tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post4309887617236094438..comments2024-03-29T14:45:32.326+13:00Comments on The Imaginary Museum: My Favourite Vintage Bookshops: PonsonbyDr Jack Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01805945600952222957noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post-46049315895134873732023-05-07T18:17:43.737+12:002023-05-07T18:17:43.737+12:00Dragon Rampant I didn't finish as at the time ...Dragon Rampant I didn't finish as at the time it was a library book. The style was unique, and the book strange but I must dip into it. I also want to study her long poetry book, Nadath which I have. I've never read Check to My King but I would say it is worth knowing, at least reading. So far the best by her for me are Wednesday's Children and the two Starkie books...But I might get a surge of interest and read more of DR and her journalism...And her bios. (I read a kind of bio that was good) I have a bio of her and some other NZ writers to read....Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10272507198753290435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post-56816464026346519192023-04-10T07:42:06.258+12:002023-04-10T07:42:06.258+12:00*Dragon Rampant* is rather eccentrically written i...*Dragon Rampant* is rather eccentrically written in parts - dialogues with the grass, etc. - but I agree with you that it's well worth taking the trouble over: what a story! It's probably my favourite among all her books, in fact. Like you, I never managed to get to the end of *Check to My King*. I must go back to it some day ...Dr Jack Rosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01805945600952222957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post-22347435987774881902023-04-09T21:59:16.142+12:002023-04-09T21:59:16.142+12:00I am much into Hyde's books. Especially 'W...I am much into Hyde's books. Especially 'Wednesday's Children' which I think is one of the great things. The Starkie (is it that name?) novels are great also (one is introduced by my lecturer and de facto friend D.I.B Smith who officiated at the publication of one Jack Ross's 'Nights with Giodorno Bruno', also a fascinating book.) I have those, or some. Haven't read 'Check to Your King'. I didn't finish but had as a library book 'Dragon Rampant', I think her last major work which is fascinating but written in a way to be disconcerting. Haven't' a copy but in the obsessive bibliophile tradition ('...books to the death!') I must add it to my own amassment...more tawdry but also growing... <br /><br />I don't know the diarist, but that looks like a great strike. <br /><br />I used to go to both those book shops. I also went to the Dominion Road book shop circa 1999 or perhaps earlier. (It was there when Ron Riddell had his shop almost on the cnr. of Dominion Rd and Balmoral Rd. Mrs. Brazier, one time I turned up, told me all the details of her plans to put her works on line. I was looking for books for myself and possibly to buy and one time Graham Brazier was urging me to buy books by Brecht who, at the time, I 'knew all about', but I think then or another time his mother saw me looking at their display of Nazi Books! There are collectors of them. I, as a book seller, had had requests for wants (once I sold a relatively rarish English language edition of 'Mein Kampf' for $100.00, Ebay wouldn't let me list it). But I wasn't interested in it myself at the time. Only in making a possible resale somehow. Anyway they were at least still there in 1994. I am sure it was there 1995-6. Then my mother got quite ill and Ron moved to K'Road. And I didn't go down to see the Dom Rd shop. I did notice it was not there later on, not sure when.<br /><br />Dominion Books I visit a lot usually when I go into the Hard to Find. I am terrified it will be shut. If it does, there is almost nothing there...to the point if all Second Hand book shops closed I probably would very very rarely go into the inner city or anywhere much as I spend hours in them. Scott Hamilton, telling me of David Jones got me interested and the poetry section at Dominion Books used to be in the middle aisle. I walked down, a book fell off -- it was 'In Parenthesis' by Jones. Later I knocked a large book off it was a pretty much complete book of poetry by Holderlin, trans. by Hamburger. with German on the verso and English the recto. <br /><br />Great story of your father and the yacht trip. It was a stroke of genius by Hyde to have herself on an imaginary Island in an imagined story. I've been in places where quite educated people know nothing of Hyde. They know Mansfield et al, of course say Sargeson, Frame etc...but often not Hyde. Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10272507198753290435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post-75107599457200777422023-03-29T13:02:58.919+13:002023-03-29T13:02:58.919+13:00Thanks Farrell,
That's a fascinating addendum...Thanks Farrell,<br /><br />That's a fascinating addendum, I must say. I think you're right that Dominion Books belonged initially to the Holts (judging from a long account of the process I overheard the present owner giving some not-very-interested visitor on one occasion -- it wasn't so much eavesdropping on my part as being unable to avoid taking in at least some of the data on offer). <br /><br />I did wonder if the Balmoral shop had continued after the migration of the Dominion Books name, so it's good to have that straightened out finally.<br /><br />Graham Brazier had a brief gig as poetry reviewer for the NZ Herald, and one of the few pieces he actually completed (heavy with Dylan Thomas, Fairburn, and other favourites of his) was a wonderfully positive review of Jan Kemp and my "NZ Poets in Performance" anthologies. It showed such generosity of spirit that I've had a soft spot for him ever since ... I was very sorry to hear of his death.<br /><br />Dr Jack Rosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01805945600952222957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post-24169123986994182022023-03-29T10:39:02.944+13:002023-03-29T10:39:02.944+13:00Kia ora Jack, bibliophile supreme.
Just an addendu...Kia ora Jack, bibliophile supreme.<br />Just an addendum to the Dominion Books story. After Mrs Brazier became too weak to manage the stairs, Graeme ran the shop for several years until his mother and he both died. <br />Grame held court rather than ran the book shop. Robust quotations from Dylan Thomas followed idle queries about the creatively priced ex-library Ryan's Māori dictionary in the window. <br />The Brazier shop's Balmoral Shops life continued for decades after Dominion Books' move to Herne Bay.<br />I thought the original Dominion Books belonged to History Dept Bill Holt, his brother, and Heather, the present owner. <br /><br />Farrellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15696900487832959987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post-85066868275691227762023-03-28T08:12:38.525+13:002023-03-28T08:12:38.525+13:00Yes, you're quite right about that. I suppose ...Yes, you're quite right about that. I suppose I meant that it's all of Kilvert's diary that we'll ever now be able to read -- but still just a selection from that lost whole ... a pity, because it is one of the really great diaries.Dr Jack Rosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01805945600952222957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post-55914887017457490012023-03-27T21:44:16.398+13:002023-03-27T21:44:16.398+13:00The three volume edition of Kilvert's Diary is...The three volume edition of Kilvert's Diary is still an abridgment I'm afraid.<br />Kilvert's widow is thought to have cut parts before it passed on to a relative, who submitted it to Jonathan Cape. The poet William Plomer made a transcript and returned the manuscript, intending to publish a complete edition eventually, but it was destroyed in the London Blitz. The owner of the manuscript gave three volumes away to friends and then burned the rest. Plomer said he "could have strangled her with his bare hands".Roger Allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11012987757094423896noreply@blogger.com