Frank William Nielsen "Niel" Wright (born 30 September 1933) is a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

poet, literary critic, bibliographer, publisher, and cultural and political commentator. His major piece of work is his epic poem ''The Alexandrians'', self published in 120 books between 1961 and 2007 and totaling some 36,000 lines. He has since self published 1045 post-Alexandrian poems totaling 8331 lines, of which 681 are

triolet A triolet (, ) is almost always a stanza poem of eight lines, though stanzas with as few as seven lines and as many as nine or more have appeared in its history. Its rhyme scheme is ABaAabAB (capital letters represent lines repeated verbatim) and ...

s. He has also published extensive notes to ''The Alexandrians''.

Life

Born in

Sydenham Sydenham may refer to: Places Australia * Sydenham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Sydenham railway station, Sydney * Sydenham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne ** Sydenham railway line, the name of the Sunbury railway line, Melbourne un ...

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

of mixed French, Scandinavian and English ancestry. His first school was Elmwood in Merivale, his second

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

. He then attended

Christchurch Boys' High School Christchurch Boys' High School, often referred to as CBHS, is a single sex state secondary school in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is situated on a site between the suburbs of Riccarton, New Zealand, Riccarton and Fendalton, to the west of ce ...

. Wright moved to

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

in 1953, at first off and on, then permanently from the 1960s. He attended

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 ...

, earning a BA and MA (Hons) in English, followed by a PhD on ''

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...

''. His career was spent in the New Zealand public service.Roger Robinson, Niel Wright in ''Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature'', OUP, 1998 p.597 He is married with one son, one daughter and two grandchildren. He lives in Wellington.

Literary output

Wright is a prolific author and publisher of his work, he has over 1000 entries listed in the

National Library of New Zealand The National Library of New Zealand () is charged with the obligation to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations" (National Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Mātauranga) Act 2003). Under the ...

. Almost all are self-published under his imprint Cultural and Political Books, Wellington. His critical writings survey New Zealand poetry from 1898 on, covering mainly Georgian but also a few earlier and later writers. From 1985, he has focused on the

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female per ...

and Jacobean dramatists, and since 2002, increasingly on

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

. His major books are ''Shakespeare's Ongoing Composition'' (2008) and ''Argybargy and the Big D'' (2009). He has published essays on numerous New Zealand writers including Maude Ruby Basham (Aunt Daisy),

James K. Baxter James Keir Baxter (29 June 1926 – 22 October 1972) was a New Zealand poet and playwright. He was also known as an activist for the preservation of Māori culture. He is one of New Zealand's most well-known and controversial literary figures. ...

, George Bouzaid, Alan Claudius Brassington, Alan Brunton,

Charles Brasch Charles Orwell Brasch (27 July 1909 – 20 May 1973) was a New Zealand poet, literary editor and arts patron. He was the founding editor of the literary journal ''Landfall'', and through his 20 years of editing the journal, had a significant i ...

, Alfred Edward Caddick, Alex Calder,

Alistair Te Ariki Campbell Alistair Te Ariki Campbell ONZM (25 June 1925 – 16 August 2009) was a poet, playwright, and novelist. Born in the Cook Islands, Campbell was the son of a Cook Island Māori mother and a Pākehā father, who both died when he was young, leadin ...

, Ronald Brian Castle, R. E. Coury, Charles Doyle, Kate Gerard, Patricia Godsiff, C. W. Grace, Arnold Grierson Lamont Cork, D'Arcy Cresswell, Peter Crisp,

Allen Curnow Thomas Allen Monro Curnow (17 June 1911 – 23 September 2001) was a New Zealand poet and journalist. Life Curnow was born in Timaru, New Zealand, the son of a fourth generation New Zealander, an Anglican clergyman, and he grew up in a relig ...

Eileen Duggan Eileen May Duggan (21 May 1894 – 10 December 1972) was a New Zealand poet and journalist, from an Irish Roman Catholic family. She worked in Wellington as a journalist, and wrote a weekly article for the Catholic weekly ''The New Zealand ...

, E. L. Eyre, Bernard Gadd, Michele Leggott, Arthur Frederick Thomas Chorlton, Leigh Davis, A. R. D. Fairburn, Gerald Fitzgerald, Patricia Fry, Ruth Gilbert, Denis Glover, Alexander Connell Hanlon,

Robin Hyde Robin Hyde, the pseudonym used by Iris Guiver Wilkinson (19 January 1906 – 23 August 1939), was a South African-born New Zealand poet, journalist and novelist. Early life Wilkinson was born in Cape Town to an English father and an Australia ...

, Noel Farr Hoggard, Louis Johnson, John Liddell Kelly, Dennis List, Iain Lonie,

Bill Manhire William Manhire (born 27 December 1946) is a New Zealand poet, short story writer, emeritus professor, and New Zealand's inaugural Poet Laureate (1997–1998). He founded New Zealand's first creative writing course at Victoria University of We ...

Katherine Mansfield Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer and critic who was an important figure in the Literary modernism, modernist movement. Her works are celebrated across the world and have been ...

, Charles Allan Marris, Frank McKay, Philip Mincher,

Barry Mitcalfe Barry Mitcalfe (31 March 1930 – 1986) was a New Zealand poet, editor, and peace activist. Born in 1930 in Wellington, New Zealand, Mitcalfe studied at Victoria University of Wellington, where he received a Diploma in Education in 1962, and a Ba ...

Geoffrey Potocki de Montalk Count Geoffrey Wladislas Vaile Potocki de Montalk (10 June 1903 – 14 April 1997) was a poet, polemicist, and pretender to the Polish throne. Born in New Zealand, he was the eldest son of Auckland architect Robert Wladislas (Potocki) de Mont ...

, Peter Munz, Walter Edward Murphy, Marjory Lydia Nicholls, Esma North, Victor O'Leary, W. H. Oliver, Vincent O'Sullivan, Charles Stuart Perry, Mark Pirie, Mary E. Richmond,

Harry Ricketts Harry Ricketts (born 1950) is a poet, biographer, editor, anthologist, critic, academic, literary scholar and cricket writer. He has written biographies of Rudyard Kipling and of a dozen British First World War poets. Life Ricketts was bor ...

, Betty Riddell, J. H. E.Schroder, Rosemary Seymour,

Kendrick Smithyman William Kendrick Smithyman (9 October 1922 – 28 December 1995) was a New Zealand poet and one of the most prolific of that nation's poets in the 20th century. Family and early life Smithyman was born in Te Kōpuru, a milling and logging ...

, Charles Spear,

C. K. Stead Christian Karlson "Karl" Stead (born 17 October 1932) is a New Zealand writer whose works include novels, poetry, short stories, and literary criticism. He is one of New Zealand's most well-known and internationally celebrated writers. Early l ...

, John Pyne Snadden, J. E. Weir,

Karl Wolfskehl Karl Wolfskehl (17 September 1869 – 30 June 1948) was a German Jewish author and translator. He wrote poetry, prose and drama in German, and translated from French, English, Italian, Hebrew, Latin and Old/Middle High German into German. Bi ...

and the Australian writer

Pamela Travers Pamela Lyndon Travers ( ; born Helen Lyndon Goff; 9 August 1899 – 23 April 1996) was an Australian-born British writer who spent most of her career in England. She is best known for the Mary Poppins (book series), ''Mary Poppins'' series of ...

. Among the British authors he has written on are

Rupert Brooke Rupert Chawner Brooke (3 August 1887 – 23 April 1915The date of Brooke's death and burial under the Julian calendar that applied in Greece at the time was 10 April. The Julian calendar was 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar.) was an En ...

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian literature, Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentar ...

R. G. Collingwood Robin George Collingwood (; 22 February 1889 – 9 January 1943) was an English philosopher, historian and archaeologist. He is best known for his philosophical works, including ''The Principles of Art'' (1938) and the posthumously published ' ...

Frances Cornford Frances Crofts Cornford (née Darwin; 30 March 1886 – 19 August 1960) was an English poet. Biography She was the daughter of the botanist Francis Darwin and Newnham College, Cambridge, Newnham College fellow Ellen Wordsworth Darwin, Ellen ...

William Davenant Sir William Davenant (baptised 3 March 1606 – 7 April 1668), also spelled D'Avenant, was an English poet and playwright. Along with Thomas Killigrew, Davenant was one of the rare figures in English Renaissance theatre whose career spanned bo ...

Richard Edwardes Richard Edwardes (also Edwards, circa 1523 – 31 October 1566) was an English poet, playwright, and composer; he was made a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and was master of the singing boys. He was known for his comedies and interludes. Life ...

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

John Maxwell Edmonds John Maxwell Edmonds (21 January 1875 – 18 March 1958) was an English classicist, poet and dramatist and the author of several celebrated martial epitaphs. Biography Edmonds was born in Stroud, Gloucestershire on 21 January 1875. His father ...

, George Rostrevor Hamilton,

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...

John Marston John Marston is a character in the ''Red Dead'' video game series by Rockstar Games. He is the main playable protagonist of the 2010 video game ''Red Dead Redemption'', wherein he must deal with the decline of the Wild West while being force ...

Thomas Middleton Thomas Middleton (baptised 18 April 1580 – July 1627; also spelt ''Midleton'') was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. He, with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson, was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jac ...

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant. His 1667 epic poem ''Paradise Lost'' was written in blank verse and included 12 books, written in a time of immense religious flux and politic ...

Anthony Munday Anthony Munday (or Monday) (1560?10 August 1633) was an English playwright and miscellaneous writer. He was baptized on 13 October 1560 in St Gregory by St Paul's, London, and was the son of Christopher Munday, a stationer, and Jane Munday. He ...

Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen Military Cross, MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of Trench warfare, trenches and Chemi ...

George Peele George Peele (baptised 25 July 1556 – buried 9 November 1596) was an English translator, poet, and dramatist, who is most noted for his supposed, but not universally accepted, collaboration with William Shakespeare on the play ''Titus Andronic ...

, Geoffrey Pollett,

William Rowley William Rowley (c. 1585 – February 1626) was an English Jacobean dramatist, best known for works written in collaboration with more successful writers. His date of birth is estimated to have been c. 1585; he was buried on 11 February 1626 in ...

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was an English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame durin ...

Anthony Thwaite Anthony Simon Thwaite OBE (23 June 1930 – 22 April 2021) was an English poet and critic, widely known as the editor of his friend Philip Larkin's collected poems and letters. Early years and education Born in Chester, England, to Yorkshir ...

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of ...

and

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poetry, Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romanticism, Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Balla ...

. He has also written on

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

. Among the New Zealand bibliographers and critics he has written on are Peter Alcock, Rowan Gibbs, Don McKenzie and Joan Stevens. He has published bibliographies of Ivan Bootham,

Jeremy Commons Jeremy Paul Axford Commons (born 17 December 1933) is a New Zealand opera historian, scholar, impresario and librettist. He is an authority on nineteenth-century Italian opera and has published major works on the composers Gaetano Donizetti and N ...

, Mark Pirie and Michael O'Leary. Wright's published works include plays, filmscripts, novels, short stories and two verse novellas. His earliest plays date from the 1950s. From 1984 all his plays have been written in verse. They include ''Orestes in Phthia'', ''Apollonius at Rome'' and ''Women of Sparta''. He has also written three filmscripts: ''Mysterious Eve'', ''Wolf's Gorge, or Operation Fullscale'', and ''Across the Ningthi''. His novels include ''Underprivileged Lovers'', ''Strangers in the Blood'', ''Caisson'', and ''The Last Time I Saw Turfit''. His latest is ''Weston Burley's Business in Great Waters'' (2007). He has also written ''The Fall of the Modern West'', a book on the philosophy of history. He has published two major works of literary autobiography: ''Brilliantly Wright'' (1989) and ''Being, Obsession and Besetment'' (2007). Wright's most recent work is ''The Pop Artist's Garland: Selected Poems 1952–2009'', drawing on his epic poem ''The Alexandrians'' as well as his post-Alexandrian work.

Reviews and critical studies

*James Bertram, "The Last Maker", ''New Zealand Listener'', 12 August 1978, p. 71 *Peter Dronke, Reviews, ''Landfall'', September 1964, pp. 277–280 *John Sebastian Hales, ''An introductory essay: Niel Wright and his epic'', Wellington (author), 1976. *Chris Hilliard,"Mad by Auckland Standards", ''The Pandar 3'', Autumn 1998, Auckland *Robert Johnson, "Extracts from a growing epic", ''Palmerston North Evening Standard'', 12 September 1980 *Catherine Robertson, "The Perverse Poet", ''The Dominion Post'' "''Indulgence''" magazine, 29 December 2007, p. 3 *Joe Wylie, Review, ''Takahe 54'', 2005

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Niel 1933 births New Zealand poets New Zealand male poets New Zealand literary critics Victoria University of Wellington alumni Living people New Zealand publishers (people) People educated at Christchurch Boys' High School