Book dedicated to his work.  He was a generous scholar who will be deeply missed.

The funeral will be held at Hope and Sons, Anderson Bay Rd., Dunedin on Saturday, 3 September at 2 pm.  The service will also be livestreamed; details at www.tributes.co.nz.

I’m pleased to inform Centre for the Book fans that Hannah August’s lecture will be livestreamed tomorrow at https://echo360.net.au/section/42b45b74-23be-4dd6-a7a7-b51534bf7d04/public

Currently the section will appear empty/greyed out to viewers, but when the live stream starts tomorrow at 5.20pm a green play icon will appear.  The lecture begins at 5:30 pm.

A livestream does not, alas, provide for interactive feedback and questions, but will allow you to enjoy the occasion if your circumstances prevent you from being there in person.

Curious to hear about the famously ‘difficult’ novel Ulysses by James Joyce? Intrigued as to why it was so controversial? Heard rumours of a connection to Aotearoa?

Join us for a hybrid online & in-person special edition of the Catch-Up Book Club* on James Joyce’s Ulysses, a celebration of the centenary of its 1922 publication. We will be screening the RTE documentary 100 Years of Ulysses and following that with short talks from Joyce scholars Chris Ackerley (Otago) and Marco Sonzogni (VUW), and some lively discussion. Bring your questions.

When: 6.00pm – 8.00pm, Tuesday 23 August 2022
Where: IN PERSON in the Burns 2 Lecture Theatre, University of Otago, or
ONLINE – https://otago.zoom.us/j/92891180760?pwd=N1RkZkRLUU1SNDVOOTRaaG1GRmVSUT09

Everyone is welcome to attend this free event, and no RSVP required. Mask wearing for in-person guests is strongly encouraged.

Co-presented by the University Book Shop, the English and Linguistics Programme, and University Library Special Collections, in association with the Irish Embassy of Aotearoa New Zealand.

* The Catch-Up Book Club, presented by the University Book Shop and the English & Linguistics programme at the University of Otago, is an informal group that meets to discuss classics you’ve heard about, have always meant to read, by writers you might be curious about, or perhaps you really liked the costumes in the BBC miniseries… this is your chance to finally read that classic! Or just to come along and decide whether you actually *will* read it…

Following Hannah August’s talk on Wednesday evening this week, Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival presents a talk with Ruth Shaw.

In conversation with Majella Cullinane, author Ruth Shaw discusses her memoir, which weaves together stories of the characters who visit her bookshops, musings about her favourite books, and bittersweet stories from her full and varied life.

‘An extraordinary story…illegal gambling, pirates and numerous personal tragedies, all punctuated by warm stories from her bookshops and an ultimately resolved love story. It makes my life look pretty dull.’ – Shaun Bythell, author of The Diary of a Bookseller

Includes audience Q&A and book sales. Ruth will be available to sign books

THE BOOKSELLER AT THE END OF THE WORLD; RUTH SHAW
5.30pm, Thursday 18 August 2022
Dunningham Suite, City Library
Tickets $15 / $20 (fees may apply)
Reserve tickets here

The Centre for the Book is very excited to welcome back an Otago graduate to talk about her latest book history work.  You can hear a taster of her talk in an interview with Lynn Freeman this Sunday’s episode (14 August) of Standing Room Only.

Dr. Hannah August is Senior Lecturer in English at Massey University in Palmerston North. Originally from Dunedin, she holds several degrees, including a PhD from King’s College London and an Honours degree in Classics from the University of Otago.

Please join us for Dr. August’s talk on

“How to read a play in Shakespeare’s England – tips from the archives”

Over the past few decades, “reconstructed” Shakespearean theatres such as Shakespeare’s Globe in London and the Pop-up Globe in Auckland have given us a sense of what it might have been like to attend a play in early modern England. But what about reading a play? In an era in which the novel as a genre hadn’t yet hit its stride, 16^th– and 17^th-century Englishmen and women with a penchant for literature sought out poetry and plays. But what were they hoping to get from reading drama, and how did they respond to the plays they read? In this public lecture, Dr Hannah August draws on archival research conducted for her book, Playbooks and their Readers in Early Modern England, in order to answer these questions.