Overview
J. C. Beaglehole, best known as a historian and Cook scholar, was also a passionate writer of letters. He wrote frequently, at length, and throughout his life, to family, friends and colleagues— wittily, affectionately, intimately, eruditely, acerbically, and always with an eye to style—and left a large and rich correspondence. This selection, made by his son and biographer, has been chosen to reflect the range of Beaglehole’s associations and interests—in history, particularly his scholarly field of Cook and the Pacific, in music, art and architecture, typography and publishing, and friendship—and to showcase his epistolary virtuosity. Writing was J. C. Beaglehole’s preferred mode of expression, and his letters, conversational and crafted in equal measure, are a unique window on the mind and character of a remarkably gifted, imaginative, and scholarly man.Author Biography
Tim Beaglehole is an emeritus professor at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, where he taught in the history department and served as chancellor from 2005 to 2009. He is a former chairman of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust and deputy chair of the board of the New Zealand National Art Gallery. He is the author of A Life of J. C. Beaglehole, which was shortlisted for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. He is the second son of John and Elsie Beaglehole.