Jean Devanny Going to Sydney

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 738, 10 August 1929, Page 1

Jean Devanny Going to Sydney

N.Z. Author and the Labour Movement OPPOSES STATE CENSORSHIP Dark, deep-set eyes; smooth closelycropped hair brushed back from a high forehead, a rather boyish figure—that is a first impression of Mrs. Jean Devanny, author of the banned novel, “The Butcher Shop.” This New Zealand author seems to have attained more fame overseas (if one can judge by requests from publishers for books and from society papers for photographs) than

she has in New Zealand, despite the fact that “The Butcher Shop” did not command a great public even when it was banned. But Mrs. Devanny realises that first novels merely pave the way for future recognition. At present she is living at 15 Mount Street, Auckland, until she sails for Sydney on Tuesday. In Sydney there is some lecturing to be done, mostly on books and morality, and then s. Devanny will sail for England and success—she hopes. Words poUr from this author when she begins to talk on her favourite subjects—the Labour Party and the improvement of the status of women and children, particularly children. Her eyes flash with intense fervour, for she takes those subjects very seriously. “I will always write, even if I never publish another line," she declared this morning during a chat at her home, “and I shall always work for the uplift of women and children. The child, in our civilisation, gets no con sideration whatever.”

But Mrs. Devanny is not yet ready to take the platform and expound her theories regarding the education and up-bringing of children. That is for another day. Her theories will no doubt create a great deal of interest in the feminine world.

“My husband and I worked with the pioneers of the Labour movement in New Zealand —Holland, Semple, Webb and the others," she said. “Some day I hope to enter politics under the Labour banner, but I want to see the world first.” Mrs. Devanny has never oeen out of New Zealand. She was born at Collingwood. in the South Island, and then went to Dunedin, where she studied music and elocution. Later she lived in Wellington. Her head is full of plots for books, she says. “Riven” has just been pub lished in England, and one of her short stories, quite the worst, she thinks, was included among the 1 t stories of 1927. Now she is working on a new novel, the theme of which is music, with a descendant of Beethoven as a central figure. There is also a book on the emotional life of the Maori which sue is anxious to get to her publishers as soon as possible. The subject of book censorship is one of Mrs Devanny’s favourite topics at the moment. “1 am in favour ot obscenity laws.” she declares, “but i am opposed to State censorship which conceals only one particular kind of obscenity.”