Michael King (15 December 1945 – 30 March 2004) was a New Zealand historian, author, and biographer. He wrote or edited over 30 books on New Zealand topics, including the best-selling ''Penguin History of New Zealand'', which was the most popular New Zealand book of 2004.

Life

King was born in Wellington, one of four children to Eleanor and Lewis King, and grew up at

Paremata Paremata is a suburb of Porirua, on the Tasman Sea coast to the north of Wellington, New Zealand. History Early history The modern suburb, just south of Plimmerton, derives its name from the "Paremata Barracks", erected on the north shore of ...

. His

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

-born father was an advertising executive who had left New Zealand to serve as a naval officer in World War II and had risen to the rank of lieutenant-commander. King's family moved to

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

for a while, where he attended Sacred Heart College, then returned to Wellington, where he attended

St Patrick's College, Silverstream St Patrick's College is a state-integrated Catholic boys' day and boarding secondary school located in Silverstream, Upper Hutt, New Zealand. It was established in 1931 when the original St Patrick's College, Wellington that had been establi ...

in Upper Hutt. He studied history at

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington (), also known by its shorter names "VUW" or "Vic", is a public university, public research university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of New Zealand Parliament, Parliament, and w ...

, working part-time for the '' Evening Post'', and graduated with a BA in 1967. He married Ros Henry in 1967. They moved to

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

, where King worked full-time as a journalist at the ''

Waikato Times The ''Waikato Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Hamilton, New Zealand, and owned by media business Stuff Ltd. It has a circulation to the greater Waikato region and became a tabloid paper in 2018. The newspaper has won the title of N ...

'' newspaper from 1968 to 1971, covering

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

issues, and also earned an MA in history at the

University of Waikato The University of Waikato (), established in 1964, is a Public university, public research university located in Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton, New Zealand. An additional campus is located in Tauranga. The university performs research in nume ...

in 1968. He spent three years from 1972 as a journalism tutor at Wellington Polytechnic, before becoming a self-employed writer. He returned to the University of Waikato in 1977 to complete a doctoral thesis on Te Puea Herangi, and was awarded a DPhil in 1978. In 1997 he received an honorary DLitt at Victoria. He was visiting professor of New Zealand Studies at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

in Washington, D.C., and taught or held fellowships at six other universities. Although not Māori himself, King was well known for his knowledge of

Māori culture Māori culture () is the customs, cultural practices, and beliefs of the Māori people of New Zealand. It originated from, and is still part of, Polynesians, Eastern Polynesian culture. Māori culture forms a distinctive part of Culture of New ...

and

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

. ''

New Zealand Listener The ''New Zealand Listener'' is a weekly New Zealand magazine that covers the political, cultural and literary life of New Zealand by featuring a variety of topics, including current events, politics, social issues, health, technology, arts, f ...

,'' one of New Zealand's most popular weekly magazines, dubbed King "the people's historian" for his efforts to write about and for the local populace. As a biographer, King published works on Te Puea Herangi,

Whina Cooper Dame Whina Cooper (born Hōhepine Te Wake; 9 December 1895 – 26 March 1994) was a New Zealand ( Māori elder), who worked for many years for the rights of her people, and particularly to improve the lot of Māori women. She is remembered for ...

, Frank Sargeson (1995) and

Janet Frame Janet Paterson Frame (28 August 1924 – 29 January 2004) was a New Zealand author. She is internationally renowned for her work, which includes novels, short stories, poetry, juvenile fiction, and an autobiography, and received numerous award ...

(2000). As a historian, King's works include ''Being Pākehā'' (1985), ''Moriori'' (1989), and ''The Penguin History of New Zealand'' (July 2003), the latter of which was, by February 2004, into its seventh edition. In all, King wrote, co-wrote and edited more than 30 books on a diverse range of New Zealand topics. He contributed to all five volumes of the ''

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography The ''Dictionary of New Zealand Biography'' (DNZB) is an encyclopedia or biographical dictionary containing biographies of over 3,000 deceased New Zealanders. It was first published as a series of print volumes from 1990 to 2000, went online ...

''. King was always sensitive to the fact that he was a

Pākehā ''Pākehā'' (or ''Pakeha''; ; ) is a Māori language, Māori-language word used in English, particularly in New Zealand. It generally means a non-Polynesians, Polynesian New Zealanders, New Zealander or more specifically a European New Zeala ...

writing about the Māori world and always sought to establish close personal relationships with those he wrote about and their '' whānau,

hapū In Māori language, Māori and New Zealand English, a ' ("subtribe", or "clan") functions as "the basic political unit within Māori society". A Māori person can belong to or have links to many hapū. Historically, each hapū had its own chief ...

'' and ''

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori, roughly means or , and is often translated as "tribe". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, and is typically pluralised as such in English. ...

'' authorities. He believed that all Pākehā had the same right to be called indigenous as Māori and disagreed with claims that only Māori have a spiritual association with mountains, lakes and rivers. He noted a recent tendency in literature to romanticise Māori life and indicated that certain aspects of Māori society in the pre-European era were harsher and less humane than the results of British colonisation. King's two children with his first wife Ros are the filmmaker

Jonathan King Jonathan King (born Kenneth George King; 6 December 1944) is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. He first came to prominence in 1965 when "Everyone's Gone to the Moon", a song that he wrote and sang while still an undergraduate, ...

and novelist Rachael King. The marriage ended amicably in 1974, while they were sharing a communal house with two other families. King was a diabetic and had

post-polio syndrome Post-polio syndrome (PPS, poliomyelitis sequelae) is a group of latent symptoms of poliomyelitis (polio), occurring in more than 80% of polio infections. The symptoms are caused by the damaging effects of the viral infection on the nervous syst ...

. He received six weeks of chemotherapy and radiotherapy for

throat cancer Head and neck cancer is a general term encompassing multiple cancers that can develop in the head and neck region. These include cancers of the mouth, tongue, gums and lips ( oral cancer), voice box ( laryngeal), throat ( nasopharyngeal, orophar ...

discovered in October 2003, which was in remission by 2004. Following King's death, an essay of his on John Money was published in an exhibition catalogue for the Eastern Southland Gallery in Gore; King had wanted to write a full biography on Money, but had been unable to get a sufficient grant to do so.

Death

King and his second wife, Maria Jungowska, were killed when their car crashed into a tree and caught fire near Maramarua, on State Highway 2 in north

Waikato The Waikato () is a region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipā District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton City, as well as Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the nort ...

. The cause of the crash was a mystery at the time, but a coroner's inquest determined it was most likely caused by driver inattention.

Honours and awards

In 1980, King won the Feltex television writers' award, and was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship. In the 1988 New Year Honours, he was appointed an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

, for services to literature. Also in 1988, he received a Fulbright Visiting Writers' Fellowship. He won several prizes at the

New Zealand Book Awards The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are literary awards presented annually in New Zealand. The awards began in 1996 as the merger of two literary awards events: the New Zealand Book Awards, which ran from 1976 to 1995, and the Goodman Fielder Wa ...

: the award for non-fiction in 1978; the Wattie Book of the Year Award in 1984 and 1990; and in 2004 his book, ''The Penguin History of New Zealand'', was overwhelmingly voted the readers' choice award winner. He received New Zealand Literary Fund awards in 1987 and 1989, and was the Burns Fellow at the

University of Otago The University of Otago () is a public university, public research university, research collegiate university based in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Founded in 1869, Otago is New Zealand's oldest university and one of the oldest universities in ...

in 1998–1999. King was winner of the 2003 Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in non-fiction, and the same year ''The New Zealand Herald'' named him New Zealander of the Year.

Legacy

New Zealand’s largest writing fellowship is the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers’ Fellowship, it "supports established writers to work on a major project over two or more years". Past fellows are: Owen Marshall, Vincent O’Sullivan, CK Stead, Rachel Barrowman, Neville Peat,

Fiona Kidman Dame Fiona Judith Kidman ( Eakin; born 26 March 1940) is a New Zealand novelist, poet, scriptwriter and short story writer. She grew up in Northland, and worked as a librarian and a freelance journalist early in her career. She began writing ...

, Philip Simpson and in 2023 Danny Keenan. The Michael King Writers Centre was established shortly after his death. Based at the historic Signalman's House in Devonport, Auckland, the centre offers writing residencies for early career and experienced writers.

Bibliography

*''Moko: Maori Tattooing in the 20th Century'' (1972) *''Make it News: how to approach the media'' (1974) *''Face Value: a study in Maori portraiture'' (1975) *''Te Ao Hurihuri: Aspects of Maoritanga'' (ed.) (1975) *''Te Puea: a biography'' (1977) *''Tihe Mauri Ora: Aspects of Maoritanga'' (ed.) (1978) *''New Zealand: Its Land and Its People'' (1979) *''The Collector: A Biography of Andreas Reischek'' (1981) *''Being Maori – John Rangihau'' (1981) *''New Zealanders at War'' (1981) *''A Place to Stand: a history of Turangawaewae Marae'' (1981) *''G.F. von Tempsky, Artist and Adventurer'' (with Rose Young) (1981) *''New Zealand in Colour'' (1982) *''Maori: A Photographic and Social History'' (1983) *''Whina: A Biography of Whina Cooper'' (1983) *''Te Puea Herangi: from darkness to light'' (1984) *''Being Pakeha: An Encounter with New Zealand and the Maori Renaissance'' (1985) *''Auckland'' (with Eric Taylor) (1985) *''Kawe Korero: A guide to reporting Maori activities'' (1985) *''Death of the Rainbow Warrior'' (1986) *''New Zealand'' (1987) *''After the War: New Zealand since 1945'' (1988) *''One of the Boys?: changing views of masculinity in New Zealand'' (1988) *''Apirana Ngata: e tipu e rea'' (1988) *''Moriori: A People Rediscovered'' (1989) *''A Land Apart: The Chatham Islands of New Zealand'' (1990) *''Pākehā: The quest for identity in New Zealand'' (1991) *''Hidden Places: A Memoir in Journalism'' (1992) *''Coromandel'' (1993) *''Frank Sargeson: A Life'' (1995) *''God's Farthest Outpost: A History of Catholics in New Zealand'' (research by Merle van de Klundert) (1997), *''Nga Iwi o te Motu: One thousand years of Maori history'' (1997) *''Being Pākehā Now: reflections and recollections of a white native'' (1999) *''Wrestling with the Angel: A Life of Janet Frame'' (2000) *''Tomorrow Comes the Song: A Life of Peter Fraser'' (with Michael Bassett) (2000) *''Tread Softly For You Tread On My Life: new & collected writings'' (2001) *''An Inward Sun: The World of Janet Frame'' (2002) *''At the Edge of Memory: A family story'' (2002) *''Penguin History of New Zealand'' (2003) *''The Silence Beyond'' (2011) (selected writings)

References

External links

New Zealand Book Council biographyMichael King Writers' Centre

An armchair interview with Michael King
filmed in 1991. Available through NZ On Screen
History Man
a documentary about Michael King made in 2004, just after he died. {{DEFAULTSORT:King, Michael New Zealand biographers New Zealand male biographers 20th-century New Zealand historians Road incident deaths in New Zealand New Zealand Officers of the Order of the British Empire University of Waikato alumni Victoria University of Wellington alumni People educated at St Patrick's College, Silverstream People educated at Sacred Heart College, Auckland 1945 births 2004 deaths 20th-century biographers 20th-century New Zealand male writers 21st-century New Zealand historians