Reappraising Unjustly Neglected James Courage

“New Zealand-born James Courage is one of those fine writers who, though he enjoyed considerable success in his lifetime, has now more or less slipped from view. None of the eight novels he published between 1933 and 1961 is in print and most of them are impossible to find second-hand,” Peter Parker writes for the UK’s The Spectator.

“The same goes for a collection of his short stories published in 1973. He is chiefly remembered for A Way of Love, a bold novel about a homosexual relationship that was published in 1959 and became a minor cause célèbre in New Zealand when it was banned there.

“Courage revered Katherine Mansfield, and despite the long years he spent in Britain, five of his eight novels were set in New Zealand.

“Courage’s diaries, which he kept intermittently throughout his life, were embargoed for 30 years after being placed in a library by his sister. They run to around 400,000 words, 90,000 of which have been selected by [University of Otago’s] Chris Brickell for [a new] handsomely produced volume.”

Original article by Peter Parker, The Spectator, January 8, 2022.