Case 7
- Pioneer biography
A.H. Reed. The gumdiggers: the story of kauri gum. Wellington: Reed, 1972.
The gumdiggers is A.H. Reed’s account of the fossil product of vast kauri forests, long-buried resin dug from the ground by hardy men, and the industry that helped lay the foundation of Auckland’s prosperity.
Reed’s personal connection with the industry in which he worked in his youth is apparent in the dust jacket art. The painting by Conrad Frisboe is based upon a photograph taken by Reed’s brother Frank in about 1896. The figure on the right is the Reed’s father, J.W. Reed, gum-digging near the family homestead.
Sheila Natusch. On the edge of the bush: women in early Southland. Invercargill: Craig Printing for the Southland Branch of the I.W.Y. Committee of New Zealand, 1976.
Sheila Natusch (1926-2017) was an Invercargill-born writer and illustrator notable for her natural history works focusing on southern New Zealand and Stewart Island. Herself a descendent of the pioneering Traill family, she authored for International Women’s Year this account of Māori and Pākehā women in the broader Southland region from the point of European contact till the end of the 19th century. The jacket design is also by Natusch.
Sheila Natusch. On the edge of the bush: women in early Southland. Invercargill: Craig Printing for the Southland Branch of the I.W.Y. Committee of New Zealand, 1976.
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G.C. Petersen. Forest homes: the story of the Scandinavian settlements in the Forty Mile Bush, New Zealand. Wellington: Reed, 1956.
A.H.& A.W. Reed published many local histories, including this saga of pioneering Scandinavian settlement in the Wellington and Hawkes Bay districts. The jacket design is by Ernest Mervyn Taylor (1906-64), who is best known as a wood engraver, but also worked as a publisher and commercial artist. Taylor used wood engraving in his artwork and as a tool for illustrating, as shown in numerous book covers.
G.C. Petersen. Forest homes: the story of the Scandinavian settlements in the Forty Mile Bush, New Zealand. Wellington: Reed, 1956.
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L.S. Rickard. Strangers in the wilderness. Auckland: Minerva, 1967.
This history of New Zealand’s pioneer farmers focusses on the first few decades of European settlement. The jacket design is by Garth Tapper (1927-1999), a graduate of the Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland. Tapper subsequently taught at Elam for many years before becoming a full-time painter. Often described as a ‘social realist’ artist, he is known for robust depictions of New Zealanders in everyday situations. The present cover is evocative of the hardships of New Zealand pioneering life.
--Hamish Thompson. Coverup: the art of the book cover in New Zealand. Auckland: Godwit, 2007.
Elsie K. Morton. Crusoes of Sunday Island. Wellington: Reed, 1964.
Crusoes of Sunday Island was promoted in Reed’s jacket blurb as a desert-island story containing elements of both Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson. First published in London in 1957, this story of the pioneer Bell family on Raoul (Sunday) Island in the Kermadecs is based on an account told to New Zealand author Elsie K. Morton (1886-1968) by Bessie Bell, who was nine when the family landed on Raoul Island.
