John Mulgan (1911-1945). Courtesy NZ History.
John Alan Edward Mulgan (31 December 1911 - 26 April 1945) was a New Zealand poet, journalist, and editor,[1] His profound influence on New Zealand literature and identity grew after his death. He is best known for his 1939 novel, Man Alone.
Life[]
Nulgan was the elder son of poet and journalist Alan Mulgan.
Gifted both academically and athletically, John Mulgan studied at Auckland University College, and then attended Merton College, Oxford, where he was awarded a 1st in English in 1935.
He subsequently took up a position at the Clarendon Press.
Mulgan held leftish political views and was alarmed by the rise of fascism in Europe and the response of the British government to it. In 1936, he was an observer for the New Zealand government at the League of Nations in Geneva. During this time, he wrote a series of articles on foreign affairs, titled "Behind the Cables", for the Auckland Star newspaper.
His view that war in Europe was inevitable, led Mulgan to join the Territorial Army in 1938, and he was made 2nd lieutenant in an infantry regiment. Posted to the Middle East in 1942, Mulgan was promoted to major and made second-in-command of his regiment. He saw action at Alamein and fought alongside the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. He was impressed by the calibre of his compatriots and found meeting New Zealanders after being in England for so long to be a kind of "homecoming".
In 1943, Mulgan joined the Special Operations Executive and was sent to Greece to coordinate guerrilla action against the German forces. He was awarded the Military Cross for his actions. After the German withdrawal in 1944, Mulgan oversaw British compensation to Greek families who had helped the Allied forces.
In the evening of Anzac Day 1945, Mulgan intentionally took an overdose of morphine. Speculation remains as to why he committed suicide. He is buried at Heliopolis military cemetery in Cairo. Mulgan was survived by his wife Gabrielle (married 1937) and son Richard (born 1940).
Publications[]
Novel[]
- Man Alone. London: Selwyn & Blount, 1939.
Non-fiction[]
- The Emigrants: Early travellers to the Antipodes (with Hector Bolitho). London, Selwyn & Blount, 1939.
- The English of the Line. Wellington: A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1944.
- An Introduction to English Literature (with Dan Marcus Davin). Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1947.
- Report on Experience. London: Oxford University Press, 1947.
- Journey to Oxford (edited by Peter Whiteford). Wellington, NZ: Victoria University Press, 2011.
Edited[]
- Poems of Freedom. London, Victor Gollancz, 1938.
- The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Literature (abridgement of The Oxford Companion to English Literature, by Sir Paul Harvey). Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1939.
Letters[]
- A Good Mail: Letters of John Mulgan (edited by Peter Whiteford). Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2011.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[2]
See also[]
References[]
Notes[]
- ↑ O'Sullivan, Vincent. (2003). Long Journey to the Border: A life of John Mulgan. Penguin Books. ISBN 0 14 301871 x.
- ↑ Search results=au:John Mulgan, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Apr. 8, 2014.
External links[]
- Books
- John Mulgan at Amazon.com
- John Mulgan at the New Zealand Literature File
- About
- John Mulgan at NZ History
- Mulgan, John at the New Zealand Book Council
- Mulgan, Lieutenant-Colonel John Alan Edward in the Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, 1966
- Mulgan, John Alan Edward in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography
- John Mulgan at New Zealand History Online
- John Mulgan in The New Zealand Novel
- "The Political Context of John Mulgan's Greek Wartime Life and Death," Journal of New Zealand Studies (.PDF)
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