'"A habit of walking with God": The Books of Alfred Nesbit Brown'

Abstract

This article aims to contribute to the growing body of scholarship about reading communities in New Zealand by reconstructing the reading lives and reading tastes of Alfred Nesbit Brown (1803-1884), his family, and his missionary contemporaries from the books they read, collected and preserved. Brown’s library, which remains intact at the Elms Mission Station in Tauranga, is a material reminder of Brown’s spiritual life, mission work, and reliance on book knowledge to assist with the practical tasks of colonial life. The library also speaks of Brown’s relationship with a larger community of readers: his family, his Church Mission Society (CMS) colleagues, his Catholic competitors, and the Māori iwi he worked among.