About the entries from The Oxford Companion to
New Zealand Literature

The print version gives the following guide to using the book. Much of this holds good for the on-line entries.

Entries are in alphabetical order, including personal names, titles, words and general topics. Definite and indefinite articles are disregarded in establishing the order. Headwords for authors are given in the form in which they most usually publish, and alphabetised in that form; other names are given in the text where they are of literary significance. Where there is doubt or a variant form, a cross-reference is given (e.g. Macmillan Brown, John, see Brown, John Macmillan). Names such as Du Fresne are placed under Du (preceding Duckworth); names in the Mäori form such as Te Whatahoro are under Te (preceding Templeton); names beginning with Mac or Mc are all treated as if spelt Mac. Personal surnames are in bold capitals (e.g. FRAME, Janet); works published as separate titles are in bold italics (e.g. Greenstone Door, The, and Ao Hou, Te); titles not published separately, such as poems or short stories, are in bold within quotation marks (e.g. ‘Doll’s House, The’; but note Prelude, which was published as a separate title). Readers and playgoers will be aware of the difficulty of establishing performance or publication details for some plays. The style stated above is followed and dates given for both first performance and publication so far as possible.

The most important aspect of this book’s style is the use of the asterisk before a word in the text, to designate a cross-reference, ‘q.v.’ or ‘see’. These have been quite fully used, since this Companion is designed to be read in an interconnected manner as well as to be a reference source on particular items and a venue for pleasurable random browsing. Thus few entries are wholly self-contained. The entry on an author will refer the reader by asterisk to entries on individual titles by that author (where plot summary, publication details, etc., may be found), and to other pertinent topics; the entries on titles and topics, equally, refer the reader to relevant author entries, where fuller personal information is given. Words such as ‘bush’ or ‘waiata’ are habitually asterisked, since readers may be encountering them for the first time and need advice that a full exposition is provided. The same applies to key topics such as ‘gold’, ‘landscape’ or ‘music’; we wish readers to know that fuller essays on such topics are provided within these pages. The asterisks are therefore intended both to advise that information is provided pertinent to the entry being read and to lead the reader on to other matters of related interest. The reader of entries on Denis Glover, Ian Milner or the Caxton Press, for instance, will thus find a fuller version of the story of Oriflamme under that entry; and may be led from there to relevant entries on Phoenix, Bob Lowry, the Press or censorship. In each entry, an asterisk is used only on the first occasion that a particular name, title, word or topic is mentioned. Sometimes an asterisk is attached to an adjectival or other derived form; thus ‘*Australian’ and ‘*Irish’, for example, refer to the articles on ‘Australia’ and ‘Ireland’, and ‘*goldfields’ to that on ‘gold’.

Mäori vowels which properly now take a macron have been so treated, but macrons have not been added to quotations or titles (e.g. The Maori King) which predate this practice.

A very few living writers asked that some personal details, such as year of birth, not be stated; the editors respected this preference. The formal cut-off date for the inclusion of material was 30 June 1997, but in many instances subsequent material has been briefly noted.

In general abbreviations have been sparingly used, and the full form is used wherever it is of significance to the entry. The abbreviation NZ is generally used only where that is the form in a title or quotation, except that the New Zealand Listener is generally shown as NZ Listener. The only other frequent abbreviations are OHNZLE, BHS, GHS and GS.

Abbreviations

APRA Australasian Performing Right Association

ATL Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library

AUP Auckland University Press

BA Bachelor of Arts

BBC British Broadcasting Corporation

BHS Boys’ High School

BMus Bachelor of Music

BSc Bachelor of Science

c. circa, about

CPA Communist Party of Australia

Dip Diploma (e.g. of Fine Arts)

DLit Doctor of Literature (Waikato)

DLitt Doctor of Literature

DNZB Dictionary of New Zealand Biography

DPhil Doctor of Philosophy (Oxford)

ed. editor, or edited by

edn edition

ESOL English as a Second Language

GHS Girls’ High School

GS Grammar School

GSO 3 (I) General Staff Officer, Grade 3, Intelligence

JNZL Journal of New Zealand Literature

LittD Doctor of Literature

MA Master of Arts

MBE Member of the Order of the British Empire

MHR Member of the House of Representatives

MP Member of Parliament

No. or no. Number or number

NZBC New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation

NZE New Zealand English

NZEF New Zealand Expeditionary Force

NZPA New Zealand Press Association

NZSO New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

OBE Officer of the Order of the British Empire

OCTU Officer Cadets Training Unit

ODT Otago Daily Times

OHNZLE The Oxford History of New Zealand Literature in English

OUP Oxford University Press

PEN Association of Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists: see entry

PhD Doctor of Philosophy

prod. produced (of a play)

pub. published

rev. revised

Rev. Reverend

rpt. reprinted

RN Royal Navy

RNZAF Royal New Zealand Air Force

RSA Returned Services Association

SF science fiction

TLS Times Literary Supplement

trans. translation, or translated by

UK United Kingdom

USA United States of America

Vol. or vol. Volume or volume

VUP Victoria University Press