Barr, John A
Entry updated 11 August 2018. Tagged: Author.
(1855-1907) New Zealand solicitor and author who also wrote as by R W Brock and Gilbert Rock; after proving unable to meet his costs on a property development, he left New Zealand, unfortunately for his reputation departing before the transfer of his obligations had been properly established in law. The Crime of the Golden Gully: An Australian Romance (1888) as by Gilbert Rock, an adventure tale centring on the discovery of a gold mine, edges towards the fantastic. Of more sf interest is Mihawhenua: The Adventures of a Party of Tourists [for full subtitle see Checklist below] (1888) as by R W Brock, a Lost Race tale whose white protagonist, visiting a coastal Island, discovers there an Underground civilization, apparently of pre-Maori stock. [JC/MA]
John Alexander Barr
born Dunedin, New Zealand: 25 August 1855
died London: 22 July 1907
works
- The Crime of the Golden Gully: An Australian Romance (London: S Blackett, 1888) as by Gilbert Rock [hb/]
- Mihawhenua: The Adventures of a Party of Tourists Amongst a Tribe of Maoris Discovered in Western Otago, New Zealand, Recorded by R W Brock, M A, LL B: Edited by R H Chapman (Being a Manuscript Addressed to the Editor, Found Attached to a Maori Kite on Mount Alta, Near Lake Wanaka, and Forwarded to Him by the Finder) (Dunedin, New Zealand: J Wilkie and Company, 1888) as by R W Brock [pb/uncredited]
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