Case 14
- Writers of shorter fiction
![S.E. Blacke. <em>The Dean’s romance and other stories.</em> Dunedin: New Zealand Tablet Printing Co., [1920]](https://www.reedgallery.co.nz/__data/assets/image/0011/511211/14a.jpg)
S.E. Blacke. The Dean’s romance and other stories. Dunedin: New Zealand Tablet Printing Co., [1920]
Sara
Eliza Mary Blacke (1870?-1930) was a writer of shorter fiction who lived in
South Dunedin when she wrote The Dean’s romance,
one of her later works. This volume of short stories contains several with
Dunedin settings. Blacke taught music in Balclutha and later Dunedin, and her
stories typically have a Dunedin or South Otago setting. Her other works
include Flights from the land of the
bell-bird and rata and The riven
cloud, the latter written under the pseudonym of William Ross.
S.E. Blacke. The Dean’s romance and other stories. Dunedin: New Zealand Tablet Printing Co., [1920]
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O.E. Middleton. The stone and other stories. Auckland: Pilgrim Press, 1959.
Osman
Edward Middleton (1925-2010) was born in Christchurch, but came to Dunedin in
1970 to become Burns Fellow, and lived here for the remainder of his life. His
home was in Royal Terrace, a block away from his friend Charles Brasch in
Heriot Row. He suffered from retinitis pigmentosa and was blind from middle
age. An early collection The stone and
other stories includes A married man,
the story of a father struggling to deal with his grief within the culture of a
working class Kiwi male, following the loss of his daughter.
O.E. Middleton. A walk on the beach. London: Michael Joseph, 1964.
Throughout
his life, Middleton worked in a wide variety of (sometimes manual) occupations
and this is reflected in his vernacular style and his interest in ordinary
working people. His stories typically focus on outsiders who are
sympathetically portrayed. His diverse experience is reflected in stories in A walk on the beach: The collector takes place in a US
prison, based upon his experience as an illegal immigrant there; and The doss-house and the duchess is set in
an itinerant seaman’s world in England.
