Thread: Graham Gurr - Halcyon Publishing

GRAHAM GURR 8TH MARCH 1951 - 4TH JULY 2022

Anyone interested in hunting books published in New Zealand and especially published hunting authors will know the name Graham Gurr of Halcyon Publishing.

A lifelong desire to be a publisher saw him become one in the mid-1980’s, specializing in publishing books on New Zealand hunting and fishing (mainly trout).

To cater for the growing interest in hunting books, Graham created an importing business, bringing into New Zealand books from the USA and England with adventures based in USA, Africa, Central Asia, Australia etc.

In the early years of publishing, perhaps only Reeds and Hodder & Stoughton, were interested in publishing books on Kiwi’s hunting, but Halcyon soon changed that. Not only stories of the past glory years of hunting the Wapiti, Moose and fantastic Red Deer heads of Otago but the also the exploits of modern-day hunters.

Over 300 hunting and fishing titled books were to be published by Halcyon Publishing.

sleep well old chap...you did well and did it right... we owe you so much for the books you published that have taught so many so much...

The sly fucker still owes me money. I swear he only kicked off to avoid paying royalties to his authors. On his headstone I hope they put; he never volunteered to pay on time and was an absolute stranger to a royalty statement. Thank god no one got audited by the IRD.

Reed were the great publishers of NZ hunting books.

As for real book sales today - more books are being published and more people are reading them than ever before in history.

Trying to find out who and if someone bought out Halycon Press please? And if there are contact details. cheers.

https://localist.co.nz/l/halcyon-publishing-ltd-41514

Thanks for the obit. Pity John about the royalties situation, but that said it meant some excellent outdoor material got into my hands in earlier years. Just looking across the bookshelf now: "Troutfishing" Norman Marsh, Les Hill's various books on catching and stalking trout, ""The Young Hunter" Graeme Marshall, and Alan's "How to Hunt Sika Deer" to name a few.

The NZDA ended up with some of his catalogue that must have been undistributed and are selling it on their website. (Please note that none of the authors receive any royalties from the sale off the NZDA website.)

Mark Twain hated publishers and his reasons are still valid today.