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Endless Yet Never
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Dark Night
Out on that hallowed ground I felt my own consciousness go, not into exile or oblivion but into what was round about . . . like McCahon when he was lost in here, I had surrendered my identity; I had, like him, become just another entity among entities: as the trees pulled up moisture from the earth and exhaled it through their leaves into the air, so too did I inhale and exhale, so too did the insects, the birds, the animals; clouds and stars were likewise mortal bodies that expanded and contracted rhythmically for a long or short while then passed away. In 1984, in the palm grove in Sydney's Botanic Gardens, the artist Colin McCahon went missing. He was found by police early next morning in...
Chronicle of the Unsung
Chronicle of the Unsung mingles biography and autobiography and is an unusual work, beautifully written and often powerful and moving, which fits no categories. Four quite separate periods or episodes in Edmond's life are linked by a number of themes and are often the excuse for discussions of historical figures, typically on society's margins, or reflections on the nature of art and its relation to personal life. The sections are set in Europe, Australia, Fiji and New Zealand and one of the fascinations of the work is the skilful way in which Edmond conveys the power, often sinister and disturbing, of the places in which he has lived and the impact the locations seem to have on his own personal life. Chronicle of the Unsung thus becomes at one level an account of Edmond's own development, of his process of self-discovery, and is another variant on the theme that has always interested him, the nature of the creative personality. The last section concerns a trip to a school reunion at Ohakune and deals with the author's relations with his well-known family and especially his mother.
Barefoot Years
The myriad of the living in all of their many forms, defunct, mutant, revenant or otherwise; traversing memory’s infinite field. Martin Edmond’s Barefoot Years is a memoir in which the author attempts to re-inhabit the lost domain of childhood. It is evocative and poignant, detailed yet fragmentary, full of half-forgotten things: what may be recovered also reveals that which is gone forever. These remembered beginnings, both familiar and strange, take us back to when a world was being made. This BWB Text forms the first part of a full memoir by Martin Edmond to be published by Bridget Williams Books in 2015.
The Autobiography of My Father
Awarded third place in the 1993 Wattie Book Award, Martin Edmond's The Autobiography of My Father is a pioneering work of creative non-fiction in which Edmond transforms his grief at the death of his father, Trevor Edmond, into a fascinating memoir and love letter. Two major sections of The Autobiography of My Father allow us to meet Trevor Edmond in his own words through taped interviews and confessional notes that he wrote for his psychiatrists. The book also presents a counterview to the opinions expressed in the celebrated autobiography of Lauris Edmond (Martin's mother), a leading poet and public figure. This is a deeply moving evocation by a gifted writer.
Histories of the Future
Essay collection by Martin Edmond, images by Maggie Hall.
The Expatriates
The connection between a colony and its founder, centre and margin, is always paradoxical. Where once Britain sent colonists out into the world, now the descendents of those colonists return to interrogate the centre. This is a book about four of these returners: Harold Williams, journalist, linguist, Foreign Editor of The Times; Ronald Syme, spy, libertarian, historian of ancient Rome; John Platts-Mills, radical lawyer and political activist; and Joseph Burney Trapp, librarian, scholar and protector of culture. These were men, born in remote New Zealand, who achieved fame in Europe—even as they were lost sight of at home. Men who became, from the point of view of their country of origin, expatriates. A writer of penetrating insight, Martin Edmond explores the intersections of past and present in the lives of these four extraordinary individuals. Their stories combine, in the hands of this award-winning writer, to a moving reflection upon New Zealand’s place in the world, then and now.
The Resurrection of Philip Clairmont
This mingling of biography, autobiography and art history has at its centre the life and art of the painter Philip Clairmont, a tortured figure who died by his own hand in 1984. Meeting those who were close to Clairmont and observing where he lived and what he left behind, Martin Edmond makes his own journey. But he also brings to light facts not previously known or understood about Clairmont's childhood and family, his education and growth as an artist, his ideas about art and the artistic vocation. He explores his relationships with fellow artists and with mentors as well as his more personal roles as son, husband and father. Edmond is unswerving in his respect for the great Clairmont paintings and in his compassionate identification with the totality of his artistic commitment.
Timelights
Part prose-poetry, part visual essay, Timelights informs, entertains, questions, philosophises and reminisces as it carries the reader through its exploration of memory, place, and meaning. Follow the narrative from the turning winds blowing through a Māori cemetery, to melting snow in the mountains of Japan, to the gritty sights and smells of Sydney's streets. Timelights leaves the reader feeling oddly melancholic, reflecting on the passage of time; but may also cause euphoria.
Houses, Days, Skies
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