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Kendrick Smithyman draft of poem Calling the roll

 Collection
Identifier: MSS-Archives-B-31

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of drafts of the poem 'Calling the roll' which was commissioned by the University of Auckland Centenary Committee. Also included is correspondence between the Chairman of the Centenary Committee, Professor Nicholas Tarling, and Smithyman.

Dates

  • 1983

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Not restricted

Biographical / Historical

Smithyman was born at Te Kopuru, Northland, and later moved with his family to Auckland. After primary schooling, he attended Seddon Memorial Technical College and then trained at Auckland Teachers’ Training College in 1940-1941. For the remainder of 1941 until 1945, he served in the Second World War with the New Zealand Army and Royal New Zealand Air Force. After the war, he taught at primary and intermediate schools around Auckland, and was particularly interested in children with learning difficulties. He also pursued some study at Auckland University College which did not result in a degree, but led, in 1963, to a senior tutor position in the English Department. In 1946, Kendrick Smithyman married schoolteacher and poet, Mary Isobel Stanley, After the birth of their first son, Stanley developed rheumatoid arthritis which increased in severity until her death in 1980. Margaret Edgcumbe, a colleague of Smithyman’s in the English Department at the University of Auckland, became his second wife in 1981. He retired from the University in 1987, and died in 1995. Highlights of Kendrick Smithyman’s career were time spent as a Visiting Fellow in Commonwealth Literature at the University of Leeds in 1969, and receiving the awards of Doctor of Literature in 1986 from the University of Auckland and the Order of the British Empire in 1990.

Extent

0.01 metres (1 folder)

Language of Materials

English

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by Kendrick Smithyman, 25 May 1983.

General

NRAM B480.

Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections, University of Auckland Repository

Contact:
5 Alfred Street
Private Bag 92019
Auckland 1142 New Zealand