New Zealand claims as its own many writers, even those immigrants born overseas or those emigrants who have gone into exile. Exceptions include Samuel Butler, whose Erewhon, set in New Zealand and written as a result of a stay in New Zealand, nevertheless arguably belongs primarily to English literature. Karl Wolfskehl forms another possible exception: his sojourn in Auckland belongs rather to the story of German literature.
Most New Zealand literary work appears in English, but Maori publication grows apace.
Writers who have contributed to New Zealand literature include:
... a professor and lecturer at Yale University (one of his students was Thornton Wilder) who began acting on Broadway in 1936.
He was typecast as the wasp-tongued, ...