Legacy
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In the preface of his Collected Works (1967), T. S. Eliot wrote: 'When starting The Criterion, I wished to include representatives of both older and younger generations…I am proud to have introduced to English readers the work of Marcel Proust. I am proud of having published work by D.H. Lawrence, and by Wyndham Lewis, James Joyce and Ezra Pound. I am proud of having published the work of some of the younger English poets, such as Auden, Spender and MacNeice…'. With name changes, Brasch could have said something similar. The individuals who signed the 'surprise & honour' page for him bear testament to his importance in the field of New Zealand arts and letters. |
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| 'This page is to surprise & honour Charles Brasch', facsimile of original tipped in Landfall, 80 (December 1966). |
In a letter to Brasch in February 1972, Mary de Beer wrote:
'Landfall 100 came yesterday and though I have not finished
reading it, it seems a very good one.' For Landfall, there
was life after Brasch. It has continued to appear and Justin Paton, the
current editor, along with the University of Otago Press, has done a fine
job of continuing the tradition of promoting both arts and literature
in New Zealand. There have been other periodicals: some established to
counter the perceived 'stuffiness' of Landfall; others
to continue its tradition. These have included Islands (under
the expert eye of Robin Dudding, after his brief stewardship of Landfall),
Hilltop, Image, Mate, Sport, and the
80s mix of Splash, And, and Parallax.
List of items
Alan Roddick, Brasch's literary executor, edited Home Ground, the last substantial volume of poems written by Brasch. This posthumous edition is the most personal of all his works.
| 'I
think Charles Brasch's active sense of 'literary standards'
was enormously important, mainly because it made everyone -
including those who fulminated against him and his editorship of
Landfall - work out exactly what it was they believed.' |
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| 'I can't think of anyone else who could have done the job, or would have wanted to do it, given the resources of time and patience required. Quite what NZ literature - or the arts - would look like without Landfall, or without the kind of stamp he put on it, is impossible to answer, or would have as many (and diverse) answers as the creative writers who contributed to it might give.' Professor Terry Sturm, Auckland University, June 2003. |
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| 'And
in his later years Brasch fashioned a new poetic style for himself
(naked, gaunt, sinewy), culminating in the concentrated perfection
of 'Winter Anemones', written shortly before he died.
A lifetime's fastidiousness in choosing and arranging words
lies behind a little valedictory poem as good as that.' |
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Charles Brasch in a reflective mood in his house at Heriot Row c.1955, Brasch Papers, MS 996-12/94. |