Biography, autobiography and memoirs by and about New Zealanders. Politicians, entertainers, sportsmen and prominent people, as well as memoirs of lesser known but interesting Kiwis. Self-published family memoirs and useful regional history recollections.
All these fortunabooks.com prices are in New Zealand dollars.
A biography and study of New Zealand's first Prime Minister, and the political climate of his times.
After being the Superintendent of Nelson, he later held the office of Prime Minister three times.
ISBN9780908790678
politics, colonial government, Te Kooti, Titokowaru, Vogel
VG+ softback
$25 C/C
Hazard Press 1994, 432pp.
[#3736 ]
VG hardback with some soiling to closed page edges in a VG- dust jacket with splits to corners $25 C/C HArperCollins 1998 first edition, 374 pages. ISBN1869502795 [#2550 new zealand history biography ]
VG hardback with title label to cover, faint soiling $30 C/B Caxton 1941 first edition, 143pp. [#2392 nz history, biography ]
From the annals of New Zealand's most notorious cases as handled by Alfred Charles Hanlon the famous lawyer, written by the man responsible for the Hanlon television series. In the latter years of the nineteenth century and in the first three decades of the 20th, Hanlon's name was a legend in law. While carving out a one-man law practice from the entrenched partnerships of Otago's legal society, "Alf" Hanlon was to defend, usually with dramatic success, a great number of murder cases. His defence combined a forceful personality, keen legal skills and remarkable oratory - useful attributes at a time when death by hanging awaited those convicted of murder. Contents: Prologue: The Early Years, Regina v Dean (Minnie Dean), Regina v Clements (Charles Clements), Political Interlude, Rex v Kerry, Rex v Sweeney (Hugh Sweeney), Of courts and Colleagues, Rex v Stott and Bromley, Rex v Findlay, Cartoons and Caricatures, Rex v Connolly, Epilogue: Taking Silk
ISBN0908690096
VG hardback in VG dustjacket.
$15 B/C
BCNZ Enterprises 1985 First edition, 180pp. Illustrated.
[#3000 ]
The life and times of Truby King
A biography of the founder of the Karitane Homes and the Plunket Society for child welfare.
ISBN9780143018797
domestic hygiene, childcare, Seacliff, Sir Frederic Truby King
VG softback
$20 C/C
Penguin 2003, 284pp.
[#3977 ]
Biography of Charles Luney, the founder of the prominent and successful construction company
. Many of the projects and civic buildings Luney built in Christchurch were destroyed in the 2011 earthquakes.
ISBN9781877270017
Charles Seymour Luney, construction, biography, christchurch
VG softback THIS COPY is signed by C S Luney 19/12/00
$30 C/B
Hazard Press 2000, 176pp + plates.
[# 3583, 4036]
VG VG top of fep clipped
$35 C/C [NZ 75]
George Allen Unwin 1964 first edition hardcover, 298pp + plates and adverts, biography of the Bishop of Melanesia and New Zealand. very tidy copy.
From a Glasgow family Scotty was fostered out to a McLeod family in Dingwall before immigrating to the MacKenzie Country in New Zealand. He recounts his life and adventures including time as a musterer and rabbiter, and a spell with the army in Malaya.
ISBN09597564340X
VG softback, pen name to title page.
$20 C/B
Homecrafts , Tekapo, 1988, 116pp.
[#3112 ]
The story of the foremost New Zealand radio host of her time.
Maud Ruby Basham MBE (nee Taylor 1879-1963).
Aunt Daisy broadcast each morning to the women and housewives of NZ from 1930 to 1963.
Her half-hour morning show was to promote household products, and later boosted morale during WWII.
She also published seven cookbooks including "The Aunt Daisy Cookbook with Household Hints".
media, radio, broadcasting
VG hardback with Good dustjacket with edge wear, tears and chips.
Jacket has been taped on the reverse edge, complete but damaged.
Book is tidy, name to free end paper.
$20 C/B
Reed 1957 first edition, 131pp + plates.
[#4042 ]
By the wife of the founder (officially at least) of Canterbury, from her time in Canterbury and Wellington, a primary source for early colonial New Zealand history.
VG hardback with no dust jacket.
$45 C/C
Whitcombe and Tombs 1951 first reissue, 387 pages plus plates. [#3589 ]
G+ hardback, rebound in book cloth with new endpapers, some pages with fold marks. No dust jacket.
$25 C/C
Whitcombe and Tombs 1951 first reissue, 387 pages plus plates. [#2293 ]
G+ hardcover, the dust jacket has been cut into peices which have been used to grangerise the book, the title from the DW has been pasted down to the front paste down, and the blurbs from the flaps are pasted to the front and rear paste downs with some ink underlining to them, the date 12/12/52 has been written to the paste down twice, the cameo design of Charlotte from the DW has been pasted to the fep and the spine titling also, the person who did this also wrote their name and the name of the person they gave the book to around the edge of the cameo, there is a name and some writing to the top and bottom margins of the decorative border of the title page, and a name and address to the top of the dedication, a photocopied biographical reference is pasted to the verso of the dedication, the bank fly after the fep has four small holes to the edge where two staples were carefully removed, the rear fep has similar holes to top edge, apart from these noted 'additions' the book itself is clean and unmarked,
$35 C/C
Whitcombe and Tombs 1951 first reissue, 387 pages plus plates. [#2794 nz biography ]
VG VG- light edge wear and short edge tears to DW, paper scar to fep.
$8 C/B [NZ 142]
Mallinson Rendell 1981 first edition hardcover, 158pp + plates. Autobiography of a famous actor and entertainer. ISBN 0908606087
A biography of one of the Mt Eden Clifton Firth's with much on the rest of the family.
Victorian, New Zealand, biography, women's history, colonial, Auckland, Josiah Clifton Firth
VG hardback in G+ dust jacket that is well rubbed at edges and with minor edge chipping.
$20 C/B
Pegasus Press 1973 first edition, 114pp + plates.
[#4057 ]
Biography of Frederick Aloysius Weld (1823-91) pioneer pastoralist in Wairarapa and Marlborough, and New Zealand Premier 1864-5.
ISBN0196480183
VG+ hardback in VG dust jacket
$25 C/C
Auckland University Press 1983 first edition hardcover, x 225pp photos in text. [#2340 + 2955 nz biography wairarapa ]
Record of a year on the Chathams by the wife of the rostered GP. ISBN072330114X
G+ hardback in G+ dust jacket
$10 C/B
Whitcombe and Tombs 1970, 144pp + plates.[#2136 #2800 ]
A biography of Michael Joseph Savage. Labour politician and first Labour Prime Minister of New Zealand. Credited with establishing New Zealand's acclaimed Welfare System. A reassessment of his life and political legacy. ISBN0474001385
VG+ hardback in VG dust jacket with sun faded spine
$25 C/C
Reed Methuen 1986, 369 pp [#2749 new zealand politics, biography]
The Story of Bill Hamilton, New Zealand farmer, inventor, engineer and jet boat pioneer (Colorado jet boat expedition of 1960).
ISBN0589012940
VG hardback in VG dust jacket $45 C/C Reed 1979 reprint of 1969 original, 214 pages + plates. [#2473 nz biography ]
A New Zealander's dental practise before, during , and after the Second World War. Roy Hanan saw service with the New Zealand Dental Corps in Egypt and Italy during WWII, and was dental staff at Manapouri in 1926 and later in the 1960s at the Manapouri Hydro-electric scheme.
VG hardback in VG- dust jacket that is sun faded with minor edge wear. AUTHOR SIGNED title page.
$20 C/C
Privately Published 1977 first edition, 181pp + plates. [#744 #2939 ]
VG hardback in VG- dust jacket that is lightly sun faded. A label has been stuck to title page with a gift inscription over what was once the author's presentation signature, now obliterated
$15 C/C
Privately Published 1977 first edition, 181pp + plates. [#1127 new zealand, biography ]
The memoirs of a New Zealand nurse in Britain, Europe and India, before and during the Second World War ( but there don't seem to be any specific dates mentioned)..
ww2, wwii, blitz, battle of britain, kiwi, nursing, Army nursing service, iraq, hertford british hospital paris
G softback in G pictorial wrappers chipped with loss, only the front wrap remains, inscription to inside cover, page 57-58 has a tear and the loss of a piece from the edge with some text missing.
$10 C/A
Whitcombe and Tombs (1944) (H758), 110pp + plates.
[#3791 ]
Matagouri and Other Pricks will take you from Tibet to Antarctica; to Nepal with Sir Edmund Hillary; and to New York, Washington and the White House in the aftermath of 9/11. It includes the thrills and spills of a nursing profession; the excitment of launching a new career as a writer and publisher; the challenges of running a guiding business; and also the story of 'The Old Mountaineers' Cafe, Bar, Restaurant and Gallery' in Aoraki-Mount Cook National Park village. It recounts a battle with the Department of Conservation, yet it is also a love story, and an overview of the principles held by a New Zealand family, chief among them the refusal to give up, and how this and other factors helped to make the dream of 'The Old Mountaineers' finally come true.
ISBN9780473174668
biography, mountaineering, Mary Hobbs
VG+ softback
$35 B/D
Spirit Ltd 2010, 350pp.
[#3485, 3975 ]
Lynley Hood's account of her researching the life of Sylvia Ashton-Warner, and writing the biography "Sylvia!".
VG softback
$15 C/C
John McIndoe 1984, 311 pages. ISBN0868681210 [#2595 new zealand biography ]
A biography of Lorna Monckton of Newstead and her pioneering family in Featherston and the Wairarapa. ISBN 0723304165
VG hardback in VG dust jacket.
$10 C/B
Whitcombe and Tombs 1975, 237pp + plates.[NZ128 #2720 #3188 ]
VG VG
$10 C/B [NZ 33]
Collins 1967 FIRST EDITION hardcover socialist politicians autobiography of troubled criminal youth. Lee was later an M.P.
An autobiography, family history and genealogy by Bob Lynn of Alford Forest, Ashburton. There is early Ashburton history, as well as that of his forbears from Britain, and his many relatives in New Zelaand. Bob was well known as an expert joiner and carpenter, and founder of a museum of joinery, the Lynn Woodwork Museum . It is sited on the grounds of the Tinwald Domain and is part of the historical Plains Vintage Railway and Historical Village. Bob's ancestors were the Davisons of Ahoghill, Ballymena, County Antrim. ( Olivia Davison nee Burnett born October 1815).
VG softback
$35 B/B
Undated and self publsihed, but about 1980. 142pp + index. Illustrated. [#2856 new zealand, south canterbury, biography, genealogy ]
Memories from the author's life growing up in the General Store in Otautau in Southland.
Born at the end of the 19th century, she recounts her family and the wider community story in early New Zealand.
Takitimu, Orepuki, Ewen Matheson, flood
G+ hardback in VG- dust jacket with minor wear.
First blank page missing.
$20 C/B
Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd. 1967 first edition, 164pp+ plates.
[#4058 ]
Biography of leading guide on the New Zealand Southern Alps during the 1940s and '50s. Ayres was a pioneer in the Mount Cook region of the Southern Alps and was a climbing partner of Edmund Hillary and taught him how to climb.
ISBN0723306885
VG+ hardback in VG+ dust jacket
$50 C/B
Whitcoulls 1982 first edition hardcover, 160pp + plates. [#2197 + BIO9 new zealand biography ]
VG VG- DW rubbed to joints and with splits at head and tail of spine.
$10 C/B [NZ 129]
M Joseph/ W&T 1960 first edition cloth, xv 189pp + plates. A biography of a pioneering Wellington woman doctor including stints during the two World Wars.
VG softback with owner details inside front cover
$10 C/B
Shoal Bay Press 1997, 194 pages. ISBN0908704690 [#2535 new zealand biography animals ]
Warwick's forebears came to New Zealand from Drumartin, County Caven, Ireland. Born in 1920 Warwick Leslie McFadden was a commercial market gardener. He served with the Third Division Signals in the Pacific Islands during the Second World War. This is his account of his career and family.
ISBN9780473138318
VG- softback, has been contact sealed and with hinges strengthened by library. Issue labels and stamps, otherwise tidy.
$20 B/C
Warwick McFadden 2008, 129 pp.
[#3317 ]
Memoir of Sir Roy McKenzie, who inherited the McKenzies department stores and used his wealth to set up a charitable foundation.
Details his service in Bomber Command in WWII and involvement in alpine sports, skiing and mountaineering and trekking, at home and abroad.
ISBN9780958204606
McKenzies store, Matterhorn, ww2, Winter Olympics Oslo 1952, Outward Bound
VG softback
$25 B/C
Te Aro Press, 1998. 279 pp
[#2948, 3781, 4037 ]
New Zealanders in exile in the time of Hitler and Mao Tse-Tung. Based on letters, diaries and interviews this is the story of a group of Rhodes scholars, five young men from New Zealand; James Bertram, Geoffrey Cox, Dan Davin, Ian Milner, John Mulgan, caught up in the turmoil of their times: Spain, Hitler's Germany, Greece and North Africa, Eastern Europe, China.
ISBN9781869415648
VG softback
$45 B/C
Vintage 2003, 480pp.
[#3455(3417) ]
VG hardback in G- dust jacket which is worn with tears and light stain
$15 C/B
Reed 1966 FIRST EDITION 215pp clean book, DW not the best. [#2375 NZ Biography high country sheep dogs ]
Autobiography of one of New Zealand's most important post-war Prime Ministers.
ISBN0589008731
political memoir, national, rob muldoon,
VG hardback in VG dust jacket.
Signed by Muldoon on half-title page.
$20 C/C
Reed 1974 first edition hardcover, 203pp + plates.
[#3941 ]
VG hardback in VG dust jacket with light wear.
Signed by Muldoon.
$15 C/C
Reed 1974 reprint hardcover, xii 203pp + plates.
[#1677 ]
VG+ VG+
$10 C/C [NZ 135]
Reed Methuen 1986 first edition hardcover, 207pp + plates. A near fine copy of the former Prime Minister's fourth autobiography. New Zealand politics. ISBN 0474002209
VG+ VG+
$10 C/C [NZ 136]
Reed 1981 first edition hardcover, 169pp + 4pp index + plates. A near fine copy of the former Prime Minister's third autobiography. New Zealand politics. ISBN 0589013858
VG+ VG small edge tears mainly at spine ends.
$10 C/C [NZ 137]
Reed 1977 first edition hardcover, x 224pp + plates. A tidy copy of the former Prime Minister's first autobiography. New Zealand politics. ISBN 0589010875
French-born Suzanne Aubert arrived in New Zealand in the 1860s and set up the Sisters of Compassion at Jerusalem on the Whanganui River in 1892.
She also published a key Maori text, broke in a hill farm, manufactured medicines and supported families through the Depression.
ISBN1869401557
Pakipaki, Hiruharama, Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion
VG softback
$25 C/C
Auckland University Press 1996, first edition, 464 pp.
[#2215 ]
Memoir by this important Jesuit trained Catholic thinker, who received theological and philosophical training in Germany and Europe before returning to New Zealand and Australia.
O'Brien made a considerable contribution, especially in journals and book reviews, to the Catholic church in New Zealand.
In his later years O'Brien taught at Holy Name Seminary and the Holy Cross Seminary in Mosgiel.
catholic, christian, philosophy, jesuit, society of jesus, theology
VG hardback in VG dust jacket with light wear.
$15 C/B
Pegasus Press 1970 first edition, 104pp + plates.
[#1676 ]
The life of Frances Ogilvie, a Presbyterian missionary who spent over 40 years in China and during WWII was in the Stanley Internment camp in Hong Kong as a captive of the Japanese.
ISBN0908704291
VG hardback in VG dust jacket
$25 B/C
Shoal Bay Press 1994 first edition, 108pp[#1794 new zealand, biography ]
The author has written an account based on the experiences of the many dispossed Poles who made it to New Zealand after being expelled by the Soviets. Krystyna is one of 732 'Polish children' who survived forced deportation to the Soviet Union and was given a home in New Zealand in 1944. Her remarkable story, a composite portrait drawn from interviews with Polish survivors, begins in a peaceful Polish village and follows her family's harrowing journey to a labor camp in Siberia, the terrible flight to freedom, and Krystyna's lonely voyage to a safe refuge in New Zealand
ISBN0908704852
VG softback, some pencil notes inside rear cover
$10 C/B
Shoal Bay Press 1998, 156pp.
[#3382 ]
New Zealander and Wimbledon champion, Wilding dominated tennis in the decade before WWI. His career and life was cut short on the Western Front in 1915.
ISBN187725701X
VG softback
$25 C/C
Canterbury University Press 2005, 451 pages + plates. [#2389 nz biography tennis sporting ]
Memoir/ biography. Raised in China by Missionary parents. Eucated at Cambridge to teach. With her husband she was in Czechoslovakia during the Nazi Occupation and for eight months helped to smuggle Jews out before fleeing and settling in New Zealand.
ISBN0195580443
VG hardback in VG- sun faded dust jacket.
$20 C/C
Oxford University Press1979, 215pp.
[#3381]
Upon Rutherford's death his widow presented his various medallic awards to the Canterbury University College (New Zealand).
Awarded for his scientific genius, the collection represents the height of numismatic design in the period, with awards in bronze, silver, and gold.
Includes a catalogue of the medals, and photographs.
ISBN0908812892
science, physics, nobel prize
FINE softback
$25 B/B
Canterbury University Press 1999, 88 pages. [#2446, 3629 ]
Very Good softback with minor sun-fade to spine
$25 B/B
Canterbury University Press 1999, 88 pages. [#2486 new zealand biography, science ]
After arriving in New Zealand in 1851, Seager first served in the police force and prison service.
He became the first Steward of Sunnyside Asylum, and played a prominent role in mental health care.
ISBN0908708076
mental health, biography, canterbury
VG+ hardback in VG+ dust jacket
$25 C/C
Heritage Press 1987, 299pp.
[#3741 ]
"Maisie" Shepherd was born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in 1893.
She arrived in New Zealand in 1921, and undertook midwifery and general nurse training in Christchurch.
She recounts her life in Plunket nursing, experiences during World War II, a return to Ireland, and work among the elderly.
ISBN0908629257
biography, nurse, women, registered nurse, nzrn, N.Z.R.N., Drumnacanvey
VG softback
$15 C/B
Craig Printing Co. 1989, 184pp.
[#3936 ]
FN FN minor adheisve offsetting to feps from DW plastic sleeve
$15 C/D [NZ 80]
Auckland University Press 1976 first edition hardcover, xi 439pp + plates. Biography of an important New Zealand political figure. ISBN 0196479495
The Life of Gwendolen Lucy Somerset (nee Alley). Born in Springfield, North Canterbury in 1894. Autobiography and reminiscences of growing up in Springfield by the sister of Rewi Alley.
ISBN0908609132
VG+ hardback without dust jacket
$20 C/C
N Z Playcentre Federation 1988 first edition pictorial hardcover, 211pp, illustrated. [#1922 new zealand biography]
VG
$65 B/$5 international [NZ 97]
w&t 1945 first edition sewn sheets in printed paper wrapper, 112pp + frontis portrait. SCARCE biography of an early Canterbury settler and lawyer / judge.
An epic bicycle ride around the WHOLE world on a bicycle between 1949-1956, Lousie later followed up in 1983 with "The Impossible Ride, the Story of the First Bicycle Ride Across the Amazon Jungle". In this first book she was travelling by cycle, but also spending time working as a nurse as her funds were restricted. Good travelogue through war-torn Europe and Middle East, also the American continents and Asia.
The half title has a presentation decication to Mr & Mrs Stevens, signed and Dated 1963 in Dunedin. Hand set and printed by the author, has illustrations by Pat Andrew.
VG hardback in VG dust jacket with a few tiny edge tears. Name blacked out to free end paper.
$55 C/B
Southern Cross Press Ltd London 1960, first edition in the fourth impression, (vi) 128pp + plates, map end papers
[#1846 ]
A New Zealand nurse cycles across the Brazilian Amazon in her early fifties, she has also cycled extensively through Europe, the Middle East, Asia, North America and Iceland.
ISBN047301002X
Louise Sutherland, adventure, bicycling, travel, memoir
VG softback, signed 'With best wishes Lousie Sutherland QSM Oct. 1994'.
Newspaper obituary taped to inside of front cover.
$25 C/B
The Southern Cross Press 1992 reprint, 120pp includes some colour photographs.
[#3654 ]
VG softback, signed 'With best wishes...' by Lousie Sutherland.
$25 C/B
The Southern Cross Press 1992 reprint, 120pp includes some colour photographs.
[#3665, 3955 ]
The memoirs of a Ngai Tahu kaumatua from his enlisting in the Navy in 1939 when he was 15, through to his career as an Anglican Minister.
Peter Tauwhare was born and raised at Rapaki in Lyttelton harbour, later moving to the West Coast. After naval service in WWII and Korea he trained and worked as a teacher.
He recounts his experiences, and his struggles with alcoholism.
NZ10154 RNZN, Arch Deacon, HMNZS Achilles, HMNZS Arbutus, HMNZS Kaniere, Kai tahu, biography
VG softback, there is a large inscription on the blank verso of the acknowledgments page, from 'Nancy and Peter'. This is in a shaky hand, as Peter had suffered strokes.
The book begins with the contents and preliminaries, pagination starting with chapter one.
$30 B/C
Expo Digital Media Co. Ltd. (2002), 163pp.
[#3592 ]
Autobiography of a resident of Geraldine who started off in Yorkshire, served in the Far East (Hong Kong) and India, as well as with the NZ forces during WWII.
biography, british military history, Kashmir, Indian mountain artillery, chamba, Jutogh, raincliffe
VG- hardback in VG- dust jacket with light wear and dust soiling.
Name to first page, review clipping pasted in at rear.
$20 C/B
John McIndoe 1976 first editon,176pp + plates.
[#4056 ]
Ann Monroe Gilchrist (1875-1957) was born in the USA. A period teaching delinquent children caused her to specialise in home science, because she wanted to prevent delinquency rather than cure it. In 1899 she was one of the founders of the American Home Economics Association. Strong came to the University of Otago, whose School of Home Science opened in 1911, taking up her appointment as Professor of Household Arts in 1921. Strong had had a concern for the health and education of children. At the School of Home Science she ran a nutrition clinic for Dunedin children and their mothers. She also helped to organise the first children's health camp in the South Island. Maori health and education concerned her too. She advised the government on ways to improve these after personally investigating the situation among Maori in Northland.
VG hardback in G+ dust jacket
$20 C/C
Pegasus Press 1963 first edition, 196pp.
[#3190 ]
The story of Rex A. Weber's company Sheep & Wool reflects on his personal and business story as a breeder and developer of quality wool, member of the Wool Board etc. Covers most breeds of sheep, and all aspects of the wool trade from the sheep's back to the finished products.
ISBN0908561997
VG softback in VG dust jacket. Minor pen notes to inside rear cover. Name at front.
$20 C/B
Cape Catley 1992, 166pp.
[#3324 ]
VG softback in VG dust jacket.
$20 C/B
Cape Catley 1992, 166pp.
[#3599]
VG+ VG+
$30 C/C [NZ 138]
Govt Printer 1985 first edition hardcover, xii 263+ plates. Biography of early colonial missionary. ISBN 0477012647
Biography of this accomplished New Zealander.
Porritt excelled in athletics, being a contemporary of Jack Lovelock; medicine as a surgeon to the Royal family; and politics, from the House of Lords to being the Governor General of New Zealand.
ISBN9780958283953
biography, IOC, politics
VG+ hardback in VG+ dust jacket
$35 B/D
Trio Books 2009 second printing, x 318 pp.
[#3841 ]
A biography of the son of the early missionary Henry Williams. Samuel worked for Maori interests, founded Te Aute College and was a sponsor of the Young Maori Party.
VG hardback in VG dustjacket with lightly sunned spine.
Author has penned a presentation inscription and signed facing the title page.
$45 C/C
Pegasus Press 1981 first edition hard cover, 294pp + plates. [#3719 ]
VG hardback in VG dustjacket with lightly sunned spine
$30 C/C
Pegasus Press 1981 first edition hard cover, 294pp + plates. [#645 ]
VG hardback with no dustjacket, top corner area of fep trimmed,
$20 C/C
Pegasus Press 1981 first edition hard cover, 294pp + plates. [#646 ]