LAWLOR - THE YEARS AFTER "AUSSIE"


For some 30 years to 1964, Lawlor held court in his bureau office in Wellington's elegant Nathan's Building, where he was engaged in roles as varied as being the Bulletin's representative in New Zealand to amassing and caring for his collections – of books, of first numbers of newspapers and magazines, of famous autographs, of New Zealand poetry, of line drawings and cartoons, and of books about books. It was a pattern set during the Aussie years and followed for his entire life.

This bookplate designed by A.S. Paterson was Lawlor's favourite.

In 1977 the time came when Lawlor was driven by ill health to locate to Auckland to live with his daughter Margaret (an accomplished artist, Margaret provided illustrations for, amongst other books, Lawlor's limited edition Books and Bookmen published by Whitcombe & Tombs in 1954).

Just before Lawlor left Wellington, the Dominion ran a story and a photo of him in his library, as it was being dispersed. I wonder if he enjoyed the last paragraph of the profile, which reads:

"Pat Lawlor is almost a caricature of the literary man as he sits back at an ancient desk in a den as thickly threaded with books as a grove has leaves".