Submitted by admin on April 22, 2009 - 23:18
HOLCROFT, Montague Harry
(1902– ).
Editor, New Zealand Listener.
A new biography of Holcroft, Montague Harry appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.
p>Montague Harry Holcroft was born at Rangiora on 14 May 1902 and educated at Christchurch Boys' High School. Going to Australia in 1921, he worked at several occupations, at the same time writing stories, articles, and essays for most Australian newspapers and magazines. Returning to New Zealand in 1926 he became for a short time subeditor of the Weekly Press, Christchurch, but still feeling the need of broader experience he went to London in 1928 for two years, travelling in France and North Africa. Back in New Zealand, he again wrote as a free lance till he joined the Southland Times, Invercargill, in 1937, as leader writer, becoming editor in 1946. Three years later he succeeded Oliver Duff as editor of the New Zealand Listener. From 1948 to 1954 he was a member of the National Commission for UNESCO, a member of the New Zealand Literary Fund Advisory Committee, and president of P.E.N. (New Zealand), 1957–61. He was the winner of the Centennial Literary Competition in 1940, and of the Hubert Church prize in 1945 and 1946. His publications include The Deepening Stream (1940), The Waiting Hills (1943), The Timeless World (1945), Discovered Isles (1951), Dance of the Seasons (1952), and Eye of the Lizard (1960).