THE WRITERS' CONFERENCE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 24, Issue 623, 8 June 1951, Page 5

THE WRITERS' CONFERENCE

Sir,-Congratulations for your editorial on the Writers’ Conference and for the splendid atmosphere-piece on the same subject written by "Augustus." If "Augustus" conveyed exactly the atmosphere of the conference with its tension and byplay, so did your editorial state the conclusions reached by most writers at the end of the conference, A rift between the older generation and the younger writers there was, but a rift that had begun to heal as the writers got together, found that a younger, or older man, could still be a good fellow despite different views. To me, this meeting of "the other side," at first with clenched fists, and later with an outstretched hand, was one of the best things to come of the conference, and the development of our. literature should benefit by it. With regard to the proposed Writers’ Union: the points you raise editorially were realised at the outset by the instigators of the plan, and the idea of a union or society was dropped in favour of more peaceful and unifying tactics. Writers of all generations of thought and activity met in harmony on the

first north-bound boat from Lyttelton after the conference, and gave ample evidence that there was more goodwill than bitterness in the air, and that writers could work, all together, in a common cause though in _ different channels.

LOUIS

JOHNSON

(Wellington).