Poor Richard

Port Nicholson Press, 1982, A5 booklet, 40 pages. Slight fade to spine, good secondhand copy.

W.H. (Bill) Oliver was one of New Zealand?s most eminent twentieth-century historians. He gained distinction as a scholar of British and New Zealand history and was part of a tradition of poet-historians, with five highly regarded volumes of poetry to his name. He was also a teacher, facilitator and editor of the work of others, and a social commentator and writer of prose characterised by elegance, sagacity and style. His breadth of intellectual interests was complemented by personal and administrative skills, which supported his role as foundation editor of the major historical project of his time: the Dictionary of New Zealand biography.