Joseph, M. K.

M. K. Joseph (1914-1981)

Contents:

Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance (2006):

Drunken Gunners
Mercury Bay Eclogue I
Mercury Bay Eclogue II
Elegy in a City Railyard

New Zealand Poets Read Their Work (1974):

LP 1, side 1

Cinderella
Drunken Gunners
Chronosemasiology

LP 3, side 2

Girl, Boy, Flower, Bicycle
The Dancing Ploughmen
Elegy in a City Railyard

Waiata Archive (1974):

CD 11

Drunken Gunners
Mercury Bay Eclogue I
Mercury Bay Eclogue II
Cinderella
Below the Sierra
Cordoba
Prado Museum
Mars Ascending
Chronosemasiology
Girl, Boy, Flower, Bicycle
The Dancing Ploughmen
Elegy in a City Railyard

Bio /Bibliography:

Michael Kennedy Joseph was born in Chingford, Essex, in 1914. His family emigrated to New Zealand in 1924, settling near Tauranga. Joseph’s early schooling had been conducted in France as well as England. He continued it at Tauranga District High School, then Sacred Heart College, Auckland. He graduated from Auckland University College in 1934 with an MA in English, then, after a brief spell as a junior lecturer, transferred to Oxford in 1936.

During the Second World War he served as an artillery officer, and much of his work in prose and verse is concerned with these experiences, notably the novels I’ll Soldier No More (1958) and A Soldier’s Tale (1976).

He returned to New Zealand in 1946, and found little leisure to write in a busy academic schedule. Nevertheless he published many poems in periodicals here and abroad, and collected them in a series of volumes, culminating in Inscription on a Paper Dart: Selected Poems 1945-1972.

Other memorable works include the science-fiction novels The Hole in the Zero and The Time of Achamoth, and the children’s book Kaspar’s Journey.


Selected Bibliography

Poetry:
Imaginary Islands: Poems. Auckland: Whitcombe & Tombs, 1950.
The Living Countries: Poems. Hamilton: Paul's Book Arcade, 1959.
Inscription on a Paper Dart: Selected Poems, 1945-1972. Auckland: Auckland University Press; Wellington: Oxford University Press, 1974.

Prose:
William Falconer. Auckland: Auckland University College, 1950.
Charles Aders: a biographical note... Auckland: University College, 1953.
The New Zealand Short Story. Wellington: Government Printer, 1956.
I'll Soldier No More: a Novel. London: Gollancz, 1958.
A Pound of Saffron. London: Gollancz, 1962.
Byron, the Poet. London: Gollancz, 1964.
The Hole in the Zero. Auckland: Blackwood & Janet Paul, 1967.
A Soldier's Tale. Auckland: Collins, 1976.
The Time of Achamoth. Auckland: Collins, 1977.
Kaspar's Journey. Auckland: Brick Row/Hallard Press, 1988

Edited:
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (1831 ed). London; New York: Oxford University Press, 1969.