NEW WAKEFIELD BIOGRAPHY BY MISS IRMA O’CONNOR

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 683, 7 June 1929, Page 14

NEW WAKEFIELD BIOGRAPHY BY MISS IRMA O’CONNOR

A new biography of Edward Gibbon Wakefield will shortly be on sale in New Zealand. It is written by Miss Irma O’Connor, a great-granddaughter of the famous colonist. The offer of a contract to write the book was made to Miss O'Connor (who is well known in Auckland) by the London publishers, Selwyn and Blount, just prior to her leaving England. Returning to New Zealand, Miss O’Connor, who owns much interesting material relating to Wakefield’s life, spent several weeks in Wellington, where she was able to secure important information from the files of early newspapers and the Parliamentary records in the General Assembly Library, and from letters In the possession of the Turnbull Library. Later she spent some weeks in Christchurch, where several large portfolios of letters from Wakefield to Godley, Rintoul and others are preserved in the museum. These were made accessible to her by Professor Speight, and yielded much of interest. The biography will be fully illustrated, chiefly from portraits preserved by Wakefield’s relatives in England, or which passed into Miss O’Connor’s possession through her grandfather, Jerningham Wakefield. Two photographs were “run to earth” in the Mitchell Library in Sydney. Miss O’Connor was formerly engaged in journalistic work in Auckland. She has been a free-lance journalist in England, and for some time held an appointment on the publicity staff at the office of the High Commissioner in London.