Allen Curnow, in his 1963 essay “New Zealand Literature: the Case for a Working Definition”, placed Roderick Finlayson in a list of nine of “New Zealand’s best writers of the nineteen thirties”, who “firmly rejected the sentimental pseudo-patriotism” of earlier New Zealand writers and “accepted the disciplines of uncompromising fidelity to experience, of an unqualified responsibility to the truths of themselves, in this place, at that time” (Curnow 200). The list included Frank Sargeson and John Mulgan as other writers of fiction, along with D’Arcy Cresswell, R.A.K. Mason, A.R.D. Fairburn, Charles Brasch, Denis Glover, and Ursula Bethell as poets (with Curnow himself, as poet, the unnamed tenth). This was high company indeed for the relatively unknown Finlayson.…
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Citation: Jones, Lawrence. "Roderick Finlayson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 July 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1534, accessed 21 November 2024.]
