Dennis McEldowney

Richard Dennis McEldowney (29 January 1926 – 23 September 2003) was a New Zealand born author and publisher. His best known work was The World Regained. Auto-biographical in nature, it described how he dealt with being an invalid due to having a Tetralogy of Fallot. This book won McEldowney the 1958 Hubert Church Memorial Prize.^[1]

Early life

McEldowney was born on 29 January 1926^[2] in Wanganui, and grew up in Christchurch. He was born with a congenital heart defect, Tetralogy of Fallot. Due to this heart condition, McEldowney was an invalid until the age of 24. In 1950 he was operated on at Green Lane Hospital in Auckland.

Education and career

Because of his medical condition, McEldowney was educated through a correspondence school. Eventually he took a clerical job at School of Physical Education in Dunedin. In 1966 he became the first editor Auckland University Press and remained there until his retirement in 1986. He was eventually given an honorary Doctorate by Auckland University.^[3]

McEldowney died in Auckland in 2003.^[4]

Books

• The World Regained (1957)
• Donald Anderson: a Memoir (1966)
• Arguing With My Grandmother (1973)
• Frank Sargeson in His Time (1976)
• Full of the Warm South (1983)
• Shaking the Bee Tree (1992) - describes his marriage to Zoë Greenhough (1912-1990), who was also a "blue baby"
• Then and There: a 1970s diary (1995)
• A Press Achieved : the emergence of Auckland University Press, 1927–1972, with a brief epilogue to 1986 and a list of Auckland University College, University of Auckland, and Auckland University Press publications (2002)

References