Description
Book SynopsisNew Zealand's most extraordinary literary everyman - poet, novelist, critic, activist - C. K. Stead told the story of his first twenty-three years in South-West of Eden. In this second volume of his memoirs, Stead takes us from the moment he left New Zealand for a job in rural Australia, through study abroad, writing and a university career, until he left the University of Auckland to write full time aged fifty-three. It is a tumultuous tale of literary friends and foes (Curnow and Baxter, A. S. Byatt and Barry Humphries and many more) and of navigating a personal and political life through the social change of the 1960s and 70s. And, at its heart, it is an account of a remarkable life among books - of writing and reading, critics and authors, students and professors. From Booloominbah to Menton, The New Poetic to All Visitors Ashore, from Vietnam to the Springbok Tour, C. K. Stead's You Have a Lot to Lose takes readers on a remarkable voyage through New Zealand's intellectual and cultural history.
Table of ContentsNote by Way of Introduction ix Part One - Getting There 1. Booloominbah and Beyond 2. Woodbines with Lionel Knights 3. London and Dr Johnson's Stone 4. In and Out of Auckland Part Two - The Professor 5. Poetry & Politics, Children & Vietnam 6. Allez Mansfield! Allez Menton! 7. Critic, Editor, Poet . . . 8. Wellington, Sydney, and the End of a War 9. UCL, ASD & Menton Again 10. The Fellowship and a Taste of Freedom Part three - Edging towards the Exit 11. 1981 - and Farewell Frank 12. Cross-Eyed with the Effort of It 13. All Visitors Ashore, Allen Curnow, and Mermaids 14. Sligo, Gateway to the World
