A FURTHER CHAPTER

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 249, 31 March 1944, Page 5

A FURTHER CHAPTER

Dumas-Reed Collaboration

(Written for "The Listener" by

PAT

LAWLOR

HERE is another chapter to A.M.’s article on Frank Reed, of Whangarei, and his famous Dumas collection. Few people in this country are aware that Mr. Reed has played a prominent part in two Dumas_ translations that have a particular interest for New Zealand. In 1937 there was published in London a book entitled The Whalers, which’ was described on the jacket as "a vivid and exciting story of adventure and exploration in New Zealand waters from 1837 to 1846." The joint authors were Dr. Felix Maynard and Alexandre Dumas. The translator was Frank Reed, of Whangarei. To complete the New Zealand association, the introduction and notes were by Johannes C. Andersen. ‘For some strange reason few copies of the book were sold in this country, even though it ran into two editions. Certainly, if it were available to-day, it would sell by the hundreds, for The Whalers is a fascinating book. Dr. Maynard was the surgeon of a French whaler visiting New Zealand in the ’thirties and "forties of last century, and the story of his adventures is full of colour and excitement. The second part of this extra DumasReed chapter occurs in March, 1944,

with the arrival in this country of three copies only of The Journal of Madame Giovanni, by Alexandre Dumas, with a foreword by Frank Reed. The Journal has been translated into English for the first time and much of it concerns the early days in New Zealand. In format and typography the book is a most appealing volume for the biblophile; four hundred pages with a striking jacket and cloth cover in brilliant red and gold. One could tell at a glance that the book had been published in America, where apparently war-time economy in book production is not as yet obligatory on publishers. The imprint on the Giovanni Journal is that of the Liveright Publishing Corporation of New York, who appear to specialise in publications as far apart as Boccaccio and St. Augustine. I have made inquiries to see whether The Journal of Madame Giovanni is to be made available to New Zealand readers, but so far the publishers (as appeared to happen in the case of The Whalers) have not realised that on a basis of population this country is one of the biggest book buyers in the world. Conceivably these oversea publishers, having dipped into the Dumas-Reed collaborations, and having read of the Maoris, wild whalers and wars, decided that we are not as yet sufficiently civi-

lised to be trusted with more than a few copies of their publications. Madame’s Eventful Journey However, we must secure supplies of Madame Giovanni’s Journal somehow, for it is well worth reading. Madame was a young and beautiful Frenchwoman who in the 1850’s journeyed with her husband (one of the wildest speculators one could imagine) to New Zealand. They landed in Auckland (which was, apparently, as lively those days as it is in 1944). The pictures conveyed through the Journal are at times delightfully naive-very different from the nauseating revelations to be found in some of our modern diaries. The Dumas imagination is working quaintly all the time but is not wholly divorced from fact. Madame travels to Hobart, to Tahiti (where she meets Queen Pomare), to San Francisco (which proves an underwriter’s nightmare), to Hawaii, and to Mexico. As a contrast to the stark realism of the modern writer, the Journal makes most refreshing reading. Already it has received remarkable notices in America, including a two-page review in Time. The New York Times describes it as "a more engaging and imaginative travelling companion than Captain Cook, Livingstone, and Frank Buck put together," which is high praise indeed. The translator, Marguerite Eyer Wilbur, pays tribute in her introduction to the assistance given*to her in her work by Mr. Reed, and also by John Barr, vf Auckland. Both of these gentlemen have copies of the new book and I, who have done nothing but write these few lines, feel exceedingly fortunate in possessing the third copy.