GOOD BOOKS MAKE GOOD CITIZENS
100 Years of Reed Publishing
This is the name of the exhibition currently showing at the National Library of New Zealand in Wellington which I had the great honour of opening last Thursday evening.
These are my opening remarks to the 250 plus persons present:
"In the 1960’s and 1970’s I owned a bookshop in Napier and the highlight for me each month was the visit of the sales rep from AH & AW Reed Publishers. His name was Russell Pitt. He would pull up outside the shop in his station wagon and then stagger in with several bags of book samples and covers. Great excitement.
One has to remember that in those days Reeds totally dominated the book publishing industry in New Zealand. Most companies back then that called themselves book publishers were in fact actually importers and distributors of books from the UK.
Reeds on the other hand sold only New Zealand books, all published under their own imprint. Whitcombe & Tombs, Reeds biggest competitor, also published a NZ list as did William Collins but they were tiny in comparison to Reeds who in those days probably published more NZ titles than all other publishers combined. It is no exaggeration to say that they were a phenomenon of their time.
These were the days of course of authors Barry Crump, Denis Glover, Terry McLean, Mona Anderson, Peter McIntyre, Philip Holden, Freddy Ladd, Miriam McGregor, Monte Holcroft, John A Lee, W.W.Stewart, R.D.Muldoon, Jeremy & Diana Pope, Geoff Moon, and many others, even a young Chris Laidlaw.
A special mention for Geoff Moon who has been published by Reed since 1957 – 50 years and is still going strong.
It is interesting to note too that 20 titles by AW Reed are still in print today as are three by AW Reed.
The late Michael King once said he doubted if people his age would have grown up with such a strong sense of New Zealandness if it hadn’t been for Reed Books and I absolutely endorse that sentiment.
Almost everyone who ever wrote a book about New Zealand after World War Two up until about the mid-late-1970’s automatically sent it to Reeds.
And of course because they were so dominant that many with publishing aspirations especially in the editorial area wanted to work there among them David Elworthy, (who is here this evening), Michael Foster, Tim Curnow, Bob Ross, Alister Taylor, Jim Barr, Dale Williams, Geoff Walker and others, many of whom like David Elworthy went on to distinguished careers in publishing or in other fields.
I like this quote from Gavin McLean’s Whare Raupo-The Reed Books Story published in April this year. It is from 1975 and it is the voice of David Elworthy:
I myself came from the diplomatic service. Our senior editor came from public relations and publishing in big international firms and the other three from journalism, TV journalism and from the position of editor’s secretary. A motley bunch—and I think a motley bunch is just what you need for the business of publishing. Our Publisher, the man who makes the important decisions, came up through the firm from the position of office boy and the whole establishment has—it has to have—a distinctly anti-academic bias. The successful NZ book publisher must be more interested in tourist books and gardening books than in scholarly texts; more involved, alas in a Rugby tour book than in poetry and fiction—although he’ll try his damndest to publish good poetry and fiction if he possibly can. He… must be a thoroughly commercial fellow if he’s going to survive, although he should never relinquish his taste or feeling for good literature.
David Elworthy 1975
One has to remember that in those days Reeds totally dominated the book publishing industry in New Zealand. Most companies back then that called themselves book publishers were in fact actually importers and distributors of books from the UK.
Reeds on the other hand sold only New Zealand books, all published under their own imprint. Whitcombe & Tombs, Reeds biggest competitor, also published a NZ list as did William Collins but they were tiny in comparison to Reeds who in those days probably published more NZ titles than all other publishers combined. It is no exaggeration to say that they were a phenomenon of their time.
These were the days of course of authors Barry Crump, Denis Glover, Terry McLean, Mona Anderson, Peter McIntyre, Philip Holden, Freddy Ladd, Miriam McGregor, Monte Holcroft, John A Lee, W.W.Stewart, R.D.Muldoon, Jeremy & Diana Pope, Geoff Moon, and many others, even a young Chris Laidlaw.
A special mention for Geoff Moon who has been published by Reed since 1957 – 50 years and is still going strong.
It is interesting to note too that 20 titles by AW Reed are still in print today as are three by AW Reed.
The late Michael King once said he doubted if people his age would have grown up with such a strong sense of New Zealandness if it hadn’t been for Reed Books and I absolutely endorse that sentiment.
Almost everyone who ever wrote a book about New Zealand after World War Two up until about the mid-late-1970’s automatically sent it to Reeds.
And of course because they were so dominant that many with publishing aspirations especially in the editorial area wanted to work there among them David Elworthy, (who is here this evening), Michael Foster, Tim Curnow, Bob Ross, Alister Taylor, Jim Barr, Dale Williams, Geoff Walker and others, many of whom like David Elworthy went on to distinguished careers in publishing or in other fields.
I like this quote from Gavin McLean’s Whare Raupo-The Reed Books Story published in April this year. It is from 1975 and it is the voice of David Elworthy:
I myself came from the diplomatic service. Our senior editor came from public relations and publishing in big international firms and the other three from journalism, TV journalism and from the position of editor’s secretary. A motley bunch—and I think a motley bunch is just what you need for the business of publishing. Our Publisher, the man who makes the important decisions, came up through the firm from the position of office boy and the whole establishment has—it has to have—a distinctly anti-academic bias. The successful NZ book publisher must be more interested in tourist books and gardening books than in scholarly texts; more involved, alas in a Rugby tour book than in poetry and fiction—although he’ll try his damndest to publish good poetry and fiction if he possibly can. He… must be a thoroughly commercial fellow if he’s going to survive, although he should never relinquish his taste or feeling for good literature.
David Elworthy 1975
As Gavin McLean suggested to me this was the Reed recipe and what a successful recipe it was although one could not imagine this recipe working today, nor could one imagine David Elworthy
saying it today!
By the way Ray Richards was the publisher to whom David alluded and whom sadly cannot be with us tonight.
However by the late 1970’s early 19080's all was not well at Reeds, the glory days had passed, key players left the company, and eventually in 1983 the company was sold and then in 1992 as a result of merger activity in the UK publishing industry it was bought by Reed International who immediately renamed their NZ subsidiary Reed Publishing NZ Ltd. And so happily the name of Reed continued even though there was now no connection between the original Reed family and the new company. And also happily the new Reeds continued to publish many very fine New Zealand titles.
Then just a month or two back ownership changed yet again so that today Reed Publishing NZ is in the process of being merged into Penguin Books.
Let us hope that Penguin have the foresight to keep the name Reed as one of their NZ imprints. It is a noteworthy name and it should be preserved.
But going back to the 1960’s and 1970’s and earlier, Reeds were without question THE New Zealand publishers and I am delighted that the National Library has put together this marvelous exhibition honouring 100 years of Reed publishing. It is an achievement worth celebrating.
I am reminded of something the great British publisher, Sir Stanley Unwin said in 1960 - “It is easy to become a publisher, but difficult to remain one; the mortality in infancy is higher than in any other trade or profession.”
I commend the National Library for bringing us this unique piece of NZ’s social and cultural history and offer them my warm thanks, and to curator Aaron Lister and his colleagues my congratulations on the fine job they have done in putting this exhibition together.
It gives me the greatest of pleasure in declaring the GOOD BOOKS MAKE GOOD CITIZENS Exhibition officially open. "
However by the late 1970’s early 19080's all was not well at Reeds, the glory days had passed, key players left the company, and eventually in 1983 the company was sold and then in 1992 as a result of merger activity in the UK publishing industry it was bought by Reed International who immediately renamed their NZ subsidiary Reed Publishing NZ Ltd. And so happily the name of Reed continued even though there was now no connection between the original Reed family and the new company. And also happily the new Reeds continued to publish many very fine New Zealand titles.
Then just a month or two back ownership changed yet again so that today Reed Publishing NZ is in the process of being merged into Penguin Books.
Let us hope that Penguin have the foresight to keep the name Reed as one of their NZ imprints. It is a noteworthy name and it should be preserved.
But going back to the 1960’s and 1970’s and earlier, Reeds were without question THE New Zealand publishers and I am delighted that the National Library has put together this marvelous exhibition honouring 100 years of Reed publishing. It is an achievement worth celebrating.
I am reminded of something the great British publisher, Sir Stanley Unwin said in 1960 - “It is easy to become a publisher, but difficult to remain one; the mortality in infancy is higher than in any other trade or profession.”
I commend the National Library for bringing us this unique piece of NZ’s social and cultural history and offer them my warm thanks, and to curator Aaron Lister and his colleagues my congratulations on the fine job they have done in putting this exhibition together.
It gives me the greatest of pleasure in declaring the GOOD BOOKS MAKE GOOD CITIZENS Exhibition officially open. "
Picture right shows Bookman Beattie & Exhibition Curator Aaron Lister examining one of the exhibits.
Other speakers on the evening were the National Librarian, Penny Carnaby, the Minister responsible for the National Library, Judith Tizard, and author and historian Gavin McLean whose latesr book, Whare Korero - Best of Reed Writing, was also launched at the 
event.
event.
This new title, along with Gavin's April 07 publication, Whare Raupo:The Reed Books Story, make compulsory reading for everyone interested in the development of the NZ publishing industry.
I also urge that same group of people to be sure to view the exhibition if they are in Wellington. It is full of interest and fascination. It runs until 2 November.
For more visit the National Library's website for the exhibition.
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