Introduction

This electronic edition of William Golder’s poetry is designed to make the poetry of a British settler poet available to any reader with access to the Web.

It is a work in progress, now including the four volumes of poetry Golder published in New Zealand. His first volume, published in Edinburgh, is yet to be digitised. The edition is being developed in three dimensions:

  1. the 4 volumes of poetry Golder published after arrival in Wellington in 1840 (the equivalent of a scholarly edition of a writer's works);
  2. contextual materials of many kinds - journalism, pictures, diaries, letters, reports, music, books of all kinds to do with the responses of colonists to their new world - which provide access to the cultural and intellectual environment of early Wellington and which assist interpretation of Golder's poetry; and
  3. published research, which is being progressively republished in conjunction with these materials as an immediately accessible interpretive perspective (the equivalent of a book of essays on an author's works).

It is the outcome of an on-going collaboration between the Alexander Turnbull Library (as the principal soiurce of the digitised texts), the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre as publisher and repository, the Heritage Materials Imaging Facility and New Zealand Micrographics as the digitiser, and Victoria University of Wellington as the principal funder through research grants.

With the exception of a few poems or extracts, Golder’s poetry has never been reprinted. Access to it has been limited to those who knew about his work and who could find copies of the original publications in the few New Zealand libraries holding one or more of them. Critical commentary has been limited to brief comments in anthologies, literary histories and encyclopedias. This edition aims to bring together a broad range of published and unpublished material from the first 40 years of settlement in the Wellington region so that Golder’s poetry can be located as precisely as possible in its proper geographical, historical, cultural and intellectual contexts. Most of this material becomes generally accessible for the first time by being digitised and presented as an integral part of the edition.

Further information about the design of the edition and the presentation of these materials can be found by following the link: “Editorial/Interpretation”.

The editor is very interested in receiving communications from readers who may be able to contribute new information about William Golder.

Contact Information for the Editor:

Dr Brian Opie
School of English, Film and Theatre
Victoria University of Wellington
P O Box 600,
Wellington
New Zealand
64 4 463 6812
brian.opie@vuw.ac.nz

This edition is published by the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre. Wellington, New Zealand, 2004.

It is intended to apply Creative Commons licensing to this site when the Creative Commons Aoteroa New Zealand licences are available.

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