D’Arcy Cresswell, 1896-1960

Abstract

D’Arcy Cresswell’s reputation is not the one that he coveted. He is not remotely the poet he believed himself to be, and, judged on his verse alone, would long have been forgotten. He remains, however, one of New Zealand literature’s outstanding identities. His value is principally symptomatic, exemplifying in extravagant gestures the signature dilemmas of mid-century provincialism. But the idiosyncratically quotable prose of his two volumes of autobiography exerts a strong fascination in its own right, even as readers inevitably struggle with the questionable attitudes and foibles of its author.