Alfred Augustus Grace was one of New Zealand's most accomplished early writers and a member of the celebrated 'Maoriland' school of writing that flourished between 1896 and 1915. These writers' romantic treatment of the Maori people helped shape New Zealand's culture in the early twentieth century. Maoriland Stories (1895) was Grace's first major publication. It contains four stories about settlers and three about Maori and Maori/Pakeha relations. The latter stories were of particular interest to readers of the time. Although New Zealand's population was by then overwhelmingly European, the Maori people and their culture continued to occupy the Pakeha imagination. This near-facsimile edition includes new matierial by Dr Anne Maxwell of the University of Melbourne, discussing the author and his stories and placing them in an historical and cultural context.
