NEW EDITOR FOR THE LISTENER

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 509, 25 March 1949, Page 11

NEW EDITOR FOR THE LISTENER

H. HOLCROFI, the well-known * essayist and former editor of The Southland Times, has been appointed editor of The Listener to succeed Oliver Duff, who has reached the retiring age. Mr. Holcroft was born in Rangiora in 1902, and was educated at the Elmwood School and Christchurch Boys’ High School. At the age of 19 he went to Australia, where he earned his living for five years as a free lance journalist before returning to New Zealand to become sub-editor of The Weekly Press in Christchurch. In 1928 his first novel was published, and when The Weekly Press ceased publication he went to ‘England. There he continued to write ‘novels, worked as a free-lance journalist again, and travelled widely on the Continent. In 1930 he returned to New Zealand and continued to write fiction and literary essays, many of which appeared in the Christchurch Press. In 1937 he became leader-writer on The Southland Times, and he was acting editor of*that paper for three years during the war. He became editor in 1946, a position which he held until his resignation in 1948, 4 Mr. Holcroft’s association with UNESCO began in 1946, when he was. appointed a member of the interim com- | mittee to prepare a constitution for the National Commission for UNESCO, In 1948 he was made a member of the Commission, and he represented New Zealand at Paris last year at a meeting of the Social Sciences section of UNESCO, and later at the Third General Conference of UNESCO held at Beirut. In all he has had seven books published. His three novels appeared in England between 1928 and 1931, and in 1940 his long essay The Deepening Stream won first prize in the essay section of the Centennial Literary Competitioris. The essay was published in New Zealand by the Caxton Press, and several of his other literary and philosophical essaysiwere later collected in two volumes called The Waiting Hills and Timeless World. In 1946 a collection of essays entitled Encircling Seas appeared, and a W.E.A. lecture delivered by him was recently printed under the title Creative Problems in New Zealand.