Michael Kennedy Joseph (9 July 1914 – 4 October 1981) was a British-born New Zealand

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

in several genres. He studied at

Sacred Heart College, Auckland Sacred Heart College is a state-integrated secondary school in Auckland, New Zealand. It is a Catholic, Marist College set on of land in Glen Innes. History The college was opened on 21 June 1903, in Ponsonby, by the Marist Brothers. It ...

, and at

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 126 ...

, from 1936 to 1939. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he served with the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

. His works range from ''I'll Soldier No More'', ''A Pound of Saffron'' and ''A Soldier's Tale'' to the

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

works ''The Hole in the Zero'' and ''The Time of Achamoth'' to a

historical novel Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the setting of particular real historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to oth ...

, ''Kaspar's Journey'', based on the medieval

Children's Crusade The Children's Crusade was a failed Popular crusades, popular crusade by European Christians to establish a second Latin Church, Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in the Holy Land in the early 13th century. Some sources have narrowed the date to 1212. ...

. ''The Hole in the Zero'' includes the first known use of the word "

hoverboard A hoverboard (or hover board) is a fictional levitating board used for personal transportation, first described in science-fiction, and made famous by the appearance of a skateboard-like hoverboard in the film ''Back to the Future Part II''. Ma ...

". Joseph was also a Professor of English at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Notable students include Australian poet

Michael Sharkey Michael Sharkey (born 1 August 1946 in Canterbury, New South Wales) is an Australian poet, resident in Castlemaine in the goldfields region of Victoria. He studied at the University of Sydney, where he was awarded a BA degree in 1972, and then a ...

. In 1969, he edited the 1831 text of ''Frankenstein'' for Oxford University Press; in 1980 the text was reissued in the World's Classics series.Joseph, M.K. (ed.), Mary Shelley. p. iv, copyright notices. Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. Oxford World's Classics, 1998.

Works

Poetry

*''Imaginary Islands'' (1950) *''The Living Countries'' (1959)

Novels

*''I’ll Soldier No More'' (1958) *''A Pound of Saffron'' (1962) *''The Hole in the Zero'' (1967) *''A Soldier’s Tale'' (1976) *''The Time of Achamoth'' (1977) *''Kaspar’s Journey'' (1988)

References

* New Zealand Book Council: M. K. Josep

* Roger Robinson and Nelson Wattie, ''The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature'', Oxford University Press, Auckland, 1998, p. 274.

External links

*
Review of ''I'll Soldier No More''

Cover of ''A Soldier's Tale'' (1976)
1914 births 1981 deaths 20th-century English novelists 20th-century New Zealand novelists 20th-century English poets British male poets English male novelists English science fiction writers New Zealand poets 20th-century New Zealand male writers New Zealand male novelists New Zealand science fiction writers 20th-century English male writers English male non-fiction writers Alumni of Merton College, Oxford British Army personnel of World War II Royal Artillery personnel British emigrants to New Zealand {{england-writer-stub