Frank Reed

BiographyFrank Wild Reed was born in England in 1874. Frank was twelve years old when the Reed family moved to New Zealand in 1887. A keen reader, young Frank was disappointed to be permitted to bring only twelve books with him. One of his precious twelve books was a novel by Alexandre Dumas.

Frank and his brother Alfred initially worked with their father in Northland digging for kauri gum in the bush. At the age of 14, Frank began an apprenticeship with a Whāngārei pharmacist.

Frank developed a passion for Dumas novels and he slowly built up his collection of Dumas works. He sourced them from Auckland booksellers and also began to order from England as well.

Frank corresponded with Robert Singleton Garnett, who had translated many of Dumas’ novels, and was an English-edition authority on Dumas’ work. Garnet helped him find rare copies and they developed a 16 year friendship. When Garnett died in 1932, he willed his own Dumas collection of 740 items to Frank Reed.

Frank learned French and began translating Dumas’ work himself, filling about 20,000 typescript pages. He retired from the pharmacy in 1926 and continued pursuing his passion for Dumas works. Frank ended up amassing the largest collection of Alexandre Dumas material outside of France.

On Frank's death his collection was gifted to the Auckland Library. The Reed Dumas Collection is held there today. It consists of about 3000 volumes, 2000 original holographs, works written by Frank about Dumas, letters, portraits and foreign language editions.

Frank Wild Reed and his Dumas Collection

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