Niel Wright (Frank William Nielsen Wright born 30 September 1933) is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

poet, literary critic, bibliographer, publisher, and cultural and political commentator. His major piece of work is his epic poem ''The Alexandrians'', self published in 120 books between 1961 and 2007 and totaling some 36,000 lines. He has since self published 1045 post-Alexandrian poems totaling 8331 lines, of which 681 are

triolet A triolet (, ) is almost always a stanza poem of eight lines, though stanzas with as few as seven lines and as many as nine or more have appeared in its history. Its rhyme scheme is ABaAabAB (capital letters represent lines repeated verbatim) and ...

s. He has also published extensive notes to ''The Alexandrians''.

Life

Born in

Sydenham Sydenham may refer to: Places Australia * Sydenham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Sydenham railway station, Sydney * Sydenham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne ** Sydenham railway line, the name of the Sunbury railway line, Melbourne ...

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

of mixed French, Scandinavian and English ancestry. His first school was Elmwood in Merivale, his second

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

. He then attended

Christchurch Boys' High School , motto_translation = I Seek Higher Things , type = State school, Day and Boarding school , gender = Boys , song = The School We Magnify , colours = Blue and Black , established = , address = 71 Straven R ...

. Wright moved to

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

in 1953, at first off and on, then permanently from the 1960s. He attended

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well know ...

, earning a BA and MA (Hons) in English, followed by a PhD on ''

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...

''. His career was spent in the New Zealand public service.Roger Robinson, Niel Wright in ''Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature'', OUP, 1998 p.597 He is married with one son, one daughter and two grandchildren. He lives in Wellington.

Literary output

Wright is a prolific author and publisher of his work, he has over 1000 entries listed in the

National Library of New Zealand The National Library of New Zealand ( mi, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa) is New Zealand's legal deposit library charged with the obligation to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations" (''Nat ...

. Almost all are self-published under his imprint Cultural and Political Books, Wellington. His critical writings survey New Zealand poetry from 1898 on, covering mainly

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

but also a few earlier and later writers. From 1985, he has focused on the

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...

and Jacobean dramatists, and since 2002, increasingly on

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

. His major books are ''Shakespeare's Ongoing Composition'' (2008) and ''Argybargy and the Big D'' (2009). He has published essays on numerous New Zealand writers including Maude Ruby Basham (Aunt Daisy),

James K. Baxter James Keir Baxter (29 June 1926 – 22 October 1972) was a New Zealand poet and playwright. He was also known as an activist for the preservation of Māori culture. He is one of New Zealand's most well-known and controversial literary figures. H ...

, George Bouzaid, Alan Claudius Brassington, Alan Brunton,

Charles Brasch Charles Orwell Brasch (27 July 1909 – 20 May 1973) was a New Zealand poet, literary editor and arts patron. He was the founding editor of the literary journal ''Landfall'', and through his 20 years of editing the journal, had a significant im ...

, Alfred Edward Caddick, Alex Calder, Alistair Campbell, Ronald Brian Castle, R. E. Coury, Charles Doyle, Kate Gerard, Patricia Godsiff, C. W. Grace, Arnold Grierson Lamont Cork, D'Arcy Cresswell, Peter Crisp,

Allen Curnow Thomas Allen Monro Curnow (17 June 1911 – 23 September 2001) was a New Zealand poet and journalist. Life Curnow was born in Timaru, New Zealand, the son of a fourth generation New Zealander, an Anglican clergyman, and he grew up in a relig ...

Eileen Duggan Eileen May Duggan (21 May 1894 – 10 December 1972) was a New Zealand poet and journalist, from an Irish Roman Catholic family. She worked in Wellington as a journalist, and wrote a weekly article for the Catholic weekly ''The New Zealand ...

, E. L. Eyre, Bernard Gadd,

Michele Leggott Michele Joy Leggott (born 1956) is a New Zealand poet, and an emeritus professor of English at the University of Auckland. She was the New Zealand Poet Laureate between 2007 and 2009. Biography Leggott was born in Stratford, New Zealand, and ...

, Arthur Frederick Thomas Chorlton, Leigh Davis,

Arthur Rex Dugard Fairburn Arthur Rex Dugard Fairburn (2 February 1904 – 25 March 1957), commonly known by his initials A. R. D. Fairburn and otherwise as Rex, was a New Zealand poet who was born and died in Auckland. Fairburn was born in Auckland in 1904. His grandfa ...

, Gerald Fitzgerald, Patricia Fry, Ruth Gilbert,

Denis Glover Denis James Matthews Glover (9 December 19129 August 1980) was a New Zealand poet and publisher. Born in Dunedin, he attended the University of Canterbury where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts, and subsequently lectured. He worked as a reporte ...

, Alexander Connell Hanlon,

Robin Hyde Robin Hyde, the pseudonym used by Iris Guiver Wilkinson (19 January 1906 – 23 August 1939), was a South African-born New Zealand poet, journalist and novelist. Early life Wilkinson was born in Cape Town to an English father and an Australia ...

, Noel Farr Hoggard, Louis Johnson, John Liddell Kelly, Dennis List,

Iain Lonie Iain Malcolm Lonie (1932 – 18 June 1988) was a British-born New Zealand poet and a historian of ancient Greek medicine. His academic career was spent between New Zealand, Australia and England. He read classics at the University of Cambridge ...

Bill Manhire William Manhire (born 27 December 1946) is a New Zealand poet, short story writer, emeritus professor, and New Zealand's inaugural New Zealand Poet Laureate, Poet Laureate (1997–1998). He founded New Zealand's first creative writing course at ...

Katherine Mansfield Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer, essayist and journalist, widely considered one of the most influential and important authors of the modernist movement. Her works are celebra ...

Charles Allan Marris Charles Allan Marris (11 September 1876 – 30 June 1947) was a New Zealand journalist and editor. As an editor, he "upheld Georgian poetic conventions and discouraged literary modernism", and encouraged the works of Robin Hyde. Marris had a lon ...

, Frank McKay, Philip Mincher,

Barry Mitcalfe Barry Mitcalfe (31 March 1930 – 1986) was a New Zealand poet, editor, and peace activist. Born in 1930 in Wellington, New Zealand, Mitcalfe studied at Victoria University of Wellington, where he received a Diploma in Education in 1962, and a Ba ...

Count Geoffrey Potocki de Montalk Count Geoffrey Wladislas Vaile Potocki de Montalk (10 June 1903 – 14 April 1997) was a poet, polemicist, and pretender to the Polish throne. Born in New Zealand, he was the eldest son of Auckland architect Robert Wladislas (Potocki) de Monta ...

Peter Munz Peter Munz (12 May 1921 – 14 October 2006) was a philosopher and historian, Professor of the Victoria University of Wellington; among the major influences on his work were Karl Popper and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Munz is one of two students who stu ...

, Walter Edward Murphy, Marjory Lydia Nicholls, Esma North, Victor O'Leary,

W. H. Oliver William Hosking Oliver (14 May 1925 – 16 September 2015), commonly known as W. H. Oliver but also known as Bill Oliver, was an eminent New Zealand historian and a poet. From 1983, Oliver led the development of the ''Dictionary of New Zealand ...

, Vincent O'Sullivan, Charles Stuart Perry,

Mark Pirie Mark Pirie (born 30 April 1974) is a New Zealand poet, writer, literary critic, anthologist, publisher, and editor. He is best known for his Generation X New Zealand anthology ''The NeXt Wave'', which included an 8,000-word introduction (1998), t ...

, Mary E. Richmond,

Harry Ricketts Harry Ricketts (born 1950) is a poet, biographer, editor, anthologist, critic, academic, literary scholar and cricket writer. He has written biographies of Rudyard Kipling and of a dozen British First World War poets. Life Ricketts was bor ...

, Betty Riddell, J. H. E.Schroder, Rosemary Seymour,

Kendrick Smithyman William Kendrick Smithyman (9 October 1922 – 28 December 1995) was a New Zealand poet and one of the most prolific of that nation's poets in the 20th century. Family and early life Smithyman was born in Te Kōpuru, a milling and logging t ...

, Charles Spear,

C. K. Stead Christian Karlson "Karl" Stead (born 17 October 1932) is a New Zealand writer whose works include novels, poetry, short stories, and literary criticism. He is one of New Zealand's most well-known and internationally celebrated writers. Early l ...

, John Pyne Snadden, J. E. Weir,

Karl Wolfskehl Karl Wolfskehl (17 September 1869 – 30 June 1948) was a German Jewish author and translator. He wrote poetry, prose and drama in German, and translated from French, English, Italian, Hebrew, Latin and Old/Middle High German into German. Bio ...

and the Australian writer Pamela Travers. Among the British authors he has written on are

Rupert Brooke Rupert Chawner Brooke (3 August 1887 – 23 April 1915)The date of Brooke's death and burial under the Julian calendar that applied in Greece at the time was 10 April. The Julian calendar was 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. was an En ...

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings ...

Robin George Collingwood Robin George Collingwood (; 22 February 1889 – 9 January 1943) was an English philosopher, historian and archaeologist. He is best known for his philosophical works, including ''The Principles of Art'' (1938) and the posthumously published '' ...

Frances Cornford Frances Crofts Cornford (née Darwin; 30 March 1886 – 19 August 1960) was an English poet. Life She was the daughter of the botanist Francis Darwin and Newnham College fellow Ellen Wordsworth Crofts (1856-1903), and born into the Darwin ...

William Davenant Sir William Davenant (baptised 3 March 1606 – 7 April 1668), also spelled D'Avenant, was an English poet and playwright. Along with Thomas Killigrew, Davenant was one of the rare figures in English Renaissance theatre whose career spanned bot ...

Richard Edwardes Richard Edwardes (also Edwards, 25 March 1525 – 31 October 1566) was an English poet, playwright, and composer; he was made a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and was master of the singing boys. He was known for his comedies and interludes. H ...

, T. S. Eliot, J. M. Edmonds,

George Rostrevor Hamilton Sir George Rostrevor Hamilton Royal Society of Literature, FRSL (1888 - 1967) was an English poet and critic. He worked as a civil servant and Special Commissioner. He was Knight Bachelor, knighted in the 1951 Birthday Honours, 1951 King's Birthda ...

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...

, John Marston,

Thomas Middleton Thomas Middleton (baptised 18 April 1580 – July 1627; also spelt ''Midleton'') was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. He, with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson, was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jac ...

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...

Anthony Munday Anthony Munday (or Monday) (1560?10 August 1633) was an English playwright and miscellaneous writer. He was baptized on 13 October 1560 in St Gregory by St Paul's, London, and was the son of Christopher Munday, a stationer, and Jane Munday. He ...

Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was much influenced by ...

George Peele George Peele (baptised 25 July 1556 – buried 9 November 1596) was an English translator, poet, and dramatist, who is most noted for his supposed but not universally accepted collaboration with William Shakespeare on the play ''Titus Andronicus' ...

, Geoffrey Pollett,

William Rowley William Rowley (c. 1585 – February 1626) was an English Jacobean dramatist, best known for works written in collaboration with more successful writers. His date of birth is estimated to have been c. 1585; he was buried on 11 February 1626 in ...

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achie ...

Anthony Thwaite Anthony Simon Thwaite (23 June 1930 – 22 April 2021) was an English poet and critic, widely known as the editor of his friend Philip Larkin's collected poems and letters. Early years and education Born in Chester, England, to Yorkshire par ...

Alfred Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

and

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

. He has also written on

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...

. Among the New Zealand bibliographers and critics he has written on are Peter Alcock, Rowan Gibbs, Don McKenzie and Joan Stevens. He has published bibliographies of

Ivan Bootham Ivan Thomas Bootham (20 July 1939 – 14 July 2016) was a New Zealand novelist, short story writer, poet and composer. Biography Bootham was born in Farnworth, Lancashire, England, on 20 July 1939, the son of the painter Joe Bootham, and migrate ...

Jeremy Commons Jeremy Paul Axford Commons (born 17 December 1933) is a New Zealand opera historian, scholar, impresario and librettist. He is an authority on nineteenth-century Italian opera and has published major works on the composers Gaetano Donizetti and N ...

and Michael O'Leary. Wright's published works include plays, filmscripts, novels, short stories and two verse novellas. His earliest plays date from the 1950s. From 1984 all his plays have been written in verse. They include ''Orestes in Phthia'', ''Apollonius at Rome'' and ''Women of Sparta''. He has also written three filmscripts: ''Mysterious Eve'', ''Wolf's Gorge, or Operation Fullscale'', and ''Across the Ningthi''. His novels include ''Underprivileged Lovers'', ''Strangers in the Blood'', ''Caisson'', and ''The Last Time I Saw Turfit''. His latest is ''Weston Burley's Business in Great Waters'' (2007). He has also written ''The Fall of the Modern West'', a book on the philosophy of history. He has published two major works of literary autobiography: ''Brilliantly Wright'' (1989) and ''Being, Obsession and Besetment'' (2007). Wright's most recent work is ''The Pop Artist's Garland: Selected Poems 1952-2009'', drawing on his epic poem ''The Alexandrians'' as well as his post-Alexandrian work.

Reviews and critical studies

*James Bertram, "The Last Maker", ''New Zealand Listener'', 12 August 1978, p. 71 *Peter Dronke, Reviews, ''Landfall'', September 1964, pp. 277–280 *John Sebastian Hales, ''An introductory essay: Niel Wright and his epic'', Wellington (author), 1976. *Chris Hilliard,"Mad by Auckland Standards", ''The Pandar 3'', Autumn 1998, Auckland *Robert Johnson, "Extracts from a growing epic", ''Palmerston North Evening Standard'', 12 September 1980 *Catherine Robertson, "The Perverse Poet", ''The Dominion Post'' "''Indulgence''" magazine, 29 December 2007, p. 3 *Joe Wylie, Review, ''Takahe 54'', 2005

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Niel 1933 births New Zealand poets New Zealand male poets New Zealand literary critics Victoria University of Wellington alumni Living people New Zealand publishers (people) People educated at Christchurch Boys' High School