books in order

C K Stead Books In Order

Novels

  1. Smith’s Dream (1971)
  2. All Visitors Ashore (1984)
  3. The Death of the Body (1986)
  4. Sister Hollywood (1989)
  5. The End of the Century (1992)
  6. The Singing Whakapapa (1994)
  7. Villa Vittoria (1997)
  8. Talking About O’Dwyer (2000)
  9. The Secret History of Modernism (2001)
  10. Mansfield (2004)
  11. My Name Was Judas (2006)
  12. Risk (2012)
  13. The Necessary Angel (2017)

Collections

  1. Five for the Symbol (1981)
  2. The Blind Blonde with Candles in Her Hair (1998)
  3. The Name on the Door is Not Mine (2017)

Chapbooks

  1. Paris (2005)

Anthologies edited

  1. New Zealand Short Stories (1974)

Non fiction

  1. The New Poetic (1964)
  2. Shakespeare: Measure for measure (1971)
  3. In the Glass Case (1982)
  4. Pound, Yeats, Eliot and the Modernist Movement (1986)
  5. Answering to the Language (1989)
  6. Werner Forman’s New Zealand (1994)
  7. The Writer At Work (2000)
  8. Kin of Place (2002)
  9. Book Self (2008)
  10. South-West of Eden (2010)
  11. Shelf Life (2016)
  12. You have a Lot to Lose: A Memoir, 1956-1986 (2020)
  13. What You Made of It: A Memoir, 1987-2020 (2021)

Novels Book Covers

Collections Book Covers

Chapbooks Book Covers

Anthologies edited Book Covers

Non fiction Book Covers

C K Stead Books Overview

Sister Hollywood

This is the story of a girl who ran away from New Zealand to Hollywood, her affair with a producer, her marriage and her rise to power. C.K. Stead won the 1985 New Zealand Book Award for ‘All Visitors Ashore’. He also wrote ‘The Death of the Body’, ‘Smith’s Dream’ and ‘Five for the Symbol’.

Talking About O’Dwyer

What really happened to a soldier in the infamous Maori battalion, killed in the battle for Crete during World War II? And why did the soldier’s family place a curse on O Dwyer, the officer who was his commander at the time he died? Half a century later two Oxford dons, Newall and Winterstoke, attend the funeral of their colleague O Dwyer, an expatriate New Zealander. After the ceremony, Newall reveals to Winterstoke the story of the curse placed on O Dwyer during the war and, in the days that follow, he continues the tales of O Dwyer and his cursed life. Slowly the stories of Newall, another New Zealander in self enforced exile, and of Winterstoke are also revealed in Stead s complex and subtle narrative which shifts across time and space from New Zealand to Oxford to Croatia and to Crete at the time of the allied defeat there. From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Secret History of Modernism

The arrival of a stranger at his house in Auckland leads renowned novelist Laslo Winter to look back to the past, to London in the late 1950s. The Empire was collapsing, yet young ‘colonials,’ for whom England remained a mythical place, were still drawn there from its farthest corners. Samantha Conlan has come from Sydney, ostensibly fleeing an affair with married Freddy Goldstein, a Holocaust survivor. But Samantha knows Freddy will come to London; and as she waits for him, she continues her peculiar research into the great writers of the time, in a research project that she names ‘The Secret History of Modernism.’ Among her circle of friends and admirers is the young Laslo. Beautifully written, with wonderful clarity and humor, The Secret History of Modernism reflects on postwar England and its Empire in the wake of the greatest upheaval of the twentieth century.

Mansfield

Spanning three years in the life of writer Katherine Mansfield during the First World War, this novel follows the ups and downs of her relationship with Jack Middleton Murry and her struggle to break through as a writer. As her brother and lovers are drawn into the conflict, Mansfield becomes ever more determined to write the new kind of fiction that she feels the times demand. While sticking scrupulously to what is known of Mansfield‘s life and friends, this extraordinary novel takes the reader beyond biography into the mind and heart of its subject.

My Name Was Judas

The story of Jesus as told by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is well known, but what about the version according to Judas? His name became synonymous with betrayer, but is that how he saw it himself? In this witty, original, and teasingly controversial novel, Judas finally tells the story as he remembers it. Looking back on his childhood and youth from an old age the gospel writers denied him, Judas recalls his friendship with Jesus, their schooling together, their families, the people who would go on to be disciples and followers, their journeys together, and their dealings with the powers of Rome and the Temple. His is a story of friendship and rivalry, of a time of uncertainty and enquiry, and a testing of belief, endurance, and loyalty. With a richly painted backdrop of ancient Palestine, this is riveting new take on the infamous story.

The New Poetic

A standard survey of modern English poetry from the new tradition established by Yeats in the 1890s through to Eliot, including a reas*sessment of the Georgians and the influence of Pound.

Answering to the Language

A collection of 47 essays, lectures, reviews and articles covering a wide variety of topics, ranging from Yeats and Katherine Mansfield to Booker Prizewinners Peter Carey and Keri Hulme.

The Writer At Work

C K Stead gathers a selection of his essays from the past decade, mixing literary criticism with autobiography. He reviews the work of other writers, meditates on the teaching of literature, revisits some controversies and explores literary history.

Kin of Place

This collection of 28 critical essays provides provocative comment on the work of 20 New Zealand writers, including Elizabeth Knox, Katherine Mansfield, Kendrick Smithyman, Allen Curnow, and Janet Frame.

Book Self

A sequel to the successful books Kin of Place and The Writer at Work, this collection of critical writing takes the reader on a personal journey from the author’s earliest discovery of poetry as a young man to his latest experiences on the literary trail. This trip through literary history involves many writers, including Katherine Mansfield, T. S. Eliot, Michael King, and Elizabeth Knox. The book also includes a series of journal extracts that allow readers to get closer to the mind of the writer, his strong personal views about other writers, and his deep commitment to the role of criticism in literary life.

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