Warren Dibble – 1969

Warren Dibble remains one of the most elusive of the Burns Fellows, and only recently has a photograph of him been obtained to place in the Burns Fellows Hall of Fame on the second floor of the University Central Library. During his tenure as the Burns Fellow in 1969, he acted in various plays, read poetry (sharing the stage with Hone Tuwhare), and began work on an historical novel about Herod the Great. On display is the first page of 'A Marriage', a long, unpublished poetic sequence written during his period in Dunedin. According to Dibble, who now lives in Sydney, it was intended 'to place on record for my family some aspects of a mixed Maori and Pakeha marriage … in the soul-stifling 50s.'

Warren Dibble, 'A Marriage (family lines in heroic doggerel)'. Typescript. 1969. Private Collection.